Will Adobe offer a tool that makes it possible for its Illustrator and InDesign customers to discover if the images they find on microstock sites (particularly Shutterstock or iStock) are also available at Fotolia where they can be purchased for much less?
Yesterday, I examined some of
Adobe’s options and concluded that it is unlikely Adobe will be able to design a subscription offer that would be appealing enough to Creative Cloud (CC) users to convince them to switch to Fotolia from their present source of stock imagery. On the other hand, if they focus on convincing CC users of the economic advantage of going to Fotolia to purchase the single images they need, and make it easy for them to find the images they want there, Adobe might have a winning strategy.
Consider the gross revenue generated from 100,000 download at each of these three sites.
| |
Image Pack Size |
Cost To |
Total Cost for |
| |
|
Download |
100,000 DLs |
| Fotolia |
Cost to DL 25 XXL files |
$140 |
$560,000 |
| Shutterstock |
Cost to DL 25 files, any size |
$229 |
$916,000 |
iStock
|
Cost to DL 24 non-exclusive files |
$230 |
$958,410 |
At the above prices the images can be downloaded anytime within a year of purchase. However, if the Fotolia customer is going to download 25 images within a month they can get $25 downloads for $60. That works out to $240,000 for 100,000 XXL downloads. And if all the customer needs is Medium or smaller files sizes he/she can get 50 downloads for this same 25 download price.
Obviously, there is a significant advantage to buying images at Fotolia if they happens to be available there.
The problem with this strategy is that while it might significantly increase Fotolia sales it could also result in a significant decline in overall revenue for the industry unless a huge number of new users start buying imagery.
Such a tool could be easily adapted to enable customers to determine if any image found on the Internet needs to be licensed before use. Many graphic designers and other creatives complain that they find images on the Internet that they would like to use, but they have no way of determining whether the image needs to be licensed, or where to go to get a proper license. Such a tool could go a long way to solving that problem and would likely be widely embraced by professional image buyers.
Back in September when Bing introduced their Bing Image Widget, I wrote about, “
How Bing’s Image Imbed Tool Could Benefit Creators.”
The technology necessary for such a tool is already widely available and being used by
TinEye, Google, Bing, PicScout, and the UK’s
Copyright Hub .
All Adobe has to decide is whether it will benefit them in the long run.
Check out these links for to
Fotolia,
Shutterstock and
iStock for Image-On-Demand pricing schedules.