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Author Topic: Envato acquired by Shutterstock  (Read 9933 times)

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« on: May 02, 2024, 06:17 »
+1


Seems they have been sold

Quote
Hi there,
 
We hope this email finds you well.

Were reaching out to share some exciting news. Envato has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Shutterstock, a leading global creative platform. This agreement is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of this calendar year. This agreement marks a significant milestone in our journey, and we wanted to take a moment to let you know what this means for you, our Authors. 
 
Most importantly, Envatos commitment to empowering creatives will continue. The services and support you have come to expect from us, and the relationship we have with you, will remain.
 
We see this as a pivotal moment in Envatos journey and are excited for the future. We have confidence in the alignment of values and the strong strategic fit that underpin this upcoming union between Envato and Shutterstock.
 
We will continue to keep you informed of any important updates that come with this transition.
 
Finally, we want to express our gratitude to you, our authors, for your continued support and dedication to the Envato community. As we move forward, we will continue to listen to the needs of our creative community, build innovative products, and create an environment where your creativity can thrive.
 
If you are interested in finding out more about the agreement, head to the media statement.
 
We look forward to shaping the future of creativity with you.
 
Thanks,


« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2024, 06:23 »
0


Seems they have been sold

Quote
Hi there,
 
We hope this email finds you well.

Were reaching out to share some exciting news. Envato has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Shutterstock, a leading global creative platform. This agreement is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of this calendar year. This agreement marks a significant milestone in our journey, and we wanted to take a moment to let you know what this means for you, our Authors. 
 
Most importantly, Envatos commitment to empowering creatives will continue. The services and support you have come to expect from us, and the relationship we have with you, will remain.
 
We see this as a pivotal moment in Envatos journey and are excited for the future. We have confidence in the alignment of values and the strong strategic fit that underpin this upcoming union between Envato and Shutterstock.
 
We will continue to keep you informed of any important updates that come with this transition.
 
Finally, we want to express our gratitude to you, our authors, for your continued support and dedication to the Envato community. As we move forward, we will continue to listen to the needs of our creative community, build innovative products, and create an environment where your creativity can thrive.
 
If you are interested in finding out more about the agreement, head to the media statement.
 
We look forward to shaping the future of creativity with you.
 
Thanks,
I just saw this


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2024, 06:27 »
+4
Hmm, its mean SS gaining weight and they are not paying good money to Authors / Contributor
I am author of (Themeforest,Codecanyon and Graphicriver) Since 2014 and Envato is continuously sinking.

and same situation going on with SS, anyone agree with me?


« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2024, 06:34 »
0
This corporate spiel actually provides very little insight, to its authors. The big cheeses continue to play with their toys 😮‍💨

« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2024, 06:41 »
+10
Hahaha! That phrase "exciting news"! How many times have we seen that now?! It always means the opposite.

« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2024, 06:54 »
0
Surely by this point it's becoming a monopoly...

« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2024, 07:49 »
+5
When you can't grow your core business, acquire another company :) SS announced their Q1 2024 earnings this morning and most of the numbers were lower than Q1 2023. The stock was higher (market hasn't oopened yet) I think because they beat analyst estimates, not so much because anything was really good.

Look at their presentation on why acquiring Envato is good for SS

https://investor.shutterstock.com/static-files/2ec3aa7b-1877-45b1-9be6-3fa663cc64b2

If you look at the chart where they brag it will more than double subscriber numbers, they show it's currently 499k (end of Q1 2024). At the end of 2022 it was 586k. It's more like plugging the hole and trying to avoid further drops...

https://investor.shutterstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/shutterstock-reports-first-quarter-2024-financial-results

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shutterstock-enters-into-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-envato-featuring-envato-elements-the-unlimited-creative-content-subscription-302134019.html

Look at the paid download numbers - down to 35m from 42.7m in Q1 2023, and subscriber revenue down from $90.6m to $83.9m
« Last Edit: May 02, 2024, 08:04 by Jo Ann Snover »

« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2024, 08:14 »
+2
Agree, their solution to "growing the stock photo business" is to buy other companies, because they don't seem to have any ideas how to create real organic growth by themselves.

It is not a bad decision, they consolidate more of the global stock pie for themselves.

Will be interesting to see what they do with the place. Envato is a much smaller company with a smaller library.

Perhaps they will bring in a flood of Shutterstock content. If they do, how will their producers react to having files on an unlimited site?

I have content on envato and I am fine with my results. Will keep adding more content when I start doing normal photos again.

But if a Shutterstock stock flood is coming in, the volume of sales might go down because of the new competition.

We will see.

I don't think this is a major disturbance in the stock force and actually will make Adobe stand out even more with their organic growth and better sales.

« Reply #8 on: May 02, 2024, 08:19 »
+4
That report is blatantly honest - failure to grow the stock business.

Compare with Adobe is enjoying stable growth, no drama, great support, free photoshop/ creative suite for producers, great producer support team.

producers are customers, the old Shutterstock team knew that having thousands of graphic designers who are happy and keep recommending you, is a huge plus.

Would it not have been a lot cheaper, to keep the forums open, to keep a support team going and to keep growing organically instead of wasting money on buying pond5 and envato?

How many years will it take for those investments to pay themselves??

eta:

they spent 240 million on pond5, lets say another 150mio for envato, so there could be around 400mio in aquisition costs.

And so far their deal with pond5 did not bring them any growth, inspite of owning it for 3 years, they are losing customers.

Imagine they had just kept Shutterstock the way it was, used those 400mio to focus on organic growth and add their ai project...where would they be now?





« Last Edit: May 02, 2024, 08:28 by cobalt »

« Reply #9 on: May 02, 2024, 09:26 »
+1
More information published on Photo Archive News. Seems the Envato purchase was $245 million.
https://photoarchivenews.com/news/creative-assets-platform-envato-acquired-by-shutterstock-245-million-cash/

« Reply #10 on: May 02, 2024, 10:33 »
+2
I may have missed some (I did a google search for "shutterstock acquires") but here are Shutterstock's purchases over the years. They haven't acquired Envato yet (Q3 this year according to the press release). SS sold WebDAM Feb 16, 2018

Feb 1, 2024 - Shutterstock Acquires Backgrid Celebrity News Network

May 24, 2023 - Shutterstock acquires Giphy

May 11, 2022 Shutterstock Acquires Pond5 for $210 Million

May 31, 2022 SHUTTERSTOCK ACQUIRES SPLASH NEWS

Sep 10, 2021 Shutterstock Acquires PicMonkey

Jul 27, 2021  - Shutterstock acquires Pattern89, Datasine, and Shotzr

Jan 26, 2021 - Shutterstock acquires the 3D model company TurboSquid

Nov 11, 2020 - Shutterstock acquires AI-driven music platform Amper Music.

Jun 28, 2017 - Shutterstock acquires Flashstock Technology

Sep 6, 2016 - Shutterstock Acquires Iconic Imagery from The Kobal Collection and The Art Archive

Jan 15, 2015 - Shutterstock Acquires Rex Features And PremiumBeat,

Mar 3, 2014 - Shutterstock Acquires Digital Asset Management Service WebDAM

Sep 23, 2009 - Shutterstock Announces Acquisition of BigStockPhoto


« Reply #11 on: May 02, 2024, 10:53 »
+4
ooh boy, exciting news. The support we expect from Envato (I realize your content is what got us started, but we decided you are not suitable - so PFO) will continue under SS.

It is interesting to consider if SS had put more of the $ they used to acquire stuff into treating their contributors better and improving the site and service where they would be now. I think they had a ton of $ from going public and used it to reward the top brass and go on a buying spree. I am guessing it worked ok for them.

Consolidation is not surprising, but I don't see it as a good thing for contributors.

« Reply #12 on: May 02, 2024, 11:30 »
+1
It is a balance of course and in principle growing market share through acquisition can be very strategic and beneficial.

But you must have a basic understanding of client needs and in our case clients and producers are often the same people.

Much worse than not being able to grow the business organically is the severe drop in uploads, especially video uploads.

And then you have to consider that their lack of growth already includes all the customer contracts they bought when taking over other stock companies.

So how bad is it for Shutterstock itself?

So between p5 and envato they spent around 500 million dollars.

I can think of a lot of things you can do with 500 million to grow organically and attract market share.

Buying smaller, specialized collections is a different thing, but p5 and envato, at least in principle, should have similar content to Shutterstock and also mostly the same buyer group, especially p5.

Overall for producers I do not think this will bring a big change.

Adobe changes nothing and keeps growing their business and their uploads from producers keep increasing.

Will be interesting to see what happens next year when ai video becomes really usable and Adobe can start building a huge ai collection.

That will attract a lot of interesting talent, so many people out there wanting to do their own little movies and clips. They have great ideas but no Hollywood budget.

Adobe can position itself as the true indie creative hotspot with that.

They can supply ai stock clips, but also buy a lot of clips to adjust with ai for their needs.

Like with images, Adobe offers both tools and resources and integrates itself smoothly into the workflow.

How will istock and shutterstock compete against that?






« Reply #13 on: May 02, 2024, 11:50 »
+1
That report is blatantly honest - failure to grow the stock business.

Compare with Adobe is enjoying stable growth, no drama, great support, free photoshop/ creative suite for producers, great producer support team.

producers are customers, the old Shutterstock team knew that having thousands of graphic designers who are happy and keep recommending you, is a huge plus.

Would it not have been a lot cheaper, to keep the forums open, to keep a support team going and to keep growing organically instead of wasting money on buying pond5 and envato?

How many years will it take for those investments to pay themselves??

eta:

they spent 240 million on pond5, lets say another 150mio for envato, so there could be around 400mio in aquisition costs.

And so far their deal with pond5 did not bring them any growth, inspite of owning it for 3 years, they are losing customers.

Imagine they had just kept Shutterstock the way it was, used those 400mio to focus on organic growth and add their ai project...where would they be now?

We will never know, and only thing we can do is speculate. An amusing but also irrelevant way of killing some time :-)
All I know is that if they are treating their customers the way they treat their contributors, the outflux of customers is no surprise.
Looking at trustpilot, they seem to have a very bad reputation, but on the other hand, same goes for Adobe and iStock/Getty.

I can also hardly imagine that they bought Envato for their photo or video library, area's in which they already are a market leader.
Envato is more than that, and Shutterstock might want to buy a more dominant position in other area's of the market (so they can screw that part up too :) )

« Reply #14 on: May 03, 2024, 00:45 »
+1
I may have missed some (I did a google search for "shutterstock acquires") but here are Shutterstock's purchases over the years. They haven't acquired Envato yet (Q3 this year according to the press release). SS sold WebDAM Feb 16, 2018

Feb 1, 2024 - Shutterstock Acquires Backgrid Celebrity News Network

May 24, 2023 - Shutterstock acquires Giphy

May 11, 2022 Shutterstock Acquires Pond5 for $210 Million

May 31, 2022 SHUTTERSTOCK ACQUIRES SPLASH NEWS

Sep 10, 2021 Shutterstock Acquires PicMonkey

Jul 27, 2021  - Shutterstock acquires Pattern89, Datasine, and Shotzr

Jan 26, 2021 - Shutterstock acquires the 3D model company TurboSquid

Nov 11, 2020 - Shutterstock acquires AI-driven music platform Amper Music.

Jun 28, 2017 - Shutterstock acquires Flashstock Technology

Sep 6, 2016 - Shutterstock Acquires Iconic Imagery from The Kobal Collection and The Art Archive

Jan 15, 2015 - Shutterstock Acquires Rex Features And PremiumBeat,

Mar 3, 2014 - Shutterstock Acquires Digital Asset Management Service WebDAM

Sep 23, 2009 - Shutterstock Announces Acquisition of BigStockPhoto

This is crazy and they do not think for their contributors.. more than half of the earning just wiped out with their earning model. Shame on them.

« Reply #15 on: May 03, 2024, 06:43 »
+1
Who will they buy next? Any guesses?

« Reply #16 on: May 03, 2024, 07:05 »
0
Who will they buy next? Any guesses?

I think they will be Dreamstime, Depositphotos, 123RF. Getty Images probably not their capitalization is 1.6 billion dollars and that is a lot for Shutterstock.

« Reply #17 on: May 03, 2024, 13:44 »
0
I would guess DepositPhotos, as Dreamstime and 123rf are taking AI images and they don't want that.

« Reply #18 on: May 03, 2024, 14:39 »
+4
I would guess DepositPhotos, as Dreamstime and 123rf are taking AI images and they don't want that.

DepositPhotos was acquired in 2021 by VistaPrint (a subsidiary of Cimpress). Even though their latest quarterly report wasn't great, the Vista section is the biggest part of the company and I can't imagine a sale would be cheap at this point.

In Shutterstock's earnings call yesterday they talked up the continued growth of their data licensing business. That was growing (big percentage but small actual cash) whereas the "Content" revenue was down 10%. To put that in context, the $20m growth in DDS (data licensing) was just about equal to the $20m decline in content revenue - but a 90% increase sounds so much more impressive when talking the business up to investors.

What Shutterstock needs is a huge amount of new (well keyworded) content to grow their data licensing business. I'd take a guess that Deposit Photos is largely an overlap with SS's existing collection and so of no real value to them.

I think they're way off base with their projections for growing the DDS business, largely because big as their library is, it is way too small for many/most of the training uses. From the earnings call:

"On the supply side, to match the demand we are seeing for data, we are focused on growing our base of contributors and the depth and breadth and size of our library. Our contributor base has increased by over 40% to 3.4 million in the past year alone, and our library growth is accelerating, growing 34% to almost 900 million assets in the last 12 months. We have never seen contributors in data grow this fast and we believe that the flywheel is spinning faster. "

Again from the earnings call, they see Envato as a feed into their DDS business as well as revenue from the $16.50 a month unlimited subscriptions:

"The acquisition adds an extremely talented contributor community who have brought a diverse library of 6 million videos, 1 million audio clips, 500,000 design templates, 300,000 3D models, 200,000 graphics and fonts, and 10 million images, all of which have tremendous potential value for both our creative content customers and our data customers."

One of the analyst questions was about a possible deal with Apple (who is still in the starting blocks with regard to AI) and whether that would increase the expected revenue from DDS: "And then on the DDS business, is $60 million still the right number to think about for Computer Vision? There were some rumors that an Apple deal was signed early in the quarter. ". SS wouldn't say anything specific about a deal with Apple.

Paul Hennessy replying to a question talks about Envato and the DDS business:

"On the Envato question, more content. I talked about the growth in content in our core business; more content, diversified content, specific content that we may not have is all great opportunities to grow our data business, and theres interest from data partners in wide varieties of content and as much as we can give them. So were seeing real change in that market where we are wondering if people would be demanding all product types and were actually seeing a level of insatiable desire for a diversity of content types with all sorts of levels of specificity increasing. So were bullish."

Another analyst asked about growth in the contributor base and library (separately from the Envato acquisition) and Hennessy produced this totally content free buzzword salad:

"And regarding the contributors, our content growth, the scale, organic and otherwise, what I can tell you is as our business evolves from purely serving the needs of advertisers and folks that would have more traditional use for our content, as we opened up the aperture to include accepting content for data, the market follows that trend. And so now were seeing demand and supply pouring in, relating to giving us content across content types and across content use cases. So we think that that flywheel spins very, very nicely for in our favor and is actually spinning faster because as we have more content, that theoretically helps our conversion rate because weve got more to offer our customers that are have more traditional use, that creates a broader opportunity for our data buyers."

So now you know! :)

Edited after the US stock market close to add that SSTK (Shutterstock) closed down over 6% at $39.22, pretty close to their 52-week low. I'm guessing the investment community isn't as excited as Mr. Hennessy.

The heady days of a stock price at $121 in October 2021 - courtesy of that "margin optimization" (aka pilfering contributor's royalties) seem to have been unsustainable. Couldn't happen to a more deserving company.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2024, 15:05 by Jo Ann Snover »

« Reply #19 on: May 03, 2024, 15:19 »
+1
Shutterstock's recent acquisition of Envato, touted during their earnings call, is framed as a boost to their data licensing sector. However, this strategy raises concerns about the organic growth of their contributor base and the unique value of new content, as much of Envato's assets may overlap with Shutterstock's existing collection.

Moreover, the evolving AI landscape, highlighted by the development of efficient, smaller AI models like Apple's OpenELM, challenges the notion that larger datasets are essential for effective AI training. These smaller models demonstrate competitive performance and faster speeds on less data, which might reduce the relevance of Shutterstock's strategy to accumulate vast content libraries.

This shift suggests that the future of AI and data utilization may focus more on the strategic use of content rather than merely expanding content volumes, aligning with trends toward data efficiency and privacy.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.14619?utm_campaign=The%20Batch&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--JJp8TjDm54Gh_K_ioKdJM3JIW1F_8yOEjVTgCiAqCEwNuqyyb8UgBGLRpf_elskvBvtPtsfo3MzOS3OS-cz7uaZ8iDA&_hsmi=305230150&utm_content=305228439&utm_source=hs_email

« Reply #20 on: May 03, 2024, 18:49 »
+1
It's concerning that a miserable, failing agency like Shutterstock, who showed so much disregard for their contributors is now getting more of a foothold in the microstock market with this acquisition. Paid for by the many royalty cuts.
We'll have to see what it means in the long run.

« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2024, 01:33 »
+1


Seems they have been sold

Quote
Hi there,
 
We hope this email finds you well.

Were reaching out to share some exciting news. Envato has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Shutterstock, a leading global creative platform. This agreement is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of this calendar year. This agreement marks a significant milestone in our journey, and we wanted to take a moment to let you know what this means for you, our Authors. 
 
Most importantly, Envatos commitment to empowering creatives will continue. The services and support you have come to expect from us, and the relationship we have with you, will remain.
 
We see this as a pivotal moment in Envatos journey and are excited for the future. We have confidence in the alignment of values and the strong strategic fit that underpin this upcoming union between Envato and Shutterstock.
 
We will continue to keep you informed of any important updates that come with this transition.
 
Finally, we want to express our gratitude to you, our authors, for your continued support and dedication to the Envato community. As we move forward, we will continue to listen to the needs of our creative community, build innovative products, and create an environment where your creativity can thrive.
 
If you are interested in finding out more about the agreement, head to the media statement.
 
We look forward to shaping the future of creativity with you.
 
Thanks,

Shutterstock is going bust. Why? well any business is like a restaurant. You have a cook, waiters and so forth. The engine of the business lies the cook, the people in the kitchen. Shutterstock got in to a big argument with us the cooks to the point where they even deleted the famous forums they had due to complaints anger and frustration.

Fast foward to today and the food has started to suck, cooks didn't want to cook right or they're best for them or just quit altogether. As a result complaints from advertising agencies, small design firms, company marketing in house design departments and so forth started to come in and thus it is a company going bust with a really bad reputation.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #22 on: May 04, 2024, 02:52 »
+1
While I'm not disputing that their growth is definitely slowing, there's not really anything in this chart that gives the impression they are ''going bust''.


« Reply #23 on: May 04, 2024, 03:33 »
+1
I agree that the current data doesn't explicitly signal that Shutterstock is "going bust." However, the concern isn't solely about immediate financial decline but rather about the sustainability of their growth strategy. Acquiring companies like Envato without effectively managing and integrating them can lead to long-term issues. There's a pattern where, after such acquisitions, the initial excitement and potential often don't translate into sustained growth or contributor satisfaction. Look at previous acquisitions like Bigstock Photo, and more recently, Pond5 and Gumroadthere are growing frustrations among the communities involved. This strategy might provide short-term boosts but could potentially destabilize the company if not managed with a focus on long-term value and contributor engagement. Essentially, while they're not on the brink of collapse, the foundation they're building on might not be as stable as it seems.

« Reply #24 on: May 04, 2024, 04:07 »
0
While I'm not disputing that their growth is definitely slowing, there's not really anything in this chart that gives the impression they are ''going bust''.

How much of that revenue is "bought" revenue?

And inspite of buying so many customers and client contracts, they are losing business and have a strong drop in uploaded assets.

But I agree, they can probably keep doing this for years.

However I believe if they had stuck with the original team, open forums and direct intensive contact with customers and producers, the graphic designers at the heart of their business, they would have grown a lot more and could have saved themselves hundreds of millions of dollars.

Instead of buying pond5 and envato, they could have invested 500 million into growing their own business.

For the money invested, what returns did they get?


« Reply #25 on: May 04, 2024, 11:44 »
+3
While I'm not disputing that their growth is definitely slowing, there's not really anything in this chart that gives the impression they are ''going bust''.

If you compare their Q1 2019 revenue from licensing content to Q1 2024 - i.e. 5 years ago, where you'd expect to see a lot of growth, especially considering all the companies they've acquired since then - they're essentially flat. $163.3m in 2019 versus $173.8m in 2024

Paid downloads 2019 were 47.2 million versus 35m in 2024. The size of the collection has grown (832m versus 275m). For number of subscribers I have a Q1 2020 number of 209m versus 499m in 2024

They've been trying to plug the growth hole with acquisitions and still end up flat. I noted all the frothy exuberance about the new DDS business in the earnings call; that and Envato are their latest efforts to get back to growth.

At this point they have no more contributor royalties to loot and had better hope one of these other bets pays off


« Reply #26 on: May 04, 2024, 12:11 »
+1
"At this point they have no more contributor royalties to loot and had better hope one of these other bets pays off
"

I wouldn't be so sure of that, royalties can always go lower and the minimum payout can go down to 5 cent or even 1 cent.

« Reply #27 on: May 04, 2024, 14:02 »
+1
Hey everyone, for those of you who also contribute to Envato, theres been an interesting development over there. In a long thread, a CodeCanyon artist has proposed creating a separate artist-run platform, independent of Envato. If this sounds like something youd be interested in, you can reach out to him directly through his profile. This could be a great opportunity for artists looking for more control over their work.

his profile:  https://codecanyon.net/user/migli?_ga=2.34370530.211304898.1714848633-176431728.1713785863
« Last Edit: May 23, 2024, 08:48 by bennu99 »

« Reply #28 on: May 04, 2024, 14:49 »
+3
"At this point they have no more contributor royalties to loot and had better hope one of these other bets pays off"
I wouldn't be so sure of that, royalties can always go lower and the minimum payout can go down to 5 cent or even 1 cent.

I should have phrased that better: Looting contributor royalties more won't give them enough money to fill in the drop in income from operations - the royalties are already so low.

I compared both FY 2023 to 2022 and also Q1 2024 to Q1 2023.

In the FY comparison, income from operations declined 27% over the prior year, to $68.4m. With 153m paid downloads, if they took another $0.05 from contributor royalties from each that would net them $7.65m which would result in $76.05m income from operations and a 19% decline from the previous year.

For Q1 2024 vs Q1 2023, income from operations declined 51% to $16.121m and with 35m paid downloads, taking another $0.05 gets them $1.75m to boost income from operations to $17.871 and only a 46% decline

If SS took $0.08 more from royalties they can improve that to declines of 14% and 42% - better but still not an increase in income.

Doesn't mean they wouldn't try additional royalty cuts if desperate, but there's no easy path to pleasing investors left given how low royalties are already and how much paid downloads have decreased.

« Reply #29 on: May 04, 2024, 22:06 »
0
That is a great and very detailed response, thank you.

But they can just literally cut all royalties paid out in half, couldnt they? Over all plans over all their agencies, including the 60% payout for exclusive p5 content.

I hope they dont, but there is always the incentive for quick money.

« Reply #30 on: May 05, 2024, 02:47 »
+1
I predicted in 2021 that Shutterstock would start to go under in a few years. They have already lost the dominant position they had at that time. Their stock price has collapsed and investors are not seeing any value in their expensive acquisitions (P5, Envato now , etc).

They stabbed in their back contributors in the worst time possible, and the "North" remembers as the saying in the great fantasy series. Many top dog contributors abandoned SS altogether. Sure ...they might increase number of content but....have you seen what is added in the new images and videos.........amateur shots, they can take as many as they want, be larger as Flickr ever was but the great content consumers are going to other agencies where they find what they cannot on SS anymore. And no content data training will avoid the shipwreck.

So I want to give a prophecy again. In under 3 years a big dog like Microsoft , Google, Meta will swallow up SS and all their content at a bargain price. We might see stock well under 20$ at that time.

« Reply #31 on: May 05, 2024, 06:59 »
+1
"At this point they have no more contributor royalties to loot and had better hope one of these other bets pays off
"

I wouldn't be so sure of that, royalties can always go lower and the minimum payout can go down to 5 cent or even 1 cent.

Or even dare I say $0.00  :(

« Reply #32 on: May 05, 2024, 11:23 »
+2
Of all the acquisitions over the years has any actually seen growth after the fact? It's like they're buying agencies only to stifle them slowly. Shutterstock stopped innovating a long time ago and focused solely on putting more and more weight on the camel's back. One of these days it's going to be the final straw, fellow camels

« Reply #33 on: May 06, 2024, 09:49 »
0
I predicted in 2021 that Shutterstock would start to go under in a few years. They have already lost the dominant position they had at that time. Their stock price has collapsed and investors are not seeing any value in their expensive acquisitions (P5, Envato now , etc).

They stabbed in their back contributors in the worst time possible, and the "North" remembers as the saying in the great fantasy series. Many top dog contributors abandoned SS altogether. Sure ...they might increase number of content but....have you seen what is added in the new images and videos.........amateur shots, they can take as many as they want, be larger as Flickr ever was but the great content consumers are going to other agencies where they find what they cannot on SS anymore. And no content data training will avoid the shipwreck.

So I want to give a prophecy again. In under 3 years a big dog like Microsoft , Google, Meta will swallow up SS and all their content at a bargain price. We might see stock well under 20$ at that time.

If you keep predicting the same things maybe one of these years you'll be right. So far you are 100% wrong about SS going out of business. None of those will buy SS as the Micro market is dying. They would want something that has a future.

« Reply #34 on: May 08, 2024, 09:47 »
+1

If you keep predicting the same things maybe one of these years you'll be right. So far you are 100% wrong about SS going out of business. None of those will buy SS as the Micro market is dying. They would want something that has a future.

Stock price has fallen from 125$ only a couple of years ago to 38 now.......and it will keep sinking........it's game over for them........

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #35 on: May 13, 2024, 14:00 »
+1

If you keep predicting the same things maybe one of these years you'll be right. So far you are 100% wrong about SS going out of business. None of those will buy SS as the Micro market is dying. They would want something that has a future.

Stock price has fallen from 125$ only a couple of years ago to 38 now.......and it will keep sinking........it's game over for them........

It was always a $35 stock, IMHO, but all the blue hairs and speculators were taken in by the potential gains. It's the same as Crypto. Investors need to get on the train and convince other people, after that, that the stock is going up and has growth potential. Then the new people, buy and raise the value. Eventually the number of larger fools, dwindles and the price falls, people get out with some profit and the price falls.

Some people will see the price dropping and buy, which brings up the perceived value again, and the little bounce makes things look good. Then it drops, and financial reports show the flaws, and the price drops more. Until the value reaches the real value, instead of the inflated potential value. In an optimistic world, SS pays decent dividends and is a $40 stock.

The ride is over, unless they come up with something new. Just buying to control all aspects of the market, isn't going to make them a hero again.

The last peak was Feb 2023 when it was at $80. All time peak was $125 in 2021.

But, no SSTK isn't going out of business. Yes, the game is over. They have taken all the profits from the contributors and dropped prices and image values, to the floor. I don't think they can go any lower. (but I've been wrong about that about Microstock, in the past)


 

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