Quote from: lisafx on July 16, 2012, 00:34
Difference is that Yuri has the resources to make his site top notch rather than ktools or photoshelter.  He also has the brand recognition and portfolio to have a strong likelihood of making it a big success.

He definitely has the resources and has spent time and money to make something unique, but I wouldn't sell any of us short. If anything, Yuri's bar for success is a lot higher than most of ours. Most of us don't need to earn that much or get that many sales to equal the income of our top micro.

I think there is something to be said for offering unique content on your own site. Especially if you have hit a wall with the regular micro sites. You don't have much to lose by focusing your attention and new images exclusively on your own site. I don't know if that is Yuri's game plan, but it seems like a good one (because that is my plan).

i'm sure he knows the score and his investment is not too much ambititious but just in line with his possibilities.

i just wonder why he setup his biz in south africa, of all places ?

plenty of cheaper places in europe without going too far .. portugal .. greece .. croatia .. cyprus .. and what about Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines ?

Quote from: lisafx on July 16, 2012, 00:34

Quote from: Lagereek on July 15, 2012, 21:46
He is clever, he setting up an escape route and a great earner which will benefit greatly when micro agencies start to fall apart.

This makes the most sense to me.  Most of us who rely on microstock income have been exploring our options in one way or another in preparation for the rumored demise of microstock.  Kind of reminds me of all the folks in the US in the 50s building bomb shelters in their back yards.  

Difference is that Yuri has the resources to make his site top notch rather than ktools or photoshelter.  He also has the brand recognition and portfolio to have a strong likelihood of making it a big success.  

But no, I don't think he will be putting the micros out of business.  They might manage to do it to themselves though....

Yes, thats what I mean, micros will put themselves out of business, thats for sure. In a couple of year time you will have, Getty with all its umbrellas and probably, SS, unless they decide to sell out, etc. Thats it.
Yuri, is making sure of a slice of the cake, not a take-over, he cant do that and Im not sure he wants to either.
Unfortunately, micro on the whole has dragged itself into the mudd, gained a bad reputation for lousy customer/contributor relations ( exeption being, SS, DT and some of the middle tiers), its still got this sort of amateur stamp, not picture quality but for the way they operate, amateurish and without scruples.

They had a great thing going but somehow some people managed to destroy it.

Yuri is making sure that most of the microstock sites bite the dust in not too distance a future his peopleimages.com will be among the very few still standing. 

I don't think he can quite compete with the big agencies... but you never know. Maybe one day?

www.peopleimages.com is the result of agencies constantly trying to push commissions down. At some point this happens and they got themselves a competitor instead. If commissions where as high as other platforms (iTunes pays out 70% to their content providers) I would never have dreamed about venturing into this.
This site is purely because of low commissions.

Quote from: antistock on July 16, 2012, 07:35
i'm sure he knows the score and his investment is not too much ambititious but just in line with his possibilities.

i just wonder why he setup his biz in south africa, of all places ?

plenty of cheaper places in europe without going too far .. portugal .. greece .. croatia .. cyprus .. and what about Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines ?

Good Q. (Actually)
South africa has so much mixed culture from immigration that you can find very competent support/hotline staff that speaks almost all European languages perfectly. Also. The primary language of South Africa is English which is great. Besides that it is a country in development and probably soon will be doing better than many European countries. I believe we will see a reversed migration in the coming years. South park is right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Meheecans

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 16, 2012, 21:29
If commissions where as high as other platforms (iTunes pays out 70% to their content providers) I would never have dreamed about venturing into this. This site is purely because of low commissions.

If someone asked me why I started my own site, (and why I am working on starting another and more improved one at some point next year) this would be exactly the same answer they would get..

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 16, 2012, 21:29
www.peopleimages.com is the result of agencies constantly trying to push commissions down. At some point this happens and they got themselves a competitor instead. If commissions where as high as other platforms (iTunes pays out 70% to their content providers) I would never have dreamed about venturing into this.
This site is purely because of low commissions.

and it's a competitor who knows the score, not a banker like the owners of Getty or IT guys like the founders of IS/SS/fotolia.
big added value.

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 16, 2012, 21:42

Quote from: antistock on July 16, 2012, 07:35
i'm sure he knows the score and his investment is not too much ambititious but just in line with his possibilities.

i just wonder why he setup his biz in south africa, of all places ?

plenty of cheaper places in europe without going too far .. portugal .. greece .. croatia .. cyprus .. and what about Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines ?

Good Q. (Actually)
South africa has so much mixed culture from immigration that you can find very competent support/hotline staff that speaks almost all European languages perfectly. Also. The primary language of South Africa is English which is great. Besides that it is a country in development and probably soon will be doing better than many European countries. I believe we will see a reversed migration in the coming years. South park is right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Meheecans

sounds good.
do you think there's also plenty of choice about local models in south africa ? of every ethnicity ?
as i'm based in SE asia one of the issues for me is that the people than ends up in my images are
all asians and the market for this is not as big as for caucasians.

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 16, 2012, 21:29
www.peopleimages.com is the result of agencies constantly trying to push commissions down. At some point this happens and they got themselves a competitor instead. If commissions where as high as other platforms (iTunes pays out 70% to their content providers) I would never have dreamed about venturing into this.
This site is purely because of low commissions.

All I can say is good for you!   I wish the micros hadn't gotten greedy and forced you into competing with them.  It should serve as a wakeup call to start treating contributors better, but I somehow doubt it will. 

Quote from: lisafx on July 17, 2012, 18:36

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 16, 2012, 21:29
www.peopleimages.com is the result of agencies constantly trying to push commissions down. At some point this happens and they got themselves a competitor instead. If commissions where as high as other platforms (iTunes pays out 70% to their content providers) I would never have dreamed about venturing into this.
This site is purely because of low commissions.

All I can say is good for you!   I wish the micros hadn't gotten greedy and forced you into competing with them.  It should serve as a wakeup call to start treating contributors better, but I somehow doubt it will. 

Not until he's making enough on his own site to allow him to pull from the others.

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 16, 2012, 21:29
www.peopleimages.com is the result of agencies constantly trying to push commissions down. At some point this happens and they got themselves a competitor instead. If commissions where as high as other platforms (iTunes pays out 70% to their content providers) I would never have dreamed about venturing into this.
This site is purely because of low commissions.

I'm very glad this was the main motivator, things have to change to a fair system of 40 or 50% for the contributor.   Apple pays out 70% because their main business is hardware to run/play that content and are probably not making huge profits compared to their other areas. They know that in order to get the best apps and content they need to offer a good split. Then they can sell you tons of gadgets.

However as long as artists don't respect themselves enough in microstock, we wont be getting a fair commission anytime soon. 

People who are content with less than 20cents a download are plenty and the micros know it. They however will probably be getting mostly crappy content worthy of those slim payouts, littering the search with terrible content which will decrease sales and buyers.

Don't feed the lower commission sites and things will be forced to evolve.

Quote from: jsnover on July 15, 2012, 16:19
I don't have any direct skin in that game, (IOW no real reason to care if Yuri succeeds or fails with his own site) but I think that he sells a one-look plastic fantastic type of stock. It's hugely successful but it really is so homogenous. I can't see it becoming dominant unless he broadens his reach a bit.

Are you serious? How exactly would you define dominant? He's the most successful stock photographer on the planet and therefore dominant.

Plastic fantastic is what faceless corporations want, isn't that obvious?

Quote from: lucidology on July 18, 2012, 04:18

Quote from: jsnover on July 15, 2012, 16:19
I don't have any direct skin in that game, (IOW no real reason to care if Yuri succeeds or fails with his own site) but I think that he sells a one-look plastic fantastic type of stock. It's hugely successful but it really is so homogenous. I can't see it becoming dominant unless he broadens his reach a bit.

Are you serious? How exactly would you define dominant? He's the most successful stock photographer on the planet and therefore dominant.

Plastic fantastic is what faceless corporations want, isn't that obvious?

Yes he is! but JoAnn, has got a small point here. It wouldnt hurt to broaden the scope a little bit. Look around in glossy publications such as Harpers, Vogue, Elle, etc, etc, there are plenty of "ordinary, even slightly overweight models finding their way in there. Its the modern thinking you know. There is even a hugely successful model-agency in London called "Uggly people" and theyre leasing out their models all the time! Now, I wouldnt be promoting that but to get some what we call "real" people in various situations, such as business, etc, wouldnt exactly hurt.

I want to see this really take-off!  teach some agencies a lesson but as I said, it wouldnt be a bad idea to widen the horizon, just a bit anyway.

Quote from: antistock on July 17, 2012, 04:54

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 16, 2012, 21:42

Quote from: antistock on July 16, 2012, 07:35
i'm sure he knows the score and his investment is not too much ambititious but just in line with his possibilities.

i just wonder why he setup his biz in south africa, of all places ?

plenty of cheaper places in europe without going too far .. portugal .. greece .. croatia .. cyprus .. and what about Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines ?

Good Q. (Actually)
South africa has so much mixed culture from immigration that you can find very competent support/hotline staff that speaks almost all European languages perfectly. Also. The primary language of South Africa is English which is great. Besides that it is a country in development and probably soon will be doing better than many European countries. I believe we will see a reversed migration in the coming years. South park is right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Meheecans

sounds good.
do you think there's also plenty of choice about local models in south africa ? of every ethnicity ?
as i'm based in SE asia one of the issues for me is that the people than ends up in my images are
all asians and the market for this is not as big as for caucasians.

I grew up in Cape Town and believe me, there is a model overload there. You can find models from every ethnicity without problems, amateur or professional. It's also full with Europeans (Germans, British, Dutch etc.). Lovely City!! My Girlfriend is trying to get me to move back since our last holiday in Cape Town.