Gross revenue generated by Getty Images in Q2 2007 was $218 million, up from $204.8 million in the same period in 2006. According to CEO Jonathan Klein, revenues for the "creative stills imagery" side of the business were flat at about $161 million. However, it should be noted that this number includes iStockphoto revenue, not normally considered a part of creative stills. The number of iStock downloads in Q2 2006 was about 2.5 million and downloads rose to 4.25 million in the recent quarter. If iStock revenue was removed from both quarters, creative stills would be down.
Fotolog, a photo-blogging Web site and social network, announced that its community has surpassed 10 million users. In addition, Fotolog recently entered into agreements with Google and AOL.
The trends of image oversaturation and micro-segment growth continue, and many professional stock photographers are anticipating or already experiencing a decline in revenues. As a result, many pros are looking to supplement their income by expanding into video, trying to secure more assignment work, seeking additional distributors and even joining the growing ranks of microstock providers themselves.
Frost & Sullivan, a corporate growth consultancy, announced that the 2007 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership goes to Getty Images. Presented every year, the award recognizes Getty's digital asset management services, including Media Manager and Image.net.
The production of short-form videos is likely to be the next growth business opportunity. There are millions of videos online, but only a small portion offer helpful insights on how to develop a business producing them. Here is a sampling of useful sites.
The news, business and legal information provider LexisNexis has added images represented by Newscom and World Picture Network to its research offering. The two image collections combined provide LexisNexis customers with access to rights-managed and royalty-free imagery spanning current and historical news, sports, people, health, science, lifestyles and events.