Author Topic: Freepik about to be acquired by investment/private equity firm EQT (Read 6625 times)

Jo Ann Snover · « **on:** June 10, 2020, 23:09 »

Another member posted in one of the Shutterstock threads about the pending acquisition of Freepik - I hadn't seen anything about this, but I figured anyone trying to help Freepik grow is bad news for every other agency, and for those of us who contribute to every other agency.

So it doesn't get buried in unrelated discussion, I thought I'd post the links I found here. A couple of quotes from EQT talking up their acquisition & plans for growing it:

"(Freepik)...is today the global leader in its space and is the largest freemium provider of digital visual content in the world. Freepik’s growth is evidenced by a rapidly expanding community of 20 million registered users who are supported by a network of over 450 in-house freelancer graphical designers and a strong external contributor base."

"Freepik plans to further penetrate existing markets, such as US and Asia, ultimately, aiming to become the market leading and go-to platform for online content creators and functional users around the world"

Tech Crunch article from May 28

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/28/eqt-acquires-freemium-graphics-and-stock-photo-marketplace-freepik/

EQT's announcement on twitter May 27

https://twitter.com/eqt/status/1265886988336607232

Crunchbase profile of EQT (and I couldn't find anything about the NYSE stock ticker that is mentioned there)

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/eqt-holdings#section-overview

EQT's LinkedIn page

https://www.linkedin.com/company/eqt-group/

EQT's press release on their own site

https://www.eqtgroup.com/news/Press-Releases/2020/eqt-acquires-freepik-company-the-global-leading-freemium-provider-of-digital-visual-content/

StockPhotoSecrets

https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/news/freepik-acquired-by-eqt.html

Consultancy.eu

https://www.consultancy.eu/news/4271/drake-star-partners-advises-spains-freepik-on-investor-deal

Analyze Markets

https://www.analyzemarkets.com/en/intelligence/eqt-to-acquire-majority-stake-in-spanish-digital-graphic-content-provider-freepik

Tenebroso · « **Reply #1 on:** June 10, 2020, 23:21 »

Thanks for the info. I'm going to cry in the room for a moment.

cobalt · « **Reply #2 on:** June 10, 2020, 23:24 »

The first time I hear about them is during the ss discussion. Hm.

ETA: at least for photos the quality is mostly lousy.

And in total they only have 8 million files.

I really cannot imagine quality producers giving them content.

Tenebroso · « **Reply #3 on:** June 10, 2020, 23:30 »

It seems that the founders remain as minority management partners

In Spanish

https://www.xataka.com/empresas-y-economia/recibimos-16-ofertas-hemos-encontrado-socio-ideal-para-llegar-al-siguiente-nivel-hablamos-joaquin-cuenca-venta-freepik

https://www.vidaeconomica.com/2020/05/freepik-fondo-eqt/

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #4 on:** June 11, 2020, 00:34 »

Quote from: cobalt on June 10, 2020, 23:24

The first time I hear about them is during the ss discussion. Hm.

ETA: at least for photos the quality is mostly lousy.

And in total they only have 8 million files.

I really cannot imagine quality producers giving them content.

If you search for them here, you'll see all the dust-ups in the past.

I think the issue is that if they do well, it drives down even further buyer expectations for what they have to pay. From the contributor side, more contributors will mean diluted earnings - they don't pay much per download but the volume for each contributor is high, so (if you can keep the pool of contributors small) earnings are reasonable.

But this sort of business model is the definition of unsustainable, IMO. Especially as the new owners want to grow the business. Who wants to see Shutterstock's 10 cent royalties anywhere else???

Tenebroso · « **Reply #5 on:** June 11, 2020, 00:51 »

In one of the articles in Spanish, they confirm that they will dedicate themselves to video files.

Yes, the number of contributors is the key to the taxpayer's benefit, but also the increase in customers at highly competitive prices.

Affiliations, some audio / music, advertising, .....

Adobe is our hope. I'm going to cry a little more to the bedroom.

CrFx · « **Reply #6 on:** June 11, 2020, 01:09 »

Quote from: Tenebroso on June 11, 2020, 00:51

In one of the articles in Spanish, they confirm that they will dedicate themselves to video files.

Yes, the number of contributors is the key to the taxpayer's benefit, but also the increase in customers at highly competitive prices.

Affiliations, some audio / music, advertising, .....

Adobe is our hope. I'm going to cry a little more to the bedroom.

entering the video market will burn us alive.
get ready for cheap video market now.

this microstock industry is getting worst from bad, I will not recommend anyone to come to this industry now.

cobalt · « **Reply #7 on:** June 11, 2020, 01:40 »

Oh, good luck to them trying to get high quality video content.

The video producers have been really good at sticking together.

There are all kinds of sites that offer cheap video, but the quality is low.

Simple economics, if a site cannot reimburse production costs, the content will bot be uploaded or disappear like on SS.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #8 on:** June 11, 2020, 01:47 »

Quote from: cobalt on June 11, 2020, 01:40

Simple economics, if a site cannot reimburse production costs, the content will bot be uploaded or disappear like on SS.

As far as Shutterstock goes, video is the one category that isn't going down

http://shuttercounter.ddns.net/

I don't follow the economics on that side, but possibly it's that the big hit for video is January 1 with a reset to the minimum royalty rate. Knowing that it is coming, I'm puzzled that the uploads are growing, but perhaps people want to take out all the royalties they can in 2020 & then complain?

Artist · « **Reply #9 on:** June 11, 2020, 01:59 »

That's simple economics..

Its a short term game of freepik.

Give everything for free and cheap, earn money and exit the market.

And that's what the owner did. They sold it.
If the business was success for them, they would never sell it.

Shutterstock is(or was) far better than them, imagine if SS also followed the freemium concept, everyone would have been destroyed.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #10 on:** November 28, 2021, 22:27 »

Via a newsletter about industry stuff I saw that Freepik was recently celebrating their 500,000th premium subscriber. In SS's October Q3 financials, they reported "Subscribers increased 32% to 336,000"

https://www.freepik.com/blog/freepik-company-marks-milestone-with-500000-subscribers-cements-position-as-global-market-leader-in-stock-imagery-and-graphics/

According to the press release, 20% of Freepik's premium subscribers are in North America. Premium costs about $120 per year for "unlimited" downloads - which means a maximum of 100 per day according to the fine print (and why they call it unlimited in that case is baffling). They pay contributors 50% of the daily revenue divvied up by number of downloads, so potentially very, very low per-download amounts given how cheap their subscriptions are.

MxR · « **Reply #11 on:** November 29, 2021, 02:47 »

The previous owner of Photaki closed the agency and left the contributors unpaid for sales. Then he opened freepik and this agency looks like a pyramid scam. During this time, people comment that they have lowered the gain per download from 0.10 to 0.07 dollars. If you divide 0.33 dollars a day (10 dollars / 30 days) that the unlimited program costs, you get that to maintain those gains the average user should not download more than 1-2 photos a day so that those commissions are adjusted to reality. If you divide those 0.33 dollars between 100 maximum downloads, it is 0.0033 to divide between agency and contributor, so it is evident that Freepik may be hiding sales, although I do not know the total numbers, I do not trust those people.
I think their goal was to run for a while to be sold. In Spanish: "Pegar el pelotazo"

lowbouncerate · « **Reply #12 on:** November 29, 2021, 07:31 »

Quote from: MxR on November 29, 2021, 02:47

The previous owner of Photaki closed the agency and left the contributors unpaid for sales. Then he opened freepik and this agency looks like a pyramid scam. During this time, people comment that they have lowered the gain per download from 0.10 to 0.07 dollars. If you divide 0.33 dollars a day (10 dollars / 30 days) that the unlimited program costs, you get that to maintain those gains the average user should not download more than 1-2 photos a day so that those commissions are adjusted to reality. If you divide those 0.33 dollars between 100 maximum downloads, it is 0.0033 to divide between agency and contributor, so it is evident that Freepik may be hiding sales, although I do not know the total numbers, I do not trust those people.
I think their goal was to run for a while to be sold. In Spanish: "Pegar el pelotazo"

I was about to write same issue, i have faced with Freepik and after lowering my earned money, I sent them an email, see what they replied to me.
"We are making readjustements in the panel. We are doing some changes so the earnings will be better reflected."

and after that my earning and downloads has many problems and still stats are not correct. Even I counted Manually, Stats are not in Balance. There is no reason for readjustment, my earning $$$ EURO and after their so called B***S changes it not going touch 100.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #13 on:** November 29, 2021, 08:31 »

Quote from: Artist on June 11, 2020, 01:59

That's simple economics..

Its a short term game of freepik.

Give everything for free and cheap, earn money and exit the market.

And that's what the owner did. They sold it.
If the business was success for them, they would never sell it.

Shutterstock is(or was) far better than them, imagine if SS also followed the freemium concept, everyone would have been destroyed.

Agree. I think they also lock in people's images for like a year? I can't remember the exact details from when they approached me. Frankly if you fell for it I don’t have much sympathy (especially after all the threads exposing them here). I do feel bad for the rest of us who are being low balled by these sites.

Anyone who has work there needs to get ready for these parasites to squeeze your work for every cent leaving you with nothing while you're trapped I guess.

lowbouncerate · « **Reply #14 on:** November 29, 2021, 08:46 »

Their System / Dashboard One of Worst, imagine they didnt gave us any option to Edit and Delete the Content.

Mantis · « **Reply #15 on:** November 29, 2021, 08:55 »

Sad where the industry has gone.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #16 on:** November 29, 2021, 09:28 »

Quote from: lowbouncerate on November 29, 2021, 08:46

Their System / Dashboard One of Worst, imagine they didnt gave us any option to Edit and Delete the Content.

Am I right that they lock you in? How long is it for? Does your contract allow them to cut your percentage within the lock in period?

lowbouncerate · « **Reply #17 on:** November 29, 2021, 10:11 »

If the contract says this - then support guys must reply to me to see T and Cs.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #18 on:** November 29, 2021, 15:10 »

Quote from: Mantis on November 29, 2021, 08:55

Sad where the industry has gone.

Sad that anyone would upload to a place called Freepik in the first place and expect to make money?

OM · « **Reply #19 on:** November 29, 2021, 20:42 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 29, 2021, 15:10

Quote from: Mantis on November 29, 2021, 08:55
Sad where the industry has gone.

Sad that anyone would upload to a place called Freepik in the first place and expect to make money?

Eggsactly!

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Author Topic: Freepik about to be acquired by investment/private equity firm EQT (Read 6625 times)

Jo Ann Snover

Tenebroso

cobalt

Tenebroso

Jo Ann Snover

Tenebroso

CrFx

cobalt

Jo Ann Snover

Artist

Jo Ann Snover

MxR

lowbouncerate

Justanotherphotographer

lowbouncerate

Mantis

Justanotherphotographer

lowbouncerate

Uncle Pete

OM

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