DEPOSITPHOTOS:

Dear Contributor,

Starting on September 1, 2015, Depositphotos is changing the Contributor's Levels for sales made by Pay-As-You-Go Credits.

Here is the new Contributor's Level grid in greater detail:

Please note: Starting on August 22, 2015, we decided to bring image prices to market rates and raise prices for files purchased by Pay-As-You-Go Credits. Thus, we expect to compensate authors' losses caused by reducing commission rate payments to keep the earnings of partners at the same level.

In addition, we still remain a photobank with one of the highest levels of payments to authors.

Our decision was dictated by the requirements of the market and the times, and is intended to change the profitability of the project, with the aim of giving it a new push toward future development. We are confident that our growth will continue, and with your help we will retain our leading position among other photobanks.

Our Support Team, working for you 24/7, is ready to answer all your questions. You can contact us anytime you need to.

Sincerely yours,
Elena Flanagan-Eister
СЕО Depositphotos
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Just got email.. do they really think this is right direction.. decrease royalties..

Ок, basically now we get less for vectors, ELs, credit sales S, XL sizes and little bit more for M, L sizes.

Am I wrong or doesn't DepositPhotos still pay a higher percentage than SS or Adobe and charge more per download?  Seems to me like that's the reason they are changing.

Quote from: tickstock on August 26, 2015, 09:17

Am I wrong or doesn't DepositPhotos still pay a higher percentage than SS or Adobe and charge more per download?  Seems to me like that's the reason they are changing.

You are missing IS in your list, they pay the lowest royalty rates.

I thought most people here stopped supporting them a while ago.  But if you are still supporting them then you can add iS to the list, if you accept lower rates other places why get mad about this.  It's still better than those sites isn't it.

The idea that you would drop a site that pays a higher royalty rate than another because of the royalty rate seems a bit strange to me.  Shouldn't the site you drop be the one paying the lower royalty rate?

"You'll make more money if we lower the commissions and the prices."  Right.  I've heard that before.   

Uh yah right. Seems like contributors are always first to get hit. Was there any mention from any of these agencies of attempts to reduce operating costs? Reduce labor costs? Trim the swanky offices, free food, or trips?

Has DP hit the status of swanky offices, free food and trips or are they still in a basement somewhere?  They are likely lowering commissions so they can survive - but not many of us care.

Depositphotos Inc.
110 E Broward Blvd #1700
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Street View

Map View

Looks like a pretty nice expensive corporate office building in the ultra affluent city of Fort Lauderdale Florida a few blocks from the Ocean. I doubt they're in the basement. Maybe they should have skipped the ocean view to make sure they could compete without having to cut contributor rates.

Seems to be a pattern here. Live it up and when the party bucket starts getting empty go shake down contributors.

...Oringer has said something like if a site pays more than 30% they won't be able to do the marketing necessary to compete.  If DepositPhotos lowers their prices and royalties even more than SS and Adobe and gains market share you will support them?...

Do you have a source for that Oringer statement? I'm not necessarily doubting it, seems like that's exactly how SS operates. I just want to read it in context.

To answer your question, I don't particularly "support" 30% royalties, or anything under 50% really. I tolerate them because that's how this business is right now and I'm not in any position to challenge the status quo. I also continue to work with these companies because I got involved with most of them 8 years ago and my opinions about royalty rates back then were different than my opinions today. We also know more about royalties today and the myth that anything less than 30% is unsustainable. And yes, it's a myth, as proven by companies like Creative Market who pay 70% royalties and are thriving. CM is my #2 earner most months this year.

I guess by doing business with these companies you could say I support their rates, but I consider "support" in this business to mean the companies that I actively support, recommend to buyers, enthusiastically upload to and companies who if I was just starting out in microstock today that I'd still sign on with.

Long story short, I don't support any move to lower contributor pay. It's wholly unnecessary, no matter who is doing it and for whatever bull---- reason. But that lack of support doesn't necessarily mean I would change anything I'm doing, at least not right away. It took a lot of things happening before I finally stopped uploading to iStock. One small change at DP or SS or anywhere else isn't enough for me to make any judgements about future involvement with them.

Brian Fitzgerald - Jefferies
When you guys think of the rev share agreements with contributors, there are competitors out there that have more generous revenue shares. Can you -- would that tend to impact or take share from you guys over the course of time or can you talk about how that dynamic is panning out? And then, it seems like guys have been driving down pricing among your major competitors. They're now trying to price match. Have you seen any real impact from that thus far? Thanks.

Jon Oringer - Founder, CEO & Chairman
Yes, as far as our contributors go, we've had 30% of them and we've seen competitors come in and try to play with that number. What happens is if they payout more to contributors, they leave less room for marketing spend and that causes less sales in the long run and less payout to their contributors. So with this we really found the sweet spot over the past 10 years with the subscription plan, with the 30% payout, and competitors have come and gone and tried different things but we haven't seen much change.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2037843-shutterstocks-ceo-discusses-q4-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?page=6

Microstocks are clever
They want us to believe that price and royalty rates reduction are a good things for us 
It is always the same thing. 

The "price of life" increase but our commission decreasing
I waiting the moment when they will launch the yenphotoclub