Author Topic: Shall We Say Goodbye? (Read 19602 times)

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #25 on:** August 07, 2013, 13:25 »

Yes the lady that we brought to the dance has picked up some other guy from the crowd, and is dancing with him. We brought Microstock into the public and provided the basis for it's success, and now, everyone else is courting her. Fickle isn't she?

Quote from: KW400 on August 07, 2013, 10:33

Quote

Income is down because competition is up.

Absolutely correct!!!
The magic of crowd sourcing.

sdeva · « **Reply #26 on:** August 16, 2013, 20:52 »

My crystal ball says ...

Short term ( 2- 3 years) - more penny pinching stuff, more of the same we have now with supply running way ahead of demand. Contributors struggle on / no real returns/ little voice in the business.

Medium term (5 − 7 years) - Micro rates potentially falling so low that a large, high volume site or two giving away free images to users and making their money from ad revenues. Alongside that emergence of a new order with high quality concept images and specific theme images (including industrial, etc) at higher, macro type rates. Sharp drop off in contributor numbers for microstock content.

Longterm (10 + years) - there's no long term in the internet age

Who knows what might happen!

Anyhow, I doubt that microstock is worthwhile for either new contributors or existing contributors without large, well established portfolios to waste time/ effort in the current environment. Just my take.

Xanox · « **Reply #27 on:** August 17, 2013, 05:25 »

yes, 30 million images on SS and in 3 yrs it will be 90 millions.

the immediate result will be the death of microstock as a sustainable model for suppliers as it will be impossible to have repeated sales justifying the production costs.

nothing new actually, but you've all been warned in the past about this obvious outcome but you've never wanted to listen.

however, agencies like SS could "correct" the ranking and give more prominence to new images for instance, or randomizing a bit more the results.

in any case the supply is overwhelmingly higher than the demand, with falling sales and with such low fees even the image factories will struggle to stay afloat.

basically, suppliers will be required to double their portfolio each year in the hope of retaining the same payout, but this could be backfire if the ranking algorithm doesn't give any weight to new images and keeps the old ones sandboxed.

dirkr · « **Reply #28 on:** August 17, 2013, 17:01 »

Quote from: Xanox on August 17, 2013, 05:25

in any case the supply is overwhelmingly higher than the demand,

Is it?

Taking Shutterstocks published numbers (see here) that does not seem to be the case.

Just look at the first table, number of paid downloads and number of images in the collection.
If you compare the first three or six months of 2012 with 2013 demand seems to grow about the same rate as supply does.

fiftyfootelvis · « **Reply #29 on:** August 17, 2013, 19:03 »

There are just a lot more of us contributing content now, while the number of buyers has remained more or less the same. This is the new reality and whining about it doesn't help anyone. There's also a lot more really bad content these days. The industry needs to keep quality high to continue to thrive.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #30 on:** August 18, 2013, 04:14 »

The growth of supply MAY be outstriping the growth of demand - there are new markets out there. There need to be improvements in search algorithims.

Ron · « **Reply #31 on:** August 18, 2013, 04:26 »

Quote from: fiftyfootelvis on August 17, 2013, 19:03

There are just a lot more of us contributing content now, while the number of buyers has remained more or less the same. This is the new reality and whining about it doesn't help anyone. There's also a lot more really bad content these days. The industry needs to keep quality high to continue to thrive.

How do you know the numbers of buyers has stayed the same??

LesPalenik · « **Reply #32 on:** August 18, 2013, 04:41 »

Quote

The growth of supply MAY be outstriping the growth of demand

not MAY, but IS

Pauws99 · « **Reply #33 on:** August 18, 2013, 07:00 »

and your evidence is?

Red Dove · « **Reply #34 on:** August 18, 2013, 11:43 »

If anyone has hard data to prove buyers are leaving microstock or supply has outstripped demand I'd be grateful for the source. Otherwise this is pure speculation. Also, we have no idea of the numbers for "active" buyers or contributors and whether this has increased or dropped - another black hole in reaching an informed decision.

Personally I'm seeing a decline in business through IS and DT - whereas SS is going like the clappers and FT, DP and even BigStock have produced record earnings this year. For me, demand is not diminishing at all - but it is shifting.

borg · « **Reply #35 on:** August 18, 2013, 13:55 »

I am sick because such kind of questions and hypothesis... We are listening this "crow song" from begining...
No, never! Microstock is just marketing type for selling photos...
Question is the same as "Do we stop to buy merchandises over the internet!"

No, it could be just better, Internet brings possibility to avoid dealers (agencies, etc.) and for sure wil
shorten the time and distance, from the producers to consumers...

Shall we say goodbye to the agencies, likely? Their time is questionable?

niserin · « **Reply #36 on:** August 18, 2013, 15:28 »

Quote from: borg on August 18, 2013, 13:55

I am sick because such kind of questions and hypothesis... We are listening this "crow song" from begining...
No, never! Microstock is just marketing type for selling photos...
Question is the same as "Do we stop to buy merchandises over the internet!"

No, it could be just better, Internet brings possibility to avoid dealers (agencies, etc.) and for sure wil
shorten the time and distance, from the producers to consumers...

Shall we say goodbye to the agencies, likely? Their time is questionable?

Well said my friend!

elvinstar · « **Reply #37 on:** August 18, 2013, 16:41 »

Quote from: Leo on July 30, 2013, 13:13

Quote from: robhainer on July 30, 2013, 13:10
and continues to serve its purpose in a tax writeoff.

??

My photo gear is also a tax writeoff. From what I understand you have two choices. Either take the value as a lump sum the year you purchase the gear or take a portion of the value each year over several years. Either way, your gear purchases reduce your tax liability in the US.

robhainer · « **Reply #38 on:** August 18, 2013, 17:31 »

Quote from: elvinstar on August 18, 2013, 16:41

Quote from: Leo on July 30, 2013, 13:13
Quote from: robhainer on July 30, 2013, 13:10
and continues to serve its purpose in a tax writeoff.

??

My photo gear is also a tax writeoff. From what I understand you have two choices. Either take the value as a lump sum the year you purchase the gear or take a portion of the value each year over several years. Either way, your gear purchases reduce your tax liability in the US.

Yep. Everything. Cameras, lenses, lighting, computers, tablets, software, props, costume, insurance, phone, studio-office space, mileage between shoots, meals while shooting or even discussing shoots.

Going to the beach? Take some stock photos, and it's a business trip.

LesPalenik · « **Reply #39 on:** August 20, 2013, 03:40 »

Quote from: Pauws99 on August 18, 2013, 07:00

and your evidence is?

widely available on the microstock-related blogs and forums.
Regrettably, spelling it out in detail would constitute considerably more effort than providing just the aforementioned high-level executive summary.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #40 on:** August 20, 2013, 05:31 »

Anecdote and hearsay

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Author Topic: Shall We Say Goodbye? (Read 19602 times)

Uncle Pete

sdeva

Xanox

dirkr

fiftyfootelvis

Pauws99

Ron

LesPalenik

Pauws99

Red Dove

borg

niserin

elvinstar

robhainer

LesPalenik

Pauws99

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