Author Topic: Fotolia and the Pound (Read 6515 times)

lemonyellow · « **on:** October 12, 2016, 01:19 »

With the British Pound at current level after Brexit, and no signs of going up again I think Fotolia should return to 1 Credit = 1 Pound.

The current 1 Credit = 0.75 Pounds is very unfair to British photographers.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37620331

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #1 on:** October 12, 2016, 01:33 »

All my credits are in Euros for some reason. Probably I signed up when I was in Spain. But when I withdraw 50 credits I get 50 Euros in my account. Not sure how it works for those in the US, but I'm assuming they're being converted from Euros to pounds? So that should be 0.9 pounds per credit, give or take, rather than 0.75

Unless it's Dollars to Pounds, which should be 0.82 give or take.

lemonyellow · « **Reply #2 on:** October 12, 2016, 01:38 »

Once upon a long ago it was: 1 Credit = 1 Pound = 1 Dollar = 1 Euro
Of course it was unfair as well, since the currency exchange rates change all the time.

Then they changed to 1 Credit = 0.75 Pounds when the pound was at its highest level.

In the US, it's still 1 Credit = 1 Dollar. So at present you are lucky, being paid in Euro is the best option.

They should either adjust their exchange rate periodically or allow us to choose the currency.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #3 on:** October 12, 2016, 06:31 »

They need to move to 1 credit=1 dollar across the board just like everyone else. Otherwise someone somewhere is getting the shaft.

I suspect it's in the pipeline.

lemonyellow · « **Reply #4 on:** October 12, 2016, 07:06 »

Although the idea of paying in local currency - with a proper exchange rate based on 1 Credit = 1 Dollar of course - isn't a bad one: it saves fx fees both for us and for them, since they surely are receiving payments from buyers in various currencies

Benozaur · « **Reply #5 on:** October 12, 2016, 07:17 »

Quote from: lemonyellow on October 12, 2016, 01:19

With the British Pound at current level after Brexit, and no signs of going up again I think Fotolia should return to 1 Credit = 1 Pound.

The current 1 Credit = 0.75 Pounds is very unfair to British photographers.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37620331

1 Credit = 1 Pound. Is that just for the British or for everyone? Whats to stop me from buying from a UK account and selling from a US account?
A standardized 1 Credit = 1 Dollar would make more sense from Fotolia's perspective especially as they can control their "exchange rates" to their own advantage.
According to the 1 Credit = 1 Dollar model, today a Credit should be 0.816007 Pounds as per the interbank exchange rates for today (xe.com).
However, setting their Credit value at .75 pounds Fotolia has effectively hedged their transactions against any major fluctuations on the pound while bagging a healthy layer of cream off the top of every sale and subsequently and commissions associated with the sale.
If you think this isn't "fair" then you are well within your rights to cease business with them.
You wanted Brexit - now deal with it...

lemonyellow · « **Reply #6 on:** October 12, 2016, 07:21 »

Quote from: Benozaur on October 12, 2016, 07:17

You wanted Brexit - now deal with it...

Some wanted Brexit, I didn't.

Benozaur · « **Reply #7 on:** October 12, 2016, 07:36 »

Quote from: lemonyellow on October 12, 2016, 07:21

Quote from: Benozaur on October 12, 2016, 07:17
You wanted Brexit - now deal with it...

Some wanted Brexit, I didn't.

That seemed a bit harsh, sorry.
I have lost out on a few clients from the UK due to this whole fiasco. Frankly I'm tired of people throwing their hands into the air crying "What have we done?".
I have spoken to quite a few brits who cannot honestly explain what the EU actually is - but voted for Brexit anyway.
I mean no offence, like it or not, we all have to deal with Brexit.

Desintegrator · « **Reply #8 on:** October 12, 2016, 07:45 »

I'm not from the UK, just the first Fotolia link i had came across many years ago happened to be en.fotolia.com. Soafter registering there, I'm stuck with receiving 0.75 pounds/credit. Truth to be told, most of the time it had been more than 1USD/credit.

But really, something needs to be done about this nonsense with currencies at Fotolia.

lemonyellow · « **Reply #9 on:** October 12, 2016, 07:47 »

Quote

I mean no offence, like it or not, we all have to deal with Brexit.

No offence at all.

Actually I find it appalling that a mere 2% of British people are allowed to cause so much pain in UK and abroad. Especially following an advisory - i.e. not legally binding - referendum which started as a (miscalculated) showdown within the Tories. And an unfortunate decision fuelled by false assumptions.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #10 on:** October 12, 2016, 09:24 »

"I have spoken to quite a few brits who cannot honestly explain what the EU actually is - but voted for Brexit anyway."

Of course they did. If they understood what it was then they probably wouldn't have voted to leave. Instead they probably grumbled a bit about foreigners, and immigrants, and pesky newcomers stealing our jobs... and then voted to leave.

Maybe a bit of a stereotype, but hey, it's probably not that far from the truth.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2016, 09:25 »

Leaving Brexit aside the whole "credit" system seems odd...as far as I know no other site does it..seems an unnecessary complication though I daresay it might be complex to untangle the system. Currencies have always fluctuated for all kinds of reasons so contributors from various countries will probably feel hard done by from time to time

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #12 on:** October 12, 2016, 10:18 »

Agreed. By the sounds of it, I do better than others being paid in Euros, but it would make more sense to just have 1 credit make one dollar and they pay out in that...like every other site. Or it could be pounds or Euros, just as long as it's consistent.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2016, 09:54 »

Far from being an "unnecessary complication" it is something that works heavily to Fotolia's advantage, as the credit purchase prices are calculated differently from the photographers' credit values so the actual percentage of the sale that the photographer receives is obscured (and almost certainly isn't what you think it is). There was a lot of discussion about this years ago when it was introduced - the thread is here somewhere but I can't remember the details.

Desintegrator · « **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2016, 10:35 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 13, 2016, 09:54

Far from being an "unnecessary complication" it is something that works heavily to Fotolia's advantage, as the credit purchase prices are calculated differently from the photographers' credit values so the actual percentage of the sale that the photographer receives is obscured (and almost certainly isn't what you think it is). There was a lot of discussion about this years ago when it was introduced - the thread is here somewhere but I can't remember the details.

What do you mean by "when it was introduced?". I signed up in 2006 and even then 1 credit wasn't equal to 1USD

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #15 on:** October 13, 2016, 11:32 »

Quote from: Desintegrator on October 13, 2016, 10:35

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 13, 2016, 09:54
Far from being an "unnecessary complication" it is something that works heavily to Fotolia's advantage, as the credit purchase prices are calculated differently from the photographers' credit values so the actual percentage of the sale that the photographer receives is obscured (and almost certainly isn't what you think it is). There was a lot of discussion about this years ago when it was introduced - the thread is here somewhere but I can't remember the details.

What do you mean by "when it was introduced?". I signed up in 2006 and even then 1 credit wasn't equal to 1USD

Like I said, I'm a bit vague on the details now, the issue I'm thinking of was separating the cost of buying a credit from the value ascribed to a credit for photographers. I do recall someone (Leaf?) doing a lot of calculations of what the actual percentage payments were to us based on what currency the credit was bought in and what currency the photographer was tied to.
I can't remember what year it was, but it must have been after 2006 as they hadn't been going long back then and they kicked off with a lot of promotional stuff about giving photographers a fair deal and it was a while before that went out of the window.

Zero Talent · « **Reply #16 on:** October 13, 2016, 13:28 »

Fotolia is not only a microstock agency but also a currency dealer.

There is no fair justification for keeping the exchange rate at 1 euro = 1 dollar = 0.75 pounds instead of 1 euro = 1.11 dollars = 0.90 pounds

Fotolia has a majority of contributors from US and a majority of sales coming from Europe. Even if European contributors are overpaid when they get sales from US, Fotolia gains, overall, ~10-20% more, by underpaying all these US contributors selling to European customers.

It is obvious that Adobe is more aggressive on the US market than Fotolia (hence the relative growth, compared with other agencies).

By only using the Fotolia vehicle, if the US/Europe sale ratio grows in favor of US, then all the advantage they have by manipulating the currency exchange, might become a loss. They will simply have to pay too much European contributors, without being able to overcompensate by grabbing enough from US contributor's royalties.

That's probably one of the reasons for creating this new Adobe portal: promote it aggressively on the US market

For on-demand sales, Adobe Stock pays a true 33% share of the sale price (probably based on real currency exchange rate). That's the right move, if they want to avoid the above mentioned losses (and it is, obviously, fair, since it doesn't discriminate between contributors, anymore)

On the other hand, their on-going currency manipulation is a strong argument in favor of maintaining Fotolia alive, as long as it remains strong in Europe and the euro continues to be stronger than the dollar. It allows them to continue to grab a nice share from US contributor's royalties and keep a large chunk of it for themselves.

HappyBunny · « **Reply #17 on:** October 17, 2016, 07:58 »

Benozaur, I just read your comment that the Brits wanted the Credit and deal with it. I live in Britain but I am not British. I am from Europe. A few days ago I thought that they thoroughly ruined going on holidays for themselves. I have been living here many years now and they are so horrible hostile towards Europeans and other foreigners. It didn't come as a surprise when they voted to get out of Europe. For my last two sales I received £0.19 for each image. I don't find that great at all. There might be many photographers who wanted the Brexit but I still feel sad that they get so little money for that hard work and all the hours they put into this whole business. I thought we are here all photographers no matter what nationality.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

sharpshot · « **Reply #18 on:** October 17, 2016, 08:31 »

Quote from: HappyBunny on October 17, 2016, 07:58

Benozaur, I just read your comment that the Brits wanted the Credit and deal with it. I live in Britain but I am not British. I am from Europe. A few days ago I thought that they thoroughly ruined going on holidays for themselves. I have been living here many years now and they are so horrible hostile towards Europeans and other foreigners. It didn't come as a surprise when they voted to get out of Europe. For my last two sales I received £0.19 for each image. I don't find that great at all. There might be many photographers who wanted the Brexit but I still feel sad that they get so little money for that hard work and all the hours they put into this whole business. I thought we are here all photographers no matter what nationality.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Please don't lump as all together. I have no problem with foreigners, 48% voted to stay in the EU and a lot of the 52% that voted out aren't hostile to foreigners. There is a problem here with a small minority but what country doesn't have those idiots?

obj owl · « **Reply #19 on:** October 17, 2016, 08:43 »

Fotolia pay me in £s, but most sites pay me in dollars so I'm up across the board, swings and roundabouts.

HappyBunny · « **Reply #20 on:** October 17, 2016, 08:49 »

Hello Sharpshot, I don't lump you all together. Sorry if it sounded as if I do. I know the vote result. I can understand the poor people for example in Wales. They all fear of not getting a job or loosing their jobs. I never took one of their jobs. I got one because they needed my language skills. I am now suffering with the Brits because of their vote. I have been here 20 years. It's not the people"s fault that a government lets people vote who have no idea that their jobs are getting paid by the European union. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying every single one was too stupid to understand the whole issue. It's the government's job to run the country and not to dump decisions on people without educating them first or to expect them to be interested in politics. In general, in daily life, I find the Brits more hostile towards foreigners than it was the case when I lived in the country I was born in.

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sharpshot · « **Reply #21 on:** October 18, 2016, 04:17 »

I haven't noticed much suffering so far. Some prices have gone up but I'm making more money from most of the sites that pay in dollars and euros.

I can see the benefits of being in the EU but there was no compromises made when huge numbers of people started moving from the less well off economies to the wealthier countries. It was perceived as being a problem, even if there were benefits. If the UK now ends up outside the single market, I think business rates will be cut to make sure that the European businesses don't leave. It looks like more countries will leave the EU if they don't make sensible reforms. While I'm disappointed that the UK is leaving the EU, I'm more disappointed that they didn't try harder to keep us in it.

JaenStock · « **Reply #22 on:** October 18, 2016, 04:41 »

Here in spain i buy in euro and is the best for me. Dont take bad ideas to Fotolia. I am tired of dollars.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #23 on:** October 18, 2016, 05:22 »

Quote from: sharpshot on October 18, 2016, 04:17

I haven't noticed much suffering so far. Some prices have gone up but I'm making more money from most of the sites that pay in dollars and euros.

I can see the benefits of being in the EU but there was no compromises made when huge numbers of people started moving from the less well off economies to the wealthier countries. It was perceived as being a problem, even if there were benefits. If the UK now ends up outside the single market, I think business rates will be cut to make sure that the European businesses don't leave. It looks like more countries will leave the EU if they don't make sensible reforms. While I'm disappointed that the UK is leaving the EU, I'm more disappointed that they didn't try harder to keep us in it.

Totally agree with your last sentence though I blame Cameron more he failed to negotiate a deal that many of the UK could deal with and rather than have the nerve to tell his Euro colleagues the people of the UK would't accept it he tried to sell it....massive misjudgement. Ironically I think the shock of Brexit will cause the EU to move away from some of its federalist ambitions.

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Author Topic: Fotolia and the Pound (Read 6515 times)

lemonyellow

SpaceStockFootage

lemonyellow

Justanotherphotographer

lemonyellow

Benozaur

lemonyellow

Benozaur

Desintegrator

lemonyellow

SpaceStockFootage

Pauws99

SpaceStockFootage

BaldricksTrousers

Desintegrator

BaldricksTrousers

Zero Talent

HappyBunny

sharpshot

obj owl

HappyBunny

sharpshot

JaenStock

Pauws99

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