Author Topic: Fotolia - What currency are you paid in? (Read 24071 times)

gostwyck · « **on:** February 07, 2010, 14:51 »

With up to a 40% difference between how much contributors are paid at Fotolia, depending on the currency they are paid in, it would be interesting to know what proportion are paid in each currency.

Please only vote if you are actually a contributor at Fotolia but you are welcome to view the results anyway.

leaf · « **Reply #1 on:** February 07, 2010, 15:17 »

agreed, it will be interesting to see the results.

Artemis · « **Reply #2 on:** February 07, 2010, 15:34 »

I live in Europe and was directed to the US site when signing up. Thus paid in dollars.
(and ditching FT as soon as payout hits paypal)

donding · « **Reply #3 on:** February 07, 2010, 15:37 »

This will be very interesting to watch. We'll see who they are making the most money off of.

borg · « **Reply #4 on:** February 07, 2010, 15:59 »

Result is reason why they did't allow me to change my zone...

I registered on US only because I thought that is English language...

cybernesco · « **Reply #5 on:** February 07, 2010, 16:16 »

Quote from: Artemis on February 07, 2010, 15:34

I live in Europe and was directed to the US site when signing up. Thus paid in dollars.
(and ditching FT as soon as payout hits paypal)

This is very interesting. Obviously FT stand to make a lot more by directing European contributors to US sites. Combined with the fact that 75-90% of buyers are buying from European sites, they would definitely achieved the greatest spread between an euro and a dollar or a pound and a dollar. This way a contributor would average 16-25% commission but not 30-34%.

As well, it would be interesting if everybody else that were directed to use US sites from Europe would indicate so in this thread. Good thinking on that one gostwyck. Thank you.

I think that if we all participate and gradually put in our little "say" in this discussion that we'll become that much more potent in the long run. If we want to win this, it is important that we all share our though on this as equally as possible so that no one gets hurt by standing out too much.

From Fotolia we should get a fair and transparent commission structure for all the world to see and certainly not this. Denis

Microbius · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2010, 17:02 »

I am based in England, but didn't even know I had an option other than the US site when I signed up!

cybernesco · « **Reply #7 on:** February 07, 2010, 17:13 »

Quote from: Microbius on February 07, 2010, 17:02

I am based in England, but didn't even know I had an option other than the US site when I signed up!

Contributors that would gain the most are the ones that would get paid in pounds or Euros from an European site. How fair is that!!!! Obviously no offence intented to the few lucky Europeans getting paid in European coins. Hello FT...Can I be that lucky person..

....although I live in Canada. Denis

una · « **Reply #8 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:09 »

Dollars. I live in Europe, like Microbius I didn't even know I had an option other than the US site when I signed up.

madelaide · « **Reply #9 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:12 »

What was the first FT site? Did it work with USD only?

I don't know if I would have had a choice when I signed up. Typing "www.fotolia.com" takes me to the USA site without even knowing that. Does it work differently in other countries, e.g. in UK, do you get transfered to the UK site instead?

cybernesco · « **Reply #10 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:22 »

Quote from: madelaide on February 07, 2010, 18:12

What was the first FT site? Did it work with USD only?

In November 2005 Fotolia went online in 5 countries with 4 languages and customised WebPages as well as localised web logs.

According to the following interview with the CEO

http://www.stockphototalk.com/phototalk/2005/11/interview_with_.html

madelaide · « **Reply #11 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:27 »

gostwyck, I suggest another poll to go with this: how much % of ours sales are from USA. Unfortunately the two numbers are not comparable, but it will possibly show an interesting trend.

madelaide · « **Reply #12 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:33 »

Quote from: cybernesco on February 07, 2010, 18:22

http://www.stockphototalk.com/phototalk/2005/11/interview_with_.html

Interesting reading, but it doesn't show if they had different currencies from the start.

warren0909 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:33 »

I have voted Im from England and get paid in £ I joined in 2006 think it was June but I honstly cant remeber if I was given a choice or not i think I just had to put my country down.
The reason I have put all this info down is I have a funny feeling that It depends on when you joined Fotolia as to wether you had the choice of which site you were put with.
I do know that if you type in www.fotolia.co.uk you get sent to the EU site.

Warren

madelaide · « **Reply #14 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:41 »

In FT Brazil, prices are for sure in USD, but they don't clearly say it - they only show "$", not saying "US$" nor "R$" - I checked the "Buy credits" page.

warren0909 · « **Reply #15 on:** February 07, 2010, 18:55 »

It dont say it on our list any more since the 01/02/2010 because they took it off when the mistake was made and someone changed that amount to (in £ for me anyway)£1

This was clearly a mistake as it was only there for a few hours then taken off and replaced by "pound"

Thats why this whole thing kicked off because the people who saw it all were under the impresion that our credit value had gone up !!

Warren

sharpshot · « **Reply #16 on:** February 07, 2010, 19:02 »

I remember when the pound was strong against the dollar, it would of been better for me to have a US account. Now the pound has fallen back, I am better off with a UK account. A lot of this is down to the currency fluctuations. FT have changed the conversion rate a few times to make it more even but they don't do it very often. I joined in August 2006 and I am paid in £.

Phil · « **Reply #17 on:** February 07, 2010, 22:18 »

Quote from: madelaide on February 07, 2010, 18:27

gostwyck, I suggest another poll to go with this: how much % of ours sales are from USA. Unfortunately the two numbers are not comparable, but it will possibly show an interesting trend.

39 out of last 300 sales for me so 13% of my sales

donding · « **Reply #18 on:** February 07, 2010, 22:40 »

Quote from: Phil on February 07, 2010, 22:18

Quote from: madelaide on February 07, 2010, 18:27
gostwyck, I suggest another poll to go with this: how much % of ours sales are from USA. Unfortunately the two numbers are not comparable, but it will possibly show an interesting trend.

39 out of last 300 sales for me so 13% of my sales

How do you tell if your sells are coming from the US or another country?

Phil · « **Reply #19 on:** February 08, 2010, 00:50 »

go to my credits, and count the ones that they withheld tax (but I'm sure how that all works if your in the US), I set it to 100 per page, but got bored by page 3

cthoman · « **Reply #20 on:** February 08, 2010, 01:38 »

Chuck E. Cheese tokens.

Danicek · « **Reply #21 on:** February 08, 2010, 01:56 »

Quote from: Artemis on February 07, 2010, 15:34

I live in Europe and was directed to the US site when signing up. Thus paid in dollars.
...

Exactly the same here. Live in EU, was directed to US without knowing at that moment about any difference and hence being paid in $.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #22 on:** February 08, 2010, 02:42 »

Quote from: madelaide on February 07, 2010, 18:27

gostwyck, I suggest another poll to go with this: how much % of ours sales are from USA. Unfortunately the two numbers are not comparable, but it will possibly show an interesting trend.

Great point, Adelaide.

Since January 1 just 7% of my earnings has been deducted for the 30% tax, which means slightly less than 25% of my sales are to the US and 75% of them are being paid at substantially less than then agreed rate. It also means that it is not even possible for three-quarters of my sales to be at the maximum possible discount that Fotolia wants to suggest shows us how well we are doing.

Is it even possible for any non-US sale to have been made for less than $1 per credit? Does the maximum non-US discount bring UK or Europe prices down to $1?

Dreamframer · « **Reply #23 on:** February 08, 2010, 02:57 »

Dollars, and I can't change it...unfortunately...

absolut_photos · « **Reply #24 on:** February 08, 2010, 08:07 »

Stupid of me but I haven't really checked closely FT regional sites. Still my understanding was that pricing is equal across the globe which seems not to be the case (possibly it was close at the time they launched regional operations but since then the FX have changed dramatically).

Is there a way to change from US to EUR? For example I would like to switch to Fotolia Germany now. Do you know whether they would be able to migrate all the images if I opened up new account under German site? Would I lose the ranking status I earned?

Cheers,
Mat

Freezingpictures · « **Reply #25 on:** February 08, 2010, 08:21 »

I signed up when I lived in the US but then I moved to Germany and I ask Fotolia to change my currency. And they did change it. Now I get Euro currency. That might have been before there was such a huge differents in what currency you signed up under.

Klauts · « **Reply #26 on:** February 08, 2010, 08:22 »

Same here, living in EU and paid in USD. I had no idea there was a earnings difference between currencies. I assumed contributors that are paid in euros or pounds get less credits to compensate. It seems I was wrong.

Also if I remember right when I joined there wasn't an english version for the european sites...

NitorPhoto · « **Reply #27 on:** February 08, 2010, 08:26 »

Quote from: Danicek on February 08, 2010, 01:56

Quote from: Artemis on February 07, 2010, 15:34
I live in Europe and was directed to the US site when signing up. Thus paid in dollars.
...

Exactly the same here. Live in EU, was directed to US without knowing at that moment about any difference and hence being paid in $.

Same here. And I am very angry if they really do this 'special' conversion.

gostwyck · « **Reply #28 on:** February 08, 2010, 09:05 »

I wouldn't mind there being such a massive differential __ if contributors were actually given the choice of which currency to convert their earnings into.

Of course under those circumstances you can be certain that FT would ensure the difference disappeared PDQ. It's not much of a surprise that the differential appears to work hugely in their favour with 70% of contributors reporting their earnings in USD, the lowest payout, and just 9% in Euro.

Why can't they just be transparent and fair and pay us a percentage of the actual sale price like every other agency? That's not too much to ask is it?

cybernesco · « **Reply #29 on:** February 08, 2010, 10:58 »

For the stock photography industry as a whole this type of unfair dealing should not be tolerated. Just closing our accounts would not be sufficient as this type of dealing would be allowed to continue with other image providers anyway. In the long run it would only encourage other agencies to do the same or worst and undermine our industry that we work so hard for. That is why it is important for all members to understand this problem and voice our concern equally. Nobody would gain anything if you close your account or get your account closed and they are still permitted to continue to undermine our industry as a whole. Denis

Peiling · « **Reply #30 on:** February 09, 2010, 08:49 »

maybe we should open another account in another currency

and start uploading there?

LostOne · « **Reply #31 on:** February 09, 2010, 09:50 »

Quote from: Microbius on February 07, 2010, 17:02

I am based in England, but didn't even know I had an option other than the US site when I signed up!

Same here.

dirkr · « **Reply #32 on:** March 01, 2010, 14:05 »

I signed up to Fotolia Germany in Jan 2007, payment is in Euros.

My US sales account for less than two percent of my total sales. I am sure that is no coincidence, because selling to a US buyer (who paid his credits in US$) and paying out to a Euro contributor (who is payed in Euros) is the worst thing that can happen to Fotolia.

So if Fotolia would decide to change their current system (i.e. payout in percent of the sales price in the respective currency, not in percent of credits), I am sure they would change some bias in their search engine leading to a different distribution of sales...

OM · « **Reply #33 on:** March 01, 2010, 19:16 »

Quote from: Peiling on February 09, 2010, 08:49

maybe we should open another account in another currency and start uploading there?

Bin there done that. Alas, without success. Have GBP account, opened Euro account with different images. One image on the Euro account started selling quite quickly and I had 7 ppd's in 2 weeks for that image. Then it stopped absolutely dead. Never sold again. I got a friend in the US to check if that image came up on page 1 or 2 if he used the keywords associated with it and it did. Account is a zombie account now (only has about 30 images now as I stopped uploading to that account).

I did work out that the most unprofitable sales from FT's point of view are Euro exclusives making a sale in the US market for USD but that was when the Euro was $1.50+. I can think up all sorts of jiggery-pokery conspiracy stuff to 'explain' it but my sample is really too small.

Suljo · « **Reply #34 on:** March 01, 2010, 20:43 »

I remember that when I sign up on FotoLija Min payout was 500$ by wire transfer with they 30$ fee for transaction and in this time my country was not supported by MoneyBookers like PayPal today, now and in this time of my startup in MicroStock I wonder that I will receive that payment in 20 years...

So my first priority was to setup all my micro accs to USD to avoid additional conversions between currencies and there are no too much rooms to choose (Only one). After half or one year MooneyBooker was open door for my country so it was not difficult to have payment in 100USD in first time and now I think it is lowered to 50$ for payout.
In this time USD had about 30% bigger value than today compared to Eu...

mtkang · « **Reply #35 on:** October 19, 2010, 06:35 »

just happened to read this thread, so anything change? are we able to change currency to get paid in fotolia?

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #36 on:** October 19, 2010, 07:45 »

Quote from: absolut_photos on February 08, 2010, 08:07

Is there a way to change from US to EUR?

No, there isn't unfortunately.

I asked support to switch from GBP to EUR - back when fotolia had a very unfavourable credits to pounds conversion rate - and they told me I should open a new account in another currency, but no way of transferring pictures.

Which is a weird answer anyway, because I think it's not allowed by their tos to have multiple accounts actually.

But now I am glad they didn't allow me to change: having some payments in GPB allows me to buy things on Ebay UK without paying paypal conversion rates twice.

mtkang · « **Reply #37 on:** October 19, 2010, 11:52 »

does it make sense to re-register an account and upload again all portfolio? since i just upgraded from the white rank..only have my first 100 downloads.

traveler1116 · « **Reply #38 on:** October 19, 2010, 13:42 »

It's strange my girlfriend has hers in Euros because she registered overseas. Guess that's a positive right.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #39 on:** October 19, 2010, 14:41 »

Quote from: traveler1116 on October 19, 2010, 13:42

It's strange my girlfriend has hers in Euros because she registered overseas. Guess that's a positive right.

how can this be possible right?.. just because of the registering link.. we are losing a lot of money and FT is PUTTING IT on their pockets.. a lot of emails and no positive answer.. there should be a law or something but nothing..!

honestly we should have the currency of the country we are living.. end of story!

corepics · « **Reply #40 on:** October 19, 2010, 18:45 »

I initially registered via the US site, thus getting paid in USD, but decided to make the switch to Euro.

I contacted support with a (thought through) request / approach (Uploading all images - roughly 1500 in total - to the new account, then closing the old account via FT's support, and only then submitting the uploaded images to the new account)

My findings:
- Uploading all images prior to submitting the lot took a lot of time, but hardly any effort (upload speed issue)
- FT support closed the old account within a day or two
- Submitting them took less time - MR's are conveniently stored by upload date, and with that knowledge from my old account, I took that into account on determining the upload order). In total, it took me about 12 hrs.
- Review was swift; the first images were already approved before I finished submitting the lot.
- More images were accepted, compared to the old portfolio. A lucky break, I guess.
- Sales levels improved considerably. Not sure why, they just did.

In hindsight, I think it was worth the effort.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #41 on:** October 19, 2010, 19:16 »

Quote from: corepics on October 19, 2010, 18:45

I initially registered via the US site, thus getting paid in USD, but decided to make the switch to Euro.

I contacted support with a (thought through) request / approach (Uploading all images - roughly 1500 in total - to the new account, then closing the old account via FT's support, and only then submitting the uploaded images to the new account)

My findings:
- Uploading all images prior to submitting the lot took a lot of time, but hardly any effort (upload speed issue)
- FT support closed the old account within a day or two
- Submitting them took less time - MR's are conveniently stored by upload date, and with that knowledge from my old account, I took that into account on determining the upload order). In total, it took me about 12 hrs.
- Review was swift; the first images were already approved before I finished submitting the lot.
- More images were accepted, compared to the old portfolio. A lucky break, I guess.
- Sales levels improved considerably. Not sure why, they just did.

In hindsight, I think it was worth the effort.

they have proposed me the same but I guess I am afraid of losing a few pictures that are having a few nice sales.. and also uploading again everything and now I guess even harder to get in.. I guess I will wait them to change this.. which is very unfair to contributors who keep up with them

litu92458 · « **Reply #42 on:** February 02, 2011, 06:16 »

Quote from: absolut_photos on February 08, 2010, 08:07

Stupid of me but I haven't really checked closely FT regional sites. Still my understanding was that pricing is equal across the globe which seems not to be the case (possibly it was close at the time they launched regional operations but since then the FX have changed dramatically).

Is there a way to change from US to EUR? For example I would like to switch to Fotolia Germany now. Do you know whether they would be able to migrate all the images if I opened up new account under German site? Would I lose the ranking status I earned?

Cheers,
Mat

Same here. The time I signed up, 1 credit was 1$ but when checking the EU site 1 credit = 1€ which is totally unfair. I must have missed the option to sign up in Europe, even if I had to fill in my location, I ended up at US site.

I wrote to support and they told me it was not possible to transfer or change your account this way but advised me to make a new account on the EU site and they will then transfer my earnings from one account to another. So they did, nice from them, however I had to re-upload all my files again, not being sure the same will be accepted again

. Luckily I only had about 20 files accepted

Grtz
Litu

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Author Topic: Fotolia - What currency are you paid in? (Read 24071 times)

Microbius

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traveler1116

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