Author Topic: Thinkstock is alive? (Read 41315 times)

Sion · « **on:** June 18, 2010, 08:00 »

Anyone knows whether Thinkstock is alive and is generating earnings from it?

Danicek · « **Reply #1 on:** June 18, 2010, 08:42 »

Unfortunately yes, it is alive.

click_click · « **Reply #2 on:** June 18, 2010, 09:01 »

... and it is generating money

Danicek · « **Reply #3 on:** June 18, 2010, 11:25 »

Quote from: click_click on June 18, 2010, 09:01

... and it is generating money

For Getty...

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #4 on:** June 18, 2010, 16:20 »

Quote from: Sion on June 18, 2010, 08:00

Anyone knows whether Thinkstock is alive

Like Frankenstein's monster.

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #5 on:** June 18, 2010, 17:34 »

Haven't sold a thing. Sure isn't like old StockXpert. Was sure to have daily sales there... but... not good old TS.

btw... I just got migrated there in the last couple weeks... however, none of my IS stuff is there (and frankly, of all the images I had on StockXpert, most of these even I WOULDN'T have moved over there). My better images and better sellers, didn't come over. Maybe because they were also on IS??? Any of you others that just got migrated... is your IS stuff showing?

=tom

melastmohican · « **Reply #6 on:** June 18, 2010, 17:48 »

They are doing 10x worse than StockXpert but my portfolio was just migrated this month. I few sales one day and after that nothing. I do not know if they are going to update sales reports every day or monthly like with iStock photos. Anyway they are not a big competition to SS right now :-)

click_click · « **Reply #7 on:** June 18, 2010, 18:02 »

TS is not doing bad at all for me. At least a lot better than the subscription of StockXpert, Photos.com and JUI together so nothing to complain here.

I was under the impression though that TS's earnings that are reported through StockXpert only show up once a month - the same like at iStock.

Or did anybody get reports on StockXpert for daily subscription activity?

luissantos84 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 18, 2010, 18:08 »

Quote from: click_click on June 18, 2010, 18:02

TS is not doing bad at all for me. At least a lot better than the subscription of StockXpert, Photos.com and JUI together so nothing to complain here.

I was under the impression though that TS's earnings that are reported through StockXpert only show up once a month - the same like at iStock.

Or did anybody get reports on StockXpert for daily subscription activity?

I just got my first photos migrated to TS, so I haven't seen sales from Hemera..! Just from IS and actually better than on IS..!

ozbandit · « **Reply #9 on:** June 18, 2010, 20:57 »

I still get my 100-150 downloads there every month. Was trying to see if I could log in via my StockXpert login but couldn't get it to work, so dunno..

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #10 on:** June 19, 2010, 01:51 »

Quote from: click_click on June 18, 2010, 18:02

I was under the impression though that TS's earnings that are reported through StockXpert only show up once a month - the same like at iStock.

Or did anybody get reports on StockXpert for daily subscription activity?

You're right. TS earnings are reported once a month on StockXpert. May's sales were reported on June, 8th

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #11 on:** July 08, 2010, 20:12 »

I just noticed today that Thinkstock is now selling image packs. The pricing - which I assume will only appeal to those who want to buy the largest sizes where it's a bargain - seriously undercut's pricing on iStock's site for equivalent credit packs.

I posted some details with a couple of examples on the iStock forums here.

For independents, the 20% royalty rate at Thinkstock is a wash (not so for exclusives however). But given the big discount these image packs represent over the prices in iStock credits for the largest sizes, it will likely cut into income for independents as well.

borg · « **Reply #12 on:** July 09, 2010, 01:45 »

I will probably remove my pics from TS, even the worst non-selling images, only because I can't find my name near the photo...

gostwyck · « **Reply #13 on:** July 09, 2010, 04:23 »

Quote from: jsnover on July 08, 2010, 20:12

I just noticed today that Thinkstock is now selling image packs. The pricing - which I assume will only appeal to those who want to buy the largest sizes where it's a bargain - seriously undercut's pricing on iStock's site for equivalent credit packs.

I posted some details with a couple of examples on the iStock forums here.

For independents, the 20% royalty rate at Thinkstock is a wash (not so for exclusives however). But given the big discount these image packs represent over the prices in iStock credits for the largest sizes, it will likely cut into income for independents as well.

Inevitable I guess considering that TS is basically trying to become a clone of SS. What surprises me most is just how many contributors, both Exc and Ind, have chosen to support TS despite the miserable commissions and the undermining of better agencies who they rely on much more for their income. Never in the field of stock photography have so many turkeys voted for Christmas all at the same time.

shiyali · « **Reply #14 on:** July 09, 2010, 05:04 »

Yep, first it was those microstockers who ruined the business for the traditional photogs, and now it is the TSers who ruin the business for the microstockers. What's the old saying . . "what goes 'round . .. It's a personal business decision where and how one sells their products, and there could be many more individual factors at play than just the selling price or profit margin.

Artemis · « **Reply #15 on:** July 09, 2010, 11:44 »

Just kindly wondering what those other factors might be, apart from the $$ and profit margin?

Eireann · « **Reply #16 on:** July 09, 2010, 13:23 »

Well, Artemis, what about the toxic green of the Search buttons on ThinkStock? Will you take that for a reason?

They're not only targeting SS, but Getty's all over IStock as well.
New Retrofile Collection, B&W stock photography from the 30's, hundreds upon hundreds of them. Content wholly owned by Getty, all images straight to Vetta, most with an initial rating of + 5. (ease of workflow?)
How's that for fair inspections?
There's no stopping Getty.
There's no stopping photographers from uploading to ThinkStock either. Some are getting hundreds of downloads a month. Hard to convince them to consider the future and close accounts today.
Luckily we still have IStock's upload limits on our side. For now.
But what about the other sites?
Will they simply let Getty crawl all over microstock?

Kngkyle · « **Reply #17 on:** July 09, 2010, 14:28 »

It costs as low as $5.99 for a XXXL image on Thinkstock as opposed to $30 on IS. We only get 20% of the 5.99 as opposed to 20-40% on IS. So that is $1.20 commission from Thinkstock and about $7.00 commission from Istock. For the same photo at the same size.

That is a 583%-1000% decrease in earnings, depending on your canister and exclusivity. Of course when you have people like Shank Ali on the IS forums saying this is the greatest thing since sliced bread you know we're screwed.

Eireann · « **Reply #18 on:** July 09, 2010, 14:34 »

There you go!
But then again, some might argue that 1.20 is better than nothing.
And we're on the road to the bottom.

sharpshot · « **Reply #19 on:** July 09, 2010, 14:44 »

$1.20 is much worse than nothing because it could make the other sites lower prices and commissions. Then we end up losing lots, not making more.

lisafx · « **Reply #20 on:** July 09, 2010, 14:51 »

Quote from: sharpshot on July 09, 2010, 14:44

$1.20 is much worse than nothing because it could make the other sites lower prices and commissions.

I'm still waiting for those "other sites" to offer some incentive NOT to participate in TS (like a long-overdue raise). Guess I won't be holding my breath though...

Eireann · « **Reply #21 on:** July 09, 2010, 15:04 »

Absolutely Sharpshot.
I modified my previous post, for the sake of clarity.

cathyslife · « **Reply #22 on:** July 09, 2010, 15:32 »

Quote from: Eireann on July 09, 2010, 15:04

Absolutely Sharpshot.
I modified my previous post, for the sake of clarity.

I'm glad you did that. For a minute, I thought you crossed over to the dark side.

Allsa · « **Reply #23 on:** July 09, 2010, 15:41 »

I keep wondering if Getty's ultimate, long term goal isn't to kill the microstock business model altogether, or at least limit it to mostly snapshots.

lisafx · « **Reply #24 on:** July 09, 2010, 15:53 »

Quote from: Allsa on July 09, 2010, 15:41

I keep wondering if Getty's ultimate, long term goal isn't to kill the microstock business model altogether, or at least limit it to mostly snapshots.

Well if killing Istock's sales is part of the plan...Mission Accomplished!!

Average daily sales at IS down 30% from the high of March '10 and down 21% from LAST JULY, which was second worst month of last year.

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Author Topic: Thinkstock is alive? (Read 41315 times)

Sion

Danicek

click_click

Danicek

Sean Locke Photography

a.k.a.-tom

melastmohican

click_click

luissantos84

ozbandit

microstockphoto.co.uk

Jo Ann Snover

borg

gostwyck

shiyali

Artemis

Eireann

Kngkyle

Eireann

sharpshot

lisafx

Eireann

cathyslife

Allsa

lisafx

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