Leading Shutterstock Contributors

At the end of 2016 Shutterstock had 190,000 contributors. By May 2017 that number was up to 225,000 and in September when they launched Shutterstock Custom Content they said they had 250,000 contributors. Presumably the number was even higher at the end of the year.

Early in 2017 I discovered Microstock.top that tracks Shutterstock leading contributors with more than 999 images in the collection. At the end of February there were 14,373 and the combined total images of these contributors was 91,700,000. At the time Shutterstock had 119,000,000 images in its collection so 77% of total images were supplied by about 7.5% of Shutterstock’s total contributors.

At the beginning of 2018 I took another look. Now, there are 17,739 contributors and these contributors have a total of 122,143,734. That is now about 71% of the total image in the collection. The number of contributors is up 23% and the number of images is up 33% since last February. The percent of contributors with more than 999 images remains about the same.



It is also worth noting that while the number of contributors and images are growing dramatically, the number of downloads has grown a little less than 2% in 2017 compared to 2016.

The breakdown of these top contributors is as follows:

2	more then 1 million images
120	between 100,000 and 1 million
144	between 50,000 and 100,000
619	between 20,000 and 50,000
1,342	between 10,000 and 20,000
2,885	between 10,000 and 5,000
12,629	between 5,000 and 1,000

About 2% of total contributors each had more than 10,000 images in their collections. The total images of these 5,112 contributors was 71,647,381 or 42% of the collection. In all likelihood much more than 42% of Shutterstock’s gross revenue is generated by these less than 1% of contributors.

Given the sizes of their collections these contributors have a significant advantage over those with smaller collections. Given their volume they are able to get a better understanding of what specific subjects, and treatments of those subjects, tend to sell and which ones don’t. Then they can concentrate on producing more of the kind of subjects that are in demand and not bother producing more what no one seems to want to buy.



A few with large collections may not be doing as well as the number of images might indicate. For example, about one-third of the contributors are illustrators and vector artists who produce illustrations and backgrounds. In some cases, they may produce more than 100 very slight variations of a basic concept. Chances are only a very small percentage of these variations actually sell. In many cases any customer with Photoshop experience could take any one of the versions offered and easily apply whatever variation the customers desired. Having all these variations available may save the customer a minute or so in time, but it may also make it much more difficult and time consuming for the customer to review all the truly different and unique approaches to solving the same problem.

A few of the with large collections have been provided by entertainment photographers who earn most of their income from assignments to cover red carpet and other entertainment events. They tend to upload virtually every frame they shoot. While there are some secondary sales of this type of subject matter the demand tends to be very low compared to the demand 24 hours to a week after the image was shot. While the average annual revenue per image in the Shutterstock collection is about $2.82, of which the photographer should earn about $0.78 per image in royalty, one entertainment photographer with a huge collection told me earlier this year that annually he only earns about $0.05 per image in the collection.

Where Contributors Work

Another interesting fact is the number of contributors in each country with more then 999 images in their collections. On the 17739 contributors in this group only 76% listed a country of residence so this analysis is not totally accurate, but it probably gives us a representative idea of where the leading contributors work.

There is at least one contributor from 137 different countries. The 105 countries listed below have 2 or more contributors.

Country	supplier	Country	supplier	Country	supplier
Thailand	2547	Portugal	55	Uruguay	6
Russia Federation	2107	Israel	54	Uzbekistan	6
Ukraine	1849	Switzerland	51	Ecuador	5
United States	778	Taiwan	50	Korea, Dem. People's Republic	5
Germany	449	South Africa	49	Malta	5
Italy	356	Austria	48	Chile	4
Belarus	343	Greece	46	Qatar	4
Poland	341	Croatia	42	Saudi Arabia	4
United Kingdom	328	Slovenia	37	Sri Lanka	4
Spain	300	Belgium	36	Venezuela	4
Czech Republic	257	Finland	35	Yugoslavia	4
Serbia	224	South Korea	35	Bangladesh	3
Romania	205	New Zealand	32	Cambodia	3
Japan	202	Vietnam	32	Canary Islands	3
Canada	196	Hong Kong	31	Costa Rica	3
Andorra	182	Denmark	29	Cuba	3
Malaysia	160	Bosnia and Herzegovina	25	Monaco	3
Indonesia	158	Philippines	25	Morocco	3
Turkey	129	Norway	21	Reunion	3
China	125	Ireland	20	Bahrain	2
Netherlands	125	Mexico	20	Christmas Island	2
France	124	Pakistan	20	Cocos (Keeling) Island	2
Latvia	114	Colombia	18	Guatemala	2
Australia	112	Macedonia	18	Iran	2
India	97	Singapore	18	Jamaica	2
Hungary	86	Argentina	17	Jordan	2
Bulgaria	82	Armenia	15	Kyrgyzstan	2
Moldova	77	Georgia	14	Lao People's Republic	2
Azerbaijan	75	United Arab Emirates	14	Lebanon	2
Estonia	67	Cyprus	10	Nepal	2
Lithuania	66	Egypt	9	Palau	2
Slovakia	66	Montenegro	8	Panama	2
Kazakhstan	65	Antarctica	6	Puerto Rico	2
Brazil	57	Iceland	6	San Marino	2
Sweden	56	Luxembourg	6	Tajikiistan	2

In March we published a country-by-country breakdown for various parts of the world which showed that a high percentage of the images are being produced in low cost-of-living countries in Eastern Europe and Asia.

The chart below shows the top 20 countries with the most contributors, the combined total images these contributors have in the collection and the average pre contributor for each country. The overall average per contributor for these top 20 is 6,331.

	Contributors	Total Images	Average
Thailand	2547	11,643,263	4,571
Russia Federation	2107	12,724,587	6,039
Ukraine	1849	13,676,567	7,397
United States	778	5,555,417	7,141
Germany	449	2,443,154	5,441
Italy	356	2,016,941	5,666
Belarus	343	2,178,547	6,351
Poland	341	2,808,970	8,237
United Kingdom	328	2,506,614	7,642
Spain	300	2,245,242	7,484
Czech Republic	257	1,420,093	5,526
Serbia	224	1,192,295	5,323
Romania	205	2,397,437	11,695
Japan	202	1,295,444	6,413
Canada	196	1,339,199	6,833
Andorra	182	1,859,199	10,215
Malaysia	160	886,471	5,540
Indonesia	158	1,063,630	6,732
Turkey	129	1,142,037	8,853
China	125	739,970	5,920
	11,236	71,135,077