https://seekingalpha.com/pr/16984811-shutterstock-reports-third-quarter-2017-financial-results

Ouch

'Paid downloads increased 2%'
'Image collection expanded 52%'

Nail on the head....SS doing OK but very painful for contributors. Luckily a high proportion of that 52% seems unsellable as my sales are holding up better than I would expect given that growth in content.

But they've made Wall Street happy because the earnings beat expectations - lower profits, but they were slightly higher than the forecast. The earnings call transcript later should be interesting - although in general the analyst questions are so clueless and toothless that I shouldn't get too excited

Share price increase by around 14% today and forecast... "Shutterstock expects full-year revenue in the range of $535 million to $545 million."

Shutterstock, Inc. (SSTK)
39.23+4.98 (+14.54%)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shutterstock-tops-street-3q-forecasts-111923608.html

Share price increase by around 14% today and forecast... "Shutterstock expects full-year revenue in the range of $535 million to $545 million."

Shutterstock, Inc. (SSTK)
39.23+4.98 (+14.54%)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shutterstock-tops-street-3q-forecasts-111923608.html

I see, the earnings are down, the site is full of spam images, and the price of the stock went up. This explains why I'm in stock and not the stock market. I can't understand why people would push the price up and buy shares, when the company growth is slowing. Oh the hype is there's a still untapped market for more sales. I say, there is a limit to the glut, worse is, we're the ones who suffer with less sales.

Motley Fool story is generally upbeat

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/31/shutterstock-invests-for-the-future.aspx

Not comparing SS to amazon, but for years amazon lost masses amounts of money but sold a story to Wall St that they liked. At some point, if you can't produce results the stock will be punished, but investing for future growth is a line the financial folks will buy.

Analysts haven't looked at all the image spam in the collection...

Theres a lot of IT companies based on an assumption about future growth even Facebook and Mobile phone usage are beginning to show the party might be over. Expect some big falls.

Jim Cramer actually described SS's Q3 as a "blowout" quarter. The interview is pretty hyperbolic, but only 3-ish minutes

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/shutterstock-ceo-were-going-see-225700888.html

Downloads are up only slightly, but the revenue per download rose by 11%.

That's quite a big rise.

As for the massive increase in images in the collection: well, the problem for the company of that is mainly about the cost of storage. Does it cost 50% more to store 50% more images? Probably not.

Perhaps Shutterstock is spending less on inspecting images to reduce costs?

I don't think quality control is really an issue. Few people, I suspect, look beyond the first few pages of results. As long as there isn't too much keyword spamming, then I doubt the massive increase in images really makes much difference to customers -- other than being a selling point.

I wonder how long before we see the first billion-image agency.

Jim Cramer actually described SS's Q3 as a "blowout" quarter. The interview is pretty hyperbolic, but only 3-ish minutes

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/shutterstock-ceo-were-going-see-225700888.html

Now that's a bad sign. Cramer makes great television, but gives poor investment advice.

If Cramer thinks something is doing well, then there's a good chance (based on his record) that the investment is about to tank.

A flavo(u)r of what investment professionals think about him.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-statistical-look-at-jim-cramers-skill-level/

Quote from: KuriousKat on October 31, 2017, 06:10

https://seekingalpha.com/pr/16984811-shutterstock-reports-third-quarter-2017-financial-results

Ouch

'Paid downloads increased 2%'
'Image collection expanded 52%'

And revenue per download rose 11%.

It's true that my RPD has increased by roughly this amount. Just a shame that increase  doesn't come remotely close to compensating for the 40%+ drop in downloads that many of us have experienced over the last 18 months. 

Quote from: KuriousKat on November 01, 2017, 03:14

It's true that my RPD has increased by roughly this amount. Just a shame that increase  doesn't come remotely close to compensating for the 40%+ drop in downloads that many of us have experienced over the last 18 months.

Interesting. The overall number of downloads is up slightly, so that suggests that the number of contributors has increased, so the downloads are spread around among more people.

I'm not disputing that, (although and increase of downloads suggest an increase in purchasers rather than contributors), just pointing out that despite an increase in RPD, a 52% increase in the image collection against a 2% increase in paid downloads can ultimately only translate into a downturn for contributors - hence my 'ouch' comment.

As a business model, this is unsustainable, so it's going to be interesting to see what their next strategy will be, (assuming they have one). I'm struggling to decide whether they are looking at the long game or are just fighting fires.

Quote from: namussi on November 01, 2017, 03:16

Quote from: KuriousKat on November 01, 2017, 03:14

It's true that my RPD has increased by roughly this amount. Just a shame that increase  doesn't come remotely close to compensating for the 40%+ drop in downloads that many of us have experienced over the last 18 months.

Interesting. The overall number of downloads is up slightly, so that suggests that the number of contributors has increased, so the downloads are spread around among more people.

I'm not disputing that, (although and increase of downloads suggest an increase in purchasers rather than contributors), just pointing out that despite an increase in RPD, a 52% increase in the image collection against a 2% increase in paid downloads can ultimately only translate into a downturn for contributors - hence my 'ouch' comment.

As a business model, this is unsustainable, so it's going to be interesting to see what their next strategy will be, (assuming they have one). I'm struggling to decide whether they are looking at the long game or are just fighting fires.

Unsustainable to who though? Sadly it works for SS

Quote from: KuriousKat on November 01, 2017, 07:16

Quote from: namussi on November 01, 2017, 03:16

Quote from: KuriousKat on November 01, 2017, 03:14

It's true that my RPD has increased by roughly this amount. Just a shame that increase  doesn't come remotely close to compensating for the 40%+ drop in downloads that many of us have experienced over the last 18 months.

Interesting. The overall number of downloads is up slightly, so that suggests that the number of contributors has increased, so the downloads are spread around among more people.

I'm not disputing that, (although and increase of downloads suggest an increase in purchasers rather than contributors), just pointing out that despite an increase in RPD, a 52% increase in the image collection against a 2% increase in paid downloads can ultimately only translate into a downturn for contributors - hence my 'ouch' comment.

As a business model, this is unsustainable, so it's going to be interesting to see what their next strategy will be, (assuming they have one). I'm struggling to decide whether they are looking at the long game or are just fighting fires.

Unsustainable to who though? Sadly it works for SS

Correct!  we keep hearing the same old bull every quarter while contributors are just getting poorer. There used to be about 100 members keeping that site alive now theyre all gone or moved on and there is nobody courageous enough to point out that many of us built that site.