Author Topic: iStockPhoto predictions for 2012 (Read 12820 times)

oxman · « **on:** December 02, 2011, 03:14 »

Well, 2011 is about over and now would be a good time to make some predictions about iStockPhoto for the next year - 2012.

Here are mine:

- IS will become Exclusives ONLY. Independents will no longer be allowed to upload.
- Most low selling Independent's files will be moved to Getty's middle Tier sites
- 20% commission for everyone (everyone meaning all the exclusives remaining)
- Discontinue tiered commissions based on credits sold
- Many low selling Exclusive files will be moved to Getty's middle tier sites
- Prices may rise a little to test the reaction
- Getty will try to position IS as (what I call) a "tweener" site with higher quality images at a higher price point. Images that you cannot find elsewhere (hence exclusive only).
- The techno bug issues will force Getty to build a completely new site causing significant migration issues, and a nightmare of lost commissions and file status. There may be class action law suits as well.
- By second quarter 2012 the site will be healthy and working well. A new programming maintenance team (hopefully from the banking industry) will be hired to ensure smooth running.
- Anger among contributors will reach a boiling point and Getty will attempt to appease them with unsuccessful PR promotions.

aeonf · « **Reply #1 on:** December 02, 2011, 03:24 »

Nonsense.

sharpshot · « **Reply #2 on:** December 02, 2011, 03:51 »

I don't think Getty will build a new istock site, I think istock will become a Getty collection. Exclusives will have their portfolios transferred, non-exclusives will just have Thinkstock. If they have any interest in keeping istock going as a separate site, they must be completely incompetent. Either way, I don't think there's much future for non-exclusives with istock. I hope I'm wrong, it looks like the best option for us would be for istock to be sold but there's no sign of that happening, so its hard to be optimistic.

michealo · « **Reply #3 on:** December 02, 2011, 04:14 »

Quote from: oxman on December 02, 2011, 03:14

Well, 2011 is about over and now would be a good time to make some predictions about iStockPhoto for the next year - 2012.

Here are mine:

- IS will become Exclusives ONLY. Independents will no longer be allowed to upload.
- Most low selling Independent's files will be moved to Getty's middle Tier sites
- 20% commission for everyone (everyone meaning all the exclusives remaining)
- Discontinue tiered commissions based on credits sold
- Many low selling Exclusive files will be moved to Getty's middle tier sites
- Prices may rise a little to test the reaction
- Getty will try to position IS as (what I call) a "tweener" site with higher quality images at a higher price point. Images that you cannot find elsewhere (hence exclusive only).
- The techno bug issues will force Getty to build a completely new site causing significant migration issues, and a nightmare of lost commissions and file status. There may be class action law suits as well.
- By second quarter 2012 the site will be healthy and working well. A new programming maintenance team (hopefully from the banking industry) will be hired to ensure smooth running.
- Anger among contributors will reach a boiling point and Getty will attempt to appease them with unsuccessful PR promotions.

I wonder about the non exclusivity but when they can get away with taking a 85% to 80% chunk of each sale why would they change?

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #4 on:** December 02, 2011, 04:29 »

Rebecca has an epiphany, sees everything that has gone wrong, reinstates the pre-RC payment system and then adds 10% to the commission rate across the board, fully transparent accounting is provided for every sale, the logo site goes live, TS is made entirely optional, buyers return in droves as suppliers start to sing iStock's praises, the bilingual 13-year-old who has been employed part-time to write notices for site outages turns out to be computer whizz who rejigs the site in less than three weeks, without any downtime so it works perfectly.

Just before the kid completes the work a credit-card fraudster racks up thousands of sales, which are subsequently cancelled and deleted from suppliers' totals, leading to a 15,000 post thread complaining about istock not taking the whole cost on itself. Rebecca refuses to back down, leading to calls for her to quit.

By December 2, 2012, the top 1,321 content providers have become iStock millionaires.

That's right, Rodney, by this time next year, we'll all be millionaires.

Unfortunately, 19 days later the world comes to an end.

(This prediction has been approved by Nostradamus and Harold Camping)

wut · « **Reply #5 on:** December 02, 2011, 04:40 »

Earnings will fall another 50%, IS will be figting for the top 4 spot with DT and FT. Getty will either go for short term profits yet again and ruin the site completely or try and fix it with some discounts and promotions for the buyers, but nothing for contributors since there's way too many of us (who are still uploading for the industry lowest commissions, so they treat us respectively). In a few years no one will even remember IS anymore.

rubyroo · « **Reply #6 on:** December 02, 2011, 04:44 »

@ BT

We can dream!

I agree with Sharpshot's predictions though (sorry Nostradamus!)

briciola · « **Reply #7 on:** December 02, 2011, 05:33 »

independents' sales fall to the point that all we get is PP sales - as we pull our ports exclusives are forced into the PP to make up the numbers.
Buyers move en masse to PP or SS and the whole messy crappy site that is IS is shut down (Hopefully SS close the door before that point)

lagereek · « **Reply #8 on:** December 02, 2011, 05:45 »

many of the Vettas are good but they can not compete with Gettys own house-collection and many, many RM shots there ( according to our new contract) will be available as RF and Micro. I cant see the point in running two parallel quality collections, just messy.

All this is of no interest to us independants. It was once a great site, the best in fact, even if they persevere, they have been run over, even superseeded by some other sites.
IS, have been a thorn in the side to Getty for many years and just the slightest excuse and they will slam the breaks on it.

cathyslife · « **Reply #9 on:** December 02, 2011, 08:41 »

No real predictions because I don't really care what happens to them.

helix7 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 02, 2011, 08:52 »

Quote from: oxman on December 02, 2011, 03:14

- IS will become Exclusives ONLY. Independents will no longer be allowed to upload.

Not likely, but not completely unreasonable either. I lean towards unlikely because independents currently feed the ThinkStock collection, so istock sort of needs us right now.

Quote from: oxman on December 02, 2011, 03:14

- 20% commission for everyone (everyone meaning all the exclusives remaining)

Very likely. Maybe not in 2012, but eventually.

Quote from: oxman on December 02, 2011, 03:14

- Prices may rise a little to test the reaction

They do that every few months, so that's pretty much a guarantee.

Quote from: oxman on December 02, 2011, 03:14

- Many low selling Exclusive files will be moved to Getty's middle tier sites

I'd extend this to say that all exclusive files will be subject to being moved to the other sites, including ThinkStock. If Getty seriously intends to compete with Shutterstock using ThinkStock, they need a more distinct advantage. They don't have one right now, but moving more of their istock content over to ThinkStock would help.

That's my major prediction for 2012. Exclusives, expect to see your opt-out for ThinkStock disappear. istock loves to test things on the fly. Price increases, code changes, etc. The removal of the opt-out for independents was probably a test to see what the reaction and fallout would be. Seeing that not very many people deleted their portfolios, they'll probably push the same change for exclusives some time next year.

That and I'd make the fairly easy prediction that istock continues to lose customers and become less significant in the microstock business.

Unless...

The only way I see istock rebuilding is by cutting prices. They need to get buyers buying again, and doing so with the same attitude they used to. When files were around 10 credits (and credits were still around $1), it was easy to just click the "Buy" button without giving it much thought. People bought images even if it was just for comp purposes. Now it's not so easy to casually click that button when the purchase price can often exceed $30. I see cutting prices as the only way istock can regain their former glory. If they cut prices, I'd predict that istock rebounds in 2012. But as mentioned above, I agree with Simon's prediction that they will test price increases rather than price cuts.

SNP · « **Reply #11 on:** December 02, 2011, 09:01 »

Quote from: cclapper on December 02, 2011, 08:41

No real predictions because I don't really care what happens to them.

yet you care enough to keep saying you don't care.

I predict that if iStock brings exclusive commissions down even one more notch they'll start losing exclusive contributors in droves. the expression about thin ice comes to mind.

gostwyck · « **Reply #12 on:** December 02, 2011, 09:03 »

Istock have only two possible options. They can continue down their current path of trying to squeeze buyers and contributors until they eventually fall off the cliff. Alternatively they could wake up, realise what's ahead if they don't change course, then start rolling back the price increases and commission cuts that are causing their demise. The first option is unfortunately by far the most likely.

velocicarpo · « **Reply #13 on:** December 02, 2011, 09:11 »

Quote from: cclapper on December 02, 2011, 08:41

No real predictions because I don't really care what happens to them.

+1

Zephyr · « **Reply #14 on:** December 02, 2011, 09:17 »

There's an 800lb gorilla on Getty's back called H&F and it wants more now. Vetta, Agency, Getty owned, and Getty partner content to dominate the front of the search at Istock with all main collection files getting mirrored at Thinkstock.

That seems to be the best way to maximize short term profits in my opinion. There's no need to do anything complex.

OhGoAway! · « **Reply #15 on:** December 02, 2011, 09:37 »

1. Price increase (natch)

2. I too thinkstock is going to need propping up -- but to appease Sean and other big contributors, I suspect that they'll somehow manage to keep diamond level or a certain RC-credit level opt-out in place.

3. Stacey mentioned "thin ice" coming to mind, but the phrase that keeps recurring to me is "Get big or get out."

imageegami · « **Reply #16 on:** December 02, 2011, 09:39 »

My 2 cents:

- iStock will have increased competition from other sites (Shutterstock single image sales comes to mind).
- Thinkstock will seriously erode traffic to iStock and have a hugely negative effect on profitability and contributor moral. This time tweaking best match to favor exclusives even more wont help because the customers just wont be there.
- Hubris level wont change, every disaster will be characterized as magnificent.
- Lobo will get a big bonus for his people skills

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #17 on:** December 02, 2011, 09:48 »

Nothing will change.

But it will mean less and less to us, so who cares anyway.

Zephyr · « **Reply #18 on:** December 02, 2011, 10:00 »

Quote from: OhGoAway! on December 02, 2011, 09:37

2. I too thinkstock is going to need propping up -- but to appease Sean and other big contributors, I suspect that they'll somehow manage to keep diamond level or a certain RC-credit level opt-out in place.

I don't think he or any of the other superstars will get any special treatment. They calculated the tremendous effort it would take for someone with 11,000+ files to upload, re-keyword, and modify model releases for all of the other sites before they implemented the RC system. I'm sure they are betting that he'll stay exclusive regardless.

blackwaterimages · « **Reply #19 on:** December 02, 2011, 10:41 »

Quote from: retrorocket on December 02, 2011, 09:17

There's an 800lb gorilla on Getty's back called H&F and it wants more now.

Absolutely - I think people (including istock admin) seem to have forgotten about H&F. They didn't buy Getty (and by extension, iStock) because they're passionate about running a stock agency. They bought it to turn a profit through resale - Getty and iStock will be on the market before long, I think... and who knows what mess that could/will lead to.

michealo · « **Reply #20 on:** December 02, 2011, 10:44 »

commissions will go negative - non exclusives will have to pay 5% every time they sell a file, fortunately because sales are so infrequent due to high prices and site instability it is not a major cause for concern

a certain spokesperson will say a his first complete sentence in english, unfortunately no one will be still listening when it happens

the site will be upgraded but like all previous upgrades functionality will diminish

several news items will be announced which they will make out are an improvement for contributors but on closer examination are not

cthoman · « **Reply #21 on:** December 02, 2011, 10:56 »

A giant wolf will devour iStock and thus begin the age of Ragnarök.

...or maybe what Cathy said.

lisafx · « **Reply #22 on:** December 02, 2011, 14:27 »

I don't drink tea (so no tea leaves to read), and my crystal ball is in the shop, so I don't really have a prediction of my own, but some of the above comments about H&F squeezing the last drops of juice out of Istock, then selling the husk seem about right, IMO.

Interesting that there aren't any rosy or positive guesses above (unless you count Balderick's, but his tongue is firmly in his cheek

).

helix7 · « **Reply #23 on:** December 02, 2011, 14:38 »

Quote from: lisafx on December 02, 2011, 14:27

I don't drink tea (so no tea leaves to read), and my crystal ball is in the shop, so I don't really have a prediction of my own, but some of the above comments about H&F squeezing the last drops of juice out of Istock, then selling the husk seem about right, IMO...

Wait, there's still juice left in there?

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #24 on:** December 02, 2011, 15:56 »

I try really hard not to be a "hater." There are so many iStock "Hater" threads that some may be driven to show sympathy for them. I won't go that far but I will say:
Is there an agency that you really trust any more than any others? You may be very disappointed when they cut commissions to satisfy "stock holders" and owners.

As for iStock ... I'm at the bottom of the stack with no place to go but up. That said, I too really wish they would get their sheet together.

Maybe BigStock will be the Messiah.

stockastic · « **Reply #25 on:** December 02, 2011, 16:49 »

I'm hoping it's sold or spun off, sheds a layer of corporate carpetbaggers from Getty, regroups, simplifies everything and becomes what it used to be - a good microstock site.

IStock's current problems all stem from one source - new owners and mangers that couldn't stop changing the rules and the business model, churning it all up week after week, demanding implementation of ever-more-complicated pricing and commission schemes. That's why there site is all screwed up.

Think about it. IStock's software people are probably just as sharp as those at any other agency. What's different about IS, compared to SS and DT, is that IS has been in constant flux the last year. No software group can keep things working smoothly when management comes in every Monday morning with demands to change things around yet again. The kept pushing it until they broke it.

stockastic · « **Reply #26 on:** December 02, 2011, 17:14 »

[dup]

Suljo · « **Reply #27 on:** December 02, 2011, 19:02 »

They will just implode in they own greedy guts.
The only thing I wish would be that the smell will not spread to my country.
God bless you iS T O K A, PLS go away in silent fart and RIP.

Pixart · « **Reply #28 on:** December 02, 2011, 23:58 »

Since they seem to have learned absolutely nothing in the past couple years, I predict that they:

1. Will lower commissions while raising redemed credits
2. Will raise prices
3. Will break something that wasn't broken

hoi ha · « **Reply #29 on:** December 03, 2011, 01:29 »

Quote from: Pixart on December 02, 2011, 23:58

Since they seem to have learned absolutely nothing in the past couple years, I predict that they:

1. Will lower commissions while raising redemed credits
2. Will raise prices
3. Will break something that wasn't broken

4. And will continue their slow yet inexorable decline - then be sold off at the end of the year before it get too pear shaped.

lagereek · « **Reply #30 on:** December 03, 2011, 02:52 »

Another scenario would be this: keeping Vettas and agency files. Out with independants but also with all the "ordinary" exclusives, from silver and downwards, they really have no place there anymore.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #31 on:** December 03, 2011, 02:56 »

Quote from: aeonf on December 02, 2011, 03:24

Nonsense.

I must agree, there will be more nonsense from IS in the next year.

Why should they stop now.

I think we'll discover the truth about how many people will earn the same or more with the new system is a pile of horse pucky.

raw_milk · « **Reply #32 on:** December 03, 2011, 16:32 »

Three F5s per day.

StanRohrer · « **Reply #33 on:** December 03, 2011, 21:16 »

The same people that wrote the code are now fixing it. The same people that are fixing it will write the next code. So I can only see more and longer outages. Eventually we will hit one where the accounting is so screwed up that iStock will have to admit it can't be fixed. Oh that will be a bad day - but I see it coming in the trends.

TPTB see Glory Land across the river. The worker bees are taking bridge parts from behind them and laying them in front. At some point in the middle the bridge is disconnected from land at both ends. And great was the fall thereof.

gostwyck · « **Reply #34 on:** December 04, 2011, 05:47 »

Quote from: StanRohrer on December 03, 2011, 21:16

The same people that wrote the code are now fixing it. The same people that are fixing it will write the next code. So I can only see more and longer outages. Eventually we will hit one where the accounting is so screwed up that iStock will have to admit it can't be fixed. Oh that will be a bad day - but I see it coming in the trends.

TPTB see Glory Land across the river. The worker bees are taking bridge parts from behind them and laying them in front. At some point in the middle the bridge is disconnected from land at both ends. And great was the fall thereof.

The same people simply gave up even attempting to provide real-time statistics, several years ago. Too difficult for them. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. And lo, it came to pass.

Danybot · « **Reply #35 on:** December 04, 2011, 11:18 »

Since uploading and keywording was a lot of work, I have left most of my existing photos on iStock, but I haven't uploaded in the past year due to the commission reduction. Istock used to be my top earner, but it is now generally number two or number three each week.

I'm sure I'm not the only one. While it's true that there are a lot of people who continue to upload, different photographers have different images, and buyers will eventually start to notice that there are a lot of good images at DT, 123RF, etc. that they can't find on iStock. That's probably already happening

stockastic · « **Reply #36 on:** December 04, 2011, 11:34 »

Quote from: Danybot on December 04, 2011, 11:18

Since uploading and keywording was a lot of work, I have left most of my existing photos on iStock, but I haven't uploaded in the past year due to the commission reduction. Istock used to be my top earner, but it is now generally number two or number three each week.

I can't add a word to that - I quit submitting months ago. Too many hoops to jump through; and I think it's only a matter of time before they dump non-exclusives completely. Even if things changed, the CV keywording is just too much work, for the expected return on an image.

antistock · « **Reply #37 on:** December 04, 2011, 12:11 »

Quote from: StanRohrer on December 03, 2011, 21:16

The same people that wrote the code are now fixing it. The same people that are fixing it will write the next code. So I can only see more and longer outages. Eventually we will hit one where the accounting is so screwed up that iStock will have to admit it can't be fixed. Oh that will be a bad day - but I see it coming in the trends.

TPTB see Glory Land across the river. The worker bees are taking bridge parts from behind them and laying them in front. At some point in the middle the bridge is disconnected from land at both ends. And great was the fall thereof.

technically speaking, Getty is to blame for this.

after buying IS they should had used the same CMS running gettyimages.com and make a migration.

another obvious hint that the MBAs at Getty have no clue whatsover about the technology and the tools needed to run their own business.

i wonder if they're even aware of all these persistent technical issues, i'm sure they know sh-it about it and think it's all running smooth, wondering why customers are leaving in droves.

nicku · « **Reply #38 on:** December 05, 2011, 01:49 »

Quote from: velocicarpo on December 02, 2011, 09:11

Quote from: cclapper on December 02, 2011, 08:41
No real predictions because I don't really care what happens to them.

+1

+1111111111111

FD · « **Reply #39 on:** December 05, 2011, 01:58 »

Quote from: nicku on December 05, 2011, 01:49

+1111111111111

Like with an ex-lover, with the love the hate should go away too. It's over. I don't like to bash them since they're not my business any more.
I can just hope that after their financiers sold them off, they regain their senses again and become the community site they once were.

StanRohrer · « **Reply #40 on:** March 04, 2014, 16:21 »

Quote from: StanRohrer on December 03, 2011, 21:16

The same people that wrote the code are now fixing it. The same people that are fixing it will write the next code. So I can only see more and longer outages. Eventually we will hit one where the accounting is so screwed up that iStock will have to admit it can't be fixed. Oh that will be a bad day - but I see it coming in the trends.

TPTB see Glory Land across the river. The worker bees are taking bridge parts from behind them and laying them in front. At some point in the middle the bridge is disconnected from land at both ends. And great was the fall thereof.

KarenH · « **Reply #41 on:** March 04, 2014, 16:29 »

Quote from: StanRohrer on March 04, 2014, 16:21

Quote from: StanRohrer on December 03, 2011, 21:16
The same people that wrote the code are now fixing it. The same people that are fixing it will write the next code. So I can only see more and longer outages. Eventually we will hit one where the accounting is so screwed up that iStock will have to admit it can't be fixed. Oh that will be a bad day - but I see it coming in the trends.

TPTB see Glory Land across the river. The worker bees are taking bridge parts from behind them and laying them in front. At some point in the middle the bridge is disconnected from land at both ends. And great was the fall thereof.

Prophetic.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #42 on:** March 21, 2014, 23:36 »

Will lower standards fit into your plans as well?

YR   Files   Uploads
05   1.1M   1.1M
06   2.6M   1.5M
07   5M   2.3M
08   8.1M   3.1M
09   11.5M   3.4M
10   15.2M   3.6M
11   18.8M   3.5M
12   22.7M   3.9M
(new rules start)
13   32.4M   9.7M

(thanks to Slobo of IS forums)

Lower standards and lower prices = lower commissions.

#3 is an all around winner in so many ways.

Quote from: Pixart on December 02, 2011, 23:58

Since they seem to have learned absolutely nothing in the past couple years, I predict that they:

1. Will lower commissions while raising redemed credits
2. Will raise prices
3. Will break something that wasn't broken

w7lwi · « **Reply #43 on:** March 22, 2014, 11:15 »

How about they will fix/improve something that doesn't need to be fixed/improved. Of course that could apply to GI as well.

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Author Topic: iStockPhoto predictions for 2012 (Read 12820 times)

michealo

wut

rubyroo

lagereek

helix7

velocicarpo

microstockphoto.co.uk

michealo

lisafx

helix7

WarrenPrice

lagereek

RacePhoto

antistock

Uncle Pete

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