Shutterstock has announced the launch of its new self-serve API subscription plans. For the first time, developers, startups, and small and mid-sized businesses can build products and features that seamlessly integrate Shutterstock’s image collection and enable in-app image reselling, providing an additional revenue stream for customers when their end-users license and download images.
The developer/business will pay Shutterstock its standard prices, but is allowed charge the use of the app up to 120% of what they pay Shutterstock. See
here.
Initially, self-service API user will only be able to access 1 million of the more than 260 million images in the Shutterstock collection. That number is expected to rise to about 15 million. This collection has been “curated” based on the general search queries and interests of this sector. According to Shutterstock the collection includes, “many of the filter categories i.e. people (family, work, sports), nature, business etc. The collection features a broad mix of images that may have some downloads already, have no downloads or are popular. The developer team focused on having a balance across all categories with a goal of surfacing relevant and suitable images.”
Presumably, such a small, select collection would include a high percentage of images that have been downloaded in the past. Wide use of this API could generate additional sales for images that are already popular, but might reduce the chance that new images or unpopular images would be seen or sell.
“With more than 10,000 developers already building applications using Shutterstock’s high-quality content and innovative search technology, there is a clear demand for increased access and support to further serve our growing community of developers, startups and small and mid-sized businesses,” said Alex Reynolds, Shutterstock’s General Manager of Platform Solutions. “The self-serve API subscription plans empower anyone to easily integrate Shutterstock content and tools into their products and applications at any time and from anywhere.”
Self-serve API features include:
- the ability to preview, license, and resell images, providing a new revenue stream to developers and businesses
- one million royalty-free images, growing to more than 15 million images
- advanced search capabilities including granular search filters, robust metadata, conditional queries, and support for 21 languages
- free access to test Shutterstock’s API image search and image preview
The self-serve API is the latest offering in Shutterstock’s ongoing commitment to deliver a global creative platform that empowers customers with compelling content, and innovative tools and services. The existing Shutterstock API powers native integrations with leading companies such as Google, Facebook, IBM, Wix and more.
Learn more about the self-serve API offering
here.