MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Author Topic: Shutterstock To Announce Third Quarter 2012 Earnings Release on Nov 15th  (Read 16566 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

« on: November 13, 2012, 16:24 »
0
Read all about it here;

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/shutterstock-to-announce-third-quarter-2012-earnings-release-on-november-15-2012-20121108-01788

Judging by my own sales it should make for interesting reading.


« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2012, 07:44 »
+1
Results are in;

http://www.itnewsonline.com/showprnstory.php?storyid=244621

Revenue for 2012 is now projected at about $165M, up from $121M in 2011. SS have increased their expectations for 2013 to about $206M.




velocicarpo

« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2012, 08:09 »
0
Sooooo....where is our raise?

« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2012, 08:09 »
0
sounds like a healthy prospering company.

Congratulations Shutterstock, and you have not annoyed 1000snds of contributors in the process.

« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2012, 08:15 »
0
thanks for sharing gostwyck! ;)

rubyroo

« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2012, 08:28 »
0
Yes, thanks!  I'm no expert on these things, so if there's any cause for concern in there, I can't see it.  It all sounds good to me  ;D

Congratulations Jon and SS.  I hope you'll carry on as you are (ever upward!) and not start trying to fix anything that "ain't broke". :)

Thanks for all the dosh. :)

« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2012, 08:37 »
+2
Sooooo....where is our raise?

Buy some stock! I reckon Jon is keeping prices stable, operating for steady growth rather than immediate profits, and watching customers of IS, FT and DT come to SS. When the time is right he'll be able to increase prices and our commissions.

No point in "doing an iStock" and destroying a healthy business with mismanagement and greed.

velocicarpo

« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2012, 09:07 »
0
Sooooo....where is our raise?

Buy some stock! I reckon Jon is keeping prices stable, operating for steady growth rather than immediate profits, and watching customers of IS, FT and DT come to SS. When the time is right he'll be able to increase prices and our commissions.

No point in "doing an iStock" and destroying a healthy business with mismanagement and greed.

Well, that doesn`t mean they have to raise their prices. I know you are a fanboy of SS, but if a company is making more Profit on the goods we supply I think a raise for us would be a good thing.

« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2012, 09:39 »
+4
Well, that doesn`t mean they have to raise their prices. I know you are a fanboy of SS, but if a company is making more Profit on the goods we supply I think a raise for us would be a good thing.

I'm a 'fan boy' of any well-managed microstock agency that delivers steady growth to my income over several years, doesn't cut commissions, doesn't do sneaky currency exchanges, doesn't lie to us and doesn't do dodgy claw-backs for supposed credit-card fraud. Hmmm *thinks really hard* __ that'll just be SS then.

« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2012, 10:58 »
+2
Well, that doesn`t mean they have to raise their prices. I know you are a fanboy of SS, but if a company is making more Profit on the goods we supply I think a raise for us would be a good thing.

I'm a 'fan boy' of any well-managed microstock agency that delivers steady growth to my income over several years, doesn't cut commissions, doesn't do sneaky currency exchanges, doesn't lie to us and doesn't do dodgy claw-backs for supposed credit-card fraud. Hmmm *thinks really hard* __ that'll just be SS then.




Ok, we make $$ @ ss but lets be real.

STOP thanking them for the crumbs that fall off the table.

~~~~ss philosophy: start them with low pmts and keep them low, no raises for the masses!

What, we should say thank you for paying us 25c a dl!!!!!

why don't u do the math, figure out how much you made for the year and how much you made for ss for the year.

then tell me u r happy.

and what do you think they are going to do now that they r a public co.??????

Better get out the KY and bend over :'(

you bunch of baffoons.

Oh yes ss we love you, please can i become exclusive with you so that u can rape me on a daily time schedule and i cant say ouch.

Please can i, can i, P L E A S E! ! ! ! ! ! ! 



« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2012, 11:39 »
0


I really want to see IS balance ....

« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2012, 11:52 »
0
Sooooo....where is our raise?

I doubt there will be a raise anytime soon.

« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2012, 12:01 »
0
$204-208 millions projection for 2013... that means one thing: increased sales and revenue ( even at the same commissions ).

« Reply #13 on: November 16, 2012, 12:05 »
+1
Revenue per download = $    2.26

So assuming everyone gets 38 cents per download we're officially at 16% commission?



« Last Edit: November 16, 2012, 12:09 by click_click »

« Reply #14 on: November 16, 2012, 12:08 »
0
Revenue per download = $    2.26

So assuming everyone gets 38 cents per download we're officially at 16% commission?

 :o

It's more like 30% or $.67 a download. That's about what I average. Still not great though.

$204-208 millions projection for 2013... that means one thing: increased sales and revenue ( even at the same commissions ).

Or just smaller slices of a larger pie.  ;)
« Last Edit: November 16, 2012, 12:10 by cthoman »

« Reply #15 on: November 16, 2012, 12:12 »
0
It's more like 30% or $.67 a download. That's about what I average. Still not great though.

Yeah you're right. Although I'd say not the the majority at SS is getting 38 cents either...

« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2012, 12:15 »
0
and are u saying that commision if good?


traveler1116

« Reply #17 on: November 16, 2012, 12:31 »
0
$204-208 millions projection for 2013... that means one thing: increased sales and revenue ( even at the same commissions ).
It's good for SS.  How many images did they add last year, about 25%?  (weekly figure was 87,000, over 1 year that's 4.5million or over 25%)  If the trend continues 25% more images and 25% more money(they hope) to go around looks to me like a wash.

« Reply #18 on: November 16, 2012, 12:55 »
0
By the way, when will SS set a new lifetime earnings level over the 10 000$ ?
like 20 000, or 25000 or 30000 i don't know...
What do you think ?

« Reply #19 on: November 16, 2012, 15:05 »
0
Well, that doesn`t mean they have to raise their prices. I know you are a fanboy of SS, but if a company is making more Profit on the goods we supply I think a raise for us would be a good thing.

I'm a 'fan boy' of any well-managed microstock agency that delivers steady growth to my income over several years, doesn't cut commissions, doesn't do sneaky currency exchanges, doesn't lie to us and doesn't do dodgy claw-backs for supposed credit-card fraud. Hmmm *thinks really hard* __ that'll just be SS then.




Ok, we make $$ @ ss but lets be real.

STOP thanking them for the crumbs that fall off the table.

~~~~ss philosophy: start them with low pmts and keep them low, no raises for the masses!

What, we should say thank you for paying us 25c a dl!!!!!

why don't u do the math, figure out how much you made for the year and how much you made for ss for the year.

then tell me u r happy.

and what do you think they are going to do now that they r a public co.??????

Better get out the KY and bend over :'(

you bunch of baffoons.

Oh yes ss we love you, please can i become exclusive with you so that u can rape me on a daily time schedule and i cant say ouch.

Please can i, can i, P L E A S E! ! ! ! ! ! !

Where do you get 25c from? My average at SS this month is running at 84c. Do I think that's good? Well, due to the massive volume, it can certainly be profitable. When I shoot a series I hope to have recovered the cost within the first month or two with sales at SS alone. All sales after that and all income from other agencies is pure profit. All my gear was paid for years ago and I deliberately operate with minimal overhead __ just the way microstock was supposed to work. It's maybe not a formula that's going to work for everyone or every subject matter but, if you enjoy it as I do, it sure beats working for a living.

If you actually read the financial data on SS I think you'll find that contributors collectively probably make far more actual profit than SS. Off the top of my head I think SS made about $11M profit last year on sales of $120M. That's less than 10%. No matter how much I stretch out my own expenses on my tax form I struggle to keep the profitability of my own one-man business below 85%. The truth, no matter how much you wish to deny it, is that SS distributes far more money to contributors than it retains in profit. How profitable each contributor is, after expenses, is down to their own decisions and skills.

« Reply #20 on: November 16, 2012, 16:04 »
0
These figures hardly show an industry in terminal decline as many suggest. Further polarisation maybe?

« Reply #21 on: November 16, 2012, 20:33 »
0
if microatock sites were farmers.....

Mr. microstock~~~~hey Bill would you like to help me harvest my 20.000 acre potato field, i will give u a 1lb sack of potatoes for every acre u pick?

dumb ass us~~~~~~~~~Geeeee whiiz yes id love to!!! (thinks to himself whiz ima gona b a farmer, Yiihaaaa!)

Mr. microstoc~~~~~thanks Bill for breaking your back bending over picking the potatoes out of the ground all day long. even though I'm taking all the risk operating the farm and your just getting potatoes for free basically. Id like to do you a little favor cause your sooo valuable to me. I'm gona give you these FREE 250 moomoo-cards but u gota pay the shipping! Think of all the ppl you can impress telling them you are now an official farmer. lucky you having a nice boss like me!

dumb ass us~~~~~~~~~~oh wow, thank you, thank you sooooo much! I'm not worthy.

us~~~~~~~~~~(thingking) what a nice guy that Mr microstock man is! you know what ima gona do, ima gona go out and buy me one of them thar new fangled machines (by Nikon that costs 6k) that u drive around in and it picks up the potatoes for you. now that i got a few sacks of potatoes, i can use some as a deposit! then next year i can make MORE $$$$$$$$$$!

Mr. microstock~~~~at home relaxing with a drink (thinking): man i shure did find a huge bunch of suckers out there in this world, theres one born every min. cant believe i got them to harvest my fields and only payed them a few potato sacks each. man life is good

dumb ass us a t home~~~~~~hunny give me  some paper and a pensssiel, ima gona do some maths and figure out my RPR (return per potato) ima made operating this here new biznes. and how much more i can make once i buy that new shinny Nikon potato picker contraption. din i tellya baby stick with me ima goin places. I think ima ready to quit my job at the coal mine!!!!!!
« Last Edit: November 16, 2012, 20:36 by ouchie »

« Reply #22 on: November 16, 2012, 23:03 »
0
...
« Last Edit: November 16, 2012, 23:06 by gostwyck »


« Reply #24 on: November 17, 2012, 15:54 »
+4
Revenue per download = $    2.26

So assuming everyone gets 38 cents per download we're officially at 16% commission?

 :o

It's more like 30% or $.67 a download. That's about what I average. Still not great though.

$204-208 millions projection for 2013... that means one thing: increased sales and revenue ( even at the same commissions ).

Or just smaller slices of a larger pie.  ;)

So the last couple of months, my average has been around 80 cents per download, which is about 35%, and given the volume SS is able to generate, I think that's more than "not great". As long as the SS share is in part being spent on growing the business (versus just paying off private equity) I'm happy for them to keep a big chunk in return for all their work on flogging my stuff.

The CFO's statement said their cost of revenue was 38%, the bulk of which was contributor payments, so that seems to match up reasonably well with my numbers. They say they have 35K contributors, but I'm guessing that it's like other agencies where there's a huge pool of people who contribute and sell very little that account for the bulk of that number.

I read the transcript of the earnings call and there were several things that I liked in there.

They are increasing their efforts to reach large companies. Jon noted that 70% of Fortune 500 companies had at least one SS account, but spending with SS was a small fraction of those companies' total image spending. They want to increase that, and as long as that isn't done via discounting (elsewhere the COO talked about keeping the prices flat for subscriptions, which I think is code language for not discounting them) that seems like very good news for contributors.

"On the sales side, where we are just getting started penetrating agencies and large enterprises, we had our best quarter ever. On the agency side, we signed our third global master service agreement with a large agency network, and we grew adoption and usage across all of our agencies. On the enterprise side, we signed more deals than ever and we also expanded our selling footprint by adding new team members in the US and Europe, including our first sales office outside of headquarters."

I don't think I know what he's talking about with agency networks - is that where the growth in OD and single/other sales is coming from? Does anyone else have a clue what this is referring to.

As IS has closed the Berlin office, it's nice to see SS adding people in Europe.

Regarding the comment above that revenue only grew in line with growth in the colleciton, the CFO said that revenue for Q3 2012 was up 36% (39% in "constant currency terms"). The downloads in Q3 2012 were 18.7 million, up 26% from Q3 2011. In other words, revenue is growing faster than the growth in downloads or the library, which is good.

They've added staff (up 35% since the beginning of 2012) but 40% of the additions have been in their products and technology group "...folks that sort of build products that we deliver to customers..." according to the CFO. R&D spending is up too.

From the Q&A, the CFO made a comment about subscription growth versus on demand: "And what that has been generally is the subscription plan, pricing plan has grown a little bit more slowly than our overall growth, and on-demand growing a little bit faster, and that has continued to drive the mix shift, but we have seen consistent and steady growth from both overtime. We expect that to continue."

I'm happy to see more and more on demand as that is going to continue to drive up our returns. In response to another question about price increases, this was the answer: "As we have mentioned, we have held our pricing for our products flat over not only Q3, but really over the last few years, because our focus is really on increasing share. We are the significant price advantage to some of our competition and we believe thats the right place for us to be right now. Long term, again, I think that we have talked about, there is probably opportunity, but we are very focused on increasing our penetration at this point."

This seems very much like amazon - amass a big market share and then you can focus on improving your returns. Clearly Getty will want to fight them on this, but I'm hoping that SS holds them off (given that I think that's my best chance of seeing some of the money; Getty has too many vultures to pay off).

On a question about the 2013 projections which beat the analyst's models, it included this lovely phrase "...how you balanced your 2013 outlook, given whats been a little bit sort of a mixed bag from some of the agencies..." A little bit of a sort of a mix bag??? funny!


All in all a very positive report, IMO


 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
2 Replies
3192 Views
Last post November 09, 2013, 16:58
by Pauws99
90 Replies
32279 Views
Last post February 25, 2014, 12:56
by Batman
6 Replies
5000 Views
Last post July 25, 2020, 14:03
by Uncle Pete
2 Replies
2864 Views
Last post April 26, 2021, 12:37
by PixelsAway
6 Replies
3391 Views
Last post April 21, 2023, 22:12
by Sean Locke Photography

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors