Adobe Stock Photos to Close

Posted on 2/4/2008 by Julia Dudnik Stern | Printable Version | Comments (0)



As of April 1, Adobe is discontinuing operations of its stock-photo service. The announcement is not surprising; late last year, the head of Adobe Stock Photos told The Stock Asylum that the service was about to undergo a major review.

Originally launched in 2005, the service struck fear into many a stock distributor. Nobody else offered in-application support for image search and purchase. The service still does not exist. Nobody else had access to Adobe's prime, pre-qualified client base of graphic designers and art directors already using its software. In addition, Adobe offered access to premium image brands, including Blend, Digital Vision, Masterfile and Photodisc.

Instead, Adobe has decided to focus its energies elsewhere. The demise of what looked like a winning business model offers stock providers an important lesson.

Though Adobe Stock Photos was supposed to make designers' lives easier, it did not. The company neglected to offer key features and services available through other stock providers. Lack of live, human support was the most notable, followed closely by supporting only credit-card transactions and not offering credit terms.



In addition, Adobe Stock Photos was limited to royalty-free images. The service launched at a time of market-wide transformation of this licensing model. Increased competition and volatile pricing may have contributed to its lack of profitability. There is no doubt that these factors contributed to the decision to stop competing in this already crowded niche.

Now, Adobe customers will have to go through the procedure of uninstalling the service. Adobe Stock Photos will remain operational for Adobe Bridge users until March 3, when search and comp-download features will be disabled.


Copyright © 2008 Julia Dudnik Stern. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Comments

Be the first to comment below.

Post Comment

Please log in or create an account to post comments.

Stay Connected

Sign up to receive email notification when new stories are posted.

Follow Us

Free Stuff

Stock Photo Pricing: The Future
In the last two years I have written a lot about stock photo pricing and its downward slide. If you have time over the holidays you may want to review some of these stories as you plan your strategy ...
Read More
Future Of Stock Photography
If you’re a photographer that counts on the licensing of stock images to provide a portion of your annual income the following are a few stories you should read. In the past decade stock photography ...
Read More
Blockchain Stories
The opening session at this year’s CEPIC Congress in Berlin on May 30, 2018 is entitled “Can Blockchain be applied to the Photo Industry?” For those who would like to know more about the existing blo...
Read More
2017 Stories Worth Reviewing
The following are links to some 2017 and early 2018 stories that might be worth reviewing as we move into the new year.
Read More
Stories Related To Stock Photo Pricing
The following are links to stories that deal with stock photo pricing trends. Probably the biggest problem the industry has faced in recent years has been the steady decline in prices for the use of ...
Read More
Stock Photo Prices: The Future
This story is FREE. Feel free to pass it along to anyone interested in licensing their work as stock photography. On October 23rd at the DMLA 2017 Conference in New York there will be a panel discuss...
Read More
Important Stock Photo Industry Issues
Here are links to recent stories that deal with three major issues for the stock photo industry – Revenue Growth Potential, Setting Bottom Line On Pricing and Future Production Sources.
Read More
Recent Stories – Summer 2016
If you’ve been shooting all summer and haven’t had time to keep up with your reading here are links to a few stories you might want to check out as we move into the fall. To begin, be sure to complet...
Read More
Corbis Acquisition by VCG/Getty Images
This story provides links to several stories that relate to the Visual China Group (VCG) acquisition of Corbis and the role Getty Images has been assigned in the transfer of Corbis assets to the Gett...
Read More
Finding The Right Image
Many think search will be solved with better Metadata. While metadata is important, there are limits to how far it can take the customer toward finding the right piece of content. This story provides...
Read More

More from Free Stuff