Agency Based Discussion > Dreamstime.com

Dreamstime Files Lawsuit Against Google

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noodle:
Dreamstime is its own worst enemy
I wonder how they feel like the little guy being stepped on by the big greedy corporation?

dpimborough:
Of course they'll not win but it just goes to show the search manipulation and algorithm deniers out there that searches are twisted and manipulated.

BalkanskiMacak:

--- Quote ---Dreamstime claims that they have spent tens of millions of dollars on Google’s advertising and other services, but that “Google only provided its services selectively to benefit itself at Dreamstime’s expense.”


--- End quote ---

Well, with such an argument, they will go down, given Google makes a separation between its SEA and SEO systems and given that Google SEA's systems (apart from several exceptions), are based on a CPC system corrected with quality indicators. So, no matter how much DT was investing in SEA on Google, there were no reasons for them to be favoured compared to competitors.

Then, to counter this argument, they could try to prove that the Google system is biased, and that they are privileging some advertisers... but they wouldn't be the first ones to try and fail.

Uncle Pete:

--- Quote from: cthoman on April 01, 2018, 15:58 ---So... do we get X% of whatever they win?

--- End quote ---

X% of nothing is still nothing. But maybe if you pay for the lawyers, you can insure you get a cut.  ;)

Filing a lawsuit is proof of nothing, just that Dreamstime is unhappy. I like the jury trial, that's a smart move. We'll have to see, but I can understand why DT has filed at this point. Sales down, income down, rank down, the future isn't looking to prosperous. If the next quote, from their claim, is true, even more reason to go all in.

"47. Google also plans to enter the online stock photography business segment directly..." That should be interesting if true.

Partnership - adwords with Shutterstock: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/280120/google-shutterstock-licensing-deal-automatically.html Down at the bottom, "Google joins AOL, Salesforce and Sprinklr in integrating Shutterstock search capabilities directly into their products." Shouldn't we be seeing an income increase?

Basically, DT is claiming that Google cooks the results to benefit SS and IS and adds Adobe to the group, even though Adobe doesn't pay for the advantage. DT's main market is discounted images. Called "competitive pricing" in the lawsuit. DT says there's a monopoly and anti-trust violations involved because of the way Google treats Dreamstime, because Google profits from the others higher rank. DT says new buyers have declined 30% since the "manipulated" drop in the search ranking. DT's drop from page one and further down has in effect reduced their clicks from the search, 95%. Also "low cost per acquisition advertisements were being removed" for non-compliance while higher cost, similar ads were allowed to stay.

The antitrust part is pretty much general ways that Google is in violation. DT also asserts that "overcharged and over delivered AdWords to
Dreamstime" which isn't the first time I've read a complaint from an advertiser about AdWords costs and contracts. Amusing, if any of this can be that, DT claims unfair removal of ads when SS ran similar ads. When DT wrote to Google to complain, they were ignored. Hey how does that feel?  :)

I use Bing for my default search. I enjoy the points and can get gift cards for places, just for doing what I do anyway, which is search the web.




How's SS doing? Some people have noticed that the drop in sales for us has been connected to the drop in the rank.
SS

DT


I don't know how much to base on Alexa graphs and I don't have an account, so that's about all I can see.

Jo Ann Snover:
I googled "Dreamstime sues Google" and there was nothing recent - mostly the past legal challenges to the way Google behaves. Limiting the search to just the last week didn't improve things. Before concluding Google was burying the news on purpose, I thought I'd try Bing - nothing.

Perhaps suits against Google are so common that none of the business trade rags find this newsworthy? Google's parasitic, but given all the changes they make all the time, it'll be hard to prove that any changes they made that hurt Dreamstime were specifically directed at them.

It may well be that Google's recent changes hurt Dreamstime - and other stock agencies - but Dreamstime doomed itself long before 2015, and they never did better than a perennial #3 in the earnings rankings. The biggest problem, IMO, was their insane pricing policies - way, way too complex. They also had some bizarre games with search rankings on their own site (going back years, to 2007/8)  that probably didn't help the customer get the best results.

Given Google's deep pockets and army of lawyers, I can't see anything good coming out of this.

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