MicrostockGroup

Someone posted an excerpt from Getty's first quarter results.  Thought I'd grab it and reproduce it here:

iStockphoto continues to perform very well -- and for those of you up in Calgary who are keeping count, it’s two so far. So iStockphoto continues to perform very well and there were over 3.5 million images downloaded in the first quarter. As a reminder, there were 2.5 million downloads in the third quarter of last year and over 3 million in the fourth quarter.

The video product which we launched late last year, iStockvideo, is doing extremely well and is exceeding our expectations. Average prices at iStock are increasing as we are adding new file sizes, reducing some of the discounts offered on volume credit purchases, and we are also of course improving the quality, relevance, and range of imagery.

I would like to stress that we are only just getting started with a business and a business model that is ripe with opportunity. The growth opportunities for this business over time outweigh any worry about the cannibalization impact that it could have on traditional stock photography.

...

Moving to iStockphoto, we are pleased with the results from iStockphoto. In fact, we still feel that we are just getting started. We have begun the process of upgrading the iStockphoto technology infrastructure and we have plans relatively soon to quadruple our capacity. This should be yet another indicator of our optimism for this business.

iStockphoto started as an English-only site and it has significant growth opportunity around the world. We began offering the service and the site in foreign languages late in 2006 and we are continuing with this expansion in 2007.

We have a number of other initiatives underway at iStock which I am just not going to talk about now. Okay, I’ll give you a hint; they include product enhancements, additional licensing models, and further international expansion. After all, why would we just stop with still imagery and video? We also have plans to increase marketing for iStock as the year progresses.

I hope I sound pleased and excited about this business because if I don’t, I’ve not done a good job of communicating with you.

I wonder what that is supposed to refer to?  Are they going to get into music???

I don't think music is their thing, but 3D animation etc might be.

A couple of things struck me: first, although the results appear to be good, the press release the previous year spoke about downloads running at an annual rate of 16 million or one image sold every 2.5 seconds.  These latest numbers annualise at only 14 million or so, so it appears that there has been a slow down in sales.

On the positive tack, any expansion into other areas will increase customer traffic generally, so that's good.  Note also that they are talking about 'other forms of licence' which might mean an entry into the exclusive unique image market (I believe this is called RM).  It would make sense for customers to be able to choose between RF and exclusive use of an image.

My guess would be selling prints. Instead of just the digital image.

What I'd really like to see all the agencies do is to give me the choice of which image sizes I want to sell.  Some of my stuff has taken a long time to create and is intended for large size only; I really don't want customers to be able to download small sizes of those images, but of course they can because I have no control over the matter.  I'd like to be able to tick boxes when I upload, so that I can choose whether my image should be sold at all sizes or just sizes I select.