Author Topic: Another hint that Getty might dump StockXpert? (Read 20123 times)

Talanis · « **on:** July 28, 2009, 15:00 »

From iStock website today:

Quote

We're happy to welcome a new member into the Getty Images family. Starting today, the iStock team will start running Stock.xchng. That's right: the world's busiest free stock site is now part of our family.

So welcome to all you SXC customers and contributors. If you need any help getting around, you can give us a call toll-free at 1-866-478-6251 (international toll-free: 00-800-6664-6664).

Wasn't SXC ran by the StockXpert team?

bittersweet · « **Reply #1 on:** July 28, 2009, 15:06 »

I wonder if exclusives will be allowed to give their images away for free and still keep their crowns.

abimages · « **Reply #2 on:** July 28, 2009, 15:23 »

Quote from: whatalife on July 28, 2009, 15:06

I wonder if exclusives will be allowed to give their images away for free and still keep their crowns.

From reading the thread over at IS, I gather SXC will be used to try and route customers over to IS. There will be a few 'IS Exclusive taster' images on the SXC site with links back to IS. These will only be links tho, they wont be available for free download.

It's a good idea if it works, but yes it does kinda put StockXpert further out in the cold

b79 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 28, 2009, 15:33 »

just received an email from SXC announcing it

Quote

Stock.XCHNG joins the Getty Images family
Getty Images is proud to welcome Stock.XCHNG into its family of companies, as a result of Getty Images' purchase of Jupitermedia Corporation in February 2009. Everything about your day-to-day SXC experience will stay the same but you'll notice more opportunities to access iStockphoto, the world's leading royalty-free stock multimedia destination.

Perks for SXC members
Same free site: SXC is still a fantastic free site with more than 400,000 photos.
Easy access to iStockphoto: every search will display premium results from iStockphoto starting at $1. Buy credits, iStockphoto's currency, to download files.
Discover the Dollar Bin: iStockphoto's Dollar Bin has more than 230,000 stellar photos and illustrations between $1-7.
Get 10% off 26 or more credits when you sign up.
Enter promo code: SXCiStock1. Offer expires August 31, 2009.

seems like another nail in the coffin

bittersweet · « **Reply #4 on:** July 28, 2009, 15:36 »

Quote from: abimages on July 28, 2009, 15:23

Quote from: whatalife on July 28, 2009, 15:06
I wonder if exclusives will be allowed to give their images away for free and still keep their crowns.

From reading the thread over at IS, I gather SXC will be used to try and route customers over to IS. There will be a few 'IS Exclusive taster' images on the SXC site with links back to IS. These will only be links tho, they wont be available for free download.

It's a good idea if it works, but yes it does kinda put StockXpert further out in the cold

Sorry, I was kidding.

I just went and read the thread.

It looks like a good traffic booster for istock. I hope it works how they expect it to. The article mentioned that 40% of StockXpert's traffic is (was) coming in from SXC. I don't know what that level of traffic is since I've never sold through StockXpert, but it looks good on paper.

The 5 exclusives files spotlighted at the top have a link to best match sorted search results that include non-exclusive files. I wonder how often the download will be from one of those five teaser images. If you're gonna spend money, you're gonna wanna see all the options.

sharpshot · « **Reply #5 on:** July 28, 2009, 15:44 »

I wish they would come out with a statement about the future of StockXpert. It wont go down well if we continue uploading and then they close it. Every time they do something like this that hurts StockXpert, it looks like StockXpert doesn't have a long term future. Will the buyers be thinking the same way? I hope they don't all go to istock, a lot of us have bigger portfolios on the other sites.

Moonb007 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 28, 2009, 15:52 »

I agree it would be nice to hear a statement. SXC was run by SX like Eric stated. I have seen sales drop there and sadly I have not seen sale increase at my iStock account.

madelaide · « **Reply #7 on:** July 28, 2009, 16:12 »

Quote from: b79 on July 28, 2009, 15:33

seems like another nail in the coffin

With redirections to IS instead of StockXpert, you're probably right. So sad.

Phil · « **Reply #8 on:** July 28, 2009, 18:01 »

someone complained on istock forum that exclusives are getting a raw deal because their vetta images are not being promoted on a free site that now points to exclusive images

certainly seems like it is being stripped down and nothing put back in so that it will just slowly die...

PixelBytes · « **Reply #9 on:** July 28, 2009, 19:28 »

Wow. Not good for StockXpert. It does seem like they are slipping away. Yet still good sales there. Don't understand why Getty wants to kill them. Oh well...

I haven't read the thread on IS yet. I am curious to see how this is greeted by exclusives - as a great way to drive traffic to their ports or as free competition for their images.

bittersweet · « **Reply #10 on:** July 28, 2009, 20:01 »

Quote from: Phil on July 28, 2009, 18:01

someone complained on istock forum that exclusives are getting a raw deal because their vetta images are not being promoted on a free site that now points to exclusive images

certainly seems like it is being stripped down and nothing put back in so that it will just slowly die...

1. The person who said that was quickly rebutted by several others, including an admin, who stated the Vetta collection would be so far removed from the audience who would be searching at a free site that it would not make a lot of sense.

2. They are not "pointing to exclusive images". They have FIVE teaser exclusive images with a link to search results on istock that contain ALL files, including non-exclusives.

bittersweet · « **Reply #11 on:** July 28, 2009, 20:03 »

Quote from: PixelBytes on July 28, 2009, 19:28

I haven't read the thread on IS yet. I am curious to see how this is greeted by exclusives - as a great way to drive traffic to their ports or as free competition for their images.

It's not really competition since the traffic is being directed toward istock, with no reciprocal links or advertising back to SXC from IS. It should be a positive thing for anyone with a portfolio at IS.

ichiro17 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 28, 2009, 20:16 »

StockXpert is done. No question. Too many brands, something has to go. And they got the traffic. Thats what they wanted in the first place.

microstockinsider · « **Reply #13 on:** July 28, 2009, 21:01 »

Quote from: ichiro17 on July 28, 2009, 20:16

StockXpert is done. No question. Too many brands, something has to go. And they got the traffic. That's what they wanted in the first place.

It does look like another nail in the coffin. I was moderately optimistic about stockxpert being kept as a low-end brand and istockphoto growing into premium microstock brand. especially after announcement a few months ago that stockxpert was filtering out images not meeting gettys IP standards and implementing controlled vocab, if they are doing that then they are serious about keeping stockxpert going.

I didn't think that they would mix 'SXC freeness' with istock 'were premium'. but they have, and in doing so eroded stockpert some more.

is istock desperate for customers or does stockxpert convert clicks into buyers so badly that this makes business sense?

dirkr · « **Reply #14 on:** July 29, 2009, 03:51 »

Quote from: PixelBytes on July 28, 2009, 19:28

Wow. Not good for StockXpert. It does seem like they are slipping away. Yet still good sales there. Don't understand why Getty wants to kill them. Oh well...

StockXpert pays 50% commission. Istock pays 20%. Both for non-exclusive content.

That's the one and only reason why they do everything possible to move buyers from StockXpert to Istock.

grp_photo · « **Reply #15 on:** July 29, 2009, 04:00 »

Just deleted all my files on SXC.hu with together 188.000 Downloads!
I know some people here have also a few images at SXC.hu you really should consider deleting them, don't support this bad moves from Getty and iSuck!

sharpshot · « **Reply #16 on:** July 29, 2009, 04:33 »

If they do close down StockXpert, I will stop uploading to istock. They might think it is a good idea to buy and close down more sites. I am not supporting them if that is their plan.

crea_photo · « **Reply #17 on:** July 29, 2009, 04:53 »

Quote from: sharpshot on July 29, 2009, 04:33

If they do close down StockXpert, I will stop uploading to istock. They might think it is a good idea to buy and close down more sites. I am not supporting them if that is their plan.

Same here. I am getting more sales and more revenue from StockXpert, than from IS. StockXpert is accepting more of my pics than IS (might be good or not, for me this is good ;-) upload process is much easier and less time consuming, and they do not have that stupid upload limit per week ... I will not support this sort of buy-and-shutdown-competitors market strategy.

Just my 2¢

Alex

gostwyck · « **Reply #18 on:** July 29, 2009, 05:27 »

I must admit it is not looking good for StockXpert but I still think there's hope. It makes sense for IS to direct the SXC freeloaders to their higher-priced and exclusive content rather than StockXpert. The prices are higher and also they pay less % commission on any sales that result too.

Surely if they shut down StockXpert the main beneficiaries are likely to be IS's competitors rather than IS themselves? The market has become segmented with IS targetting the high-spending, less price-sensitive corporate customer and the competition between them are fighting over the more price-concious buyers. At least with StockXpert they retain a slice of that market too.

StockXpert has a turnover of something approaching $5M and is probably relatively profitable too. If it were for sale as an independent entity it might be worth $20M (or at least it would have been if the growth were consistent). I think it's likely that StockXpert still has sales and profitability significantly higher than JIU/PC combined and clearly there is no plan to shut them down. Just shutting down StockXpert would be writing-off a lot of money and be a gift to their competitors too. That doesn't make any sense to me.

It's not uncommon for a large group to have several companies offering similar products at different price-points, apparently competing for sales against each other, like Getty and IS for example. It's a big market and you need to cover all bases if you want the maximum slice of the overall pie.

Microbius · « **Reply #19 on:** July 29, 2009, 06:28 »

sorry, did I just get a post deleted from this thread or did I forget to press the submit button?

ichiro17 · « **Reply #20 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:34 »

I commend those who will stop uploading to iStock because they are making good business sense and enhancing their offerings. Eventually you will have only 3 sites to submit to. But at the same time, these are the same people that were compelled to upload to winners such as Albumo, Crestock, CanStockPhoto and other 'big winners'.

Its called consolidation, it sometimes happens when companies can be bought at good prices to reduce competition. It also happens for many other reasons. And there will be more of it.

borg · « **Reply #21 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:53 »

I do not understand why someone would pay microstock site in millions of dollars and then shuts it down ...
Its OK if it is the only competition, but it is not...

I think, there must be another plan for StockXpert, because StockXpert makes big profit...

Maybe something different of Vetta collection with all StockXpert porfolios...

ichiro17 · « **Reply #22 on:** July 29, 2009, 08:39 »

They did not pay for StockXpert, they paid formost, if not all, of Jupiter. I do not remember the deal entirely, however, StockXpert is only a part of that family and I think that photos.com was the big reason for the acquisition - and if you had sub sales there, you would see that photos.com would make a large portion of your downloads on StockXpert too.

I don't think StockXpert generated loads of profit, but I do however think they were on the right track when I was there.

That being said, I still think its a good plan from what I've seen so far

cidepix · « **Reply #23 on:** July 29, 2009, 09:46 »

Quote from: ichiro17 on July 29, 2009, 08:39

I think that photos.com was the big reason for the acquisition - and if you had sub sales there, you would see that photos.com would make a large portion of your downloads on StockXpert too.

Nope!

photos.com hasn't got the big portion. JIU has the big portion. Photos.com has a promising domain name though

If I break down my downloads it's something like this:

StockXpert (ppd + subs) = %62.3
photos.com = %4.5
JIU = %33.2

MikLav · « **Reply #24 on:** July 29, 2009, 09:48 »

When we met with StockXpert and Jupiter folks in the conference last year they said that majority of new users were coming from sxc.hu

Thus I don't think it will be bad for us contributors if the new customers will come from sxc.hu to istock instead of StockXpert.

What will happen with StockXpert remains unclear... In any case I am quite sure there will be no rush and sudden moves - if they will phase it out they will do it gradually. Or perhaps they will leave it for non-exclusives and make istock exclusive-only site? (just an idea)

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Author Topic: Another hint that Getty might dump StockXpert? (Read 20123 times)

Talanis

bittersweet

abimages

b79

bittersweet

sharpshot

Moonb007

madelaide

Phil

PixelBytes

bittersweet

bittersweet

ichiro17

microstockinsider

dirkr

grp_photo

sharpshot

crea_photo

gostwyck

Microbius

ichiro17

borg

ichiro17

cidepix

MikLav

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