In November I surveyed image creators who had signed up to attend the Microstock Expo in Berlin and asked them two question:
(1) What are your top four distributors and the percentage of revenue from each?
(2) Is your gross revenue greater in 2013 than it was in 2012?
At the time I sent out my survey there were 70 image creators signed up. 3 were Illustrators, 7 videographers and 60 photographers. A total of 212 people actually attended the Expo.
Three of the organizations responding to my survey had more than one photographer in attendance for a total of 10. Thus, there are about 63 unique image creator organizations that received the survey and 24 of them responded.
Five of the respondents were exclusive with iStock and Getty. Nineteen non-exclusive photographers indicated the agencies that were 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in terms of gross revenue generated for them.
| |
Non-Exclusives |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
One |
Two |
Three |
Four |
|
Total |
| 1 |
Shutterstock |
15 |
3 |
|
1 |
|
19 |
| 2 |
Fotolia |
2 |
7 |
2 |
5 |
|
16 |
| 3 |
iStock |
1 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
|
11 |
| 4 |
123RF |
|
1 |
6 |
3 |
|
10 |
| 5 |
Dreamstime |
|
3 |
3 |
|
|
6 |
| 6 |
Deposit Photos |
|
|
2 |
4 |
|
6 |
| |
Others |
1 |
|
|
3 |
|
4 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Total |
19 |
18 |
17 |
18 |
|
|
Other agencies that were named as among the top 4 for certain individuals were Bigstock, Envato, Pond5 and Alamy. In most cases the 4th company represented less than 10% of total revenue.
Shutterstock was not only number one for most people but half of those that responded reported that 45% or more of their revenue came from Shutterstock. Two said they received 70% of their revenue from Shutterstock and one receives 80%.
Of those who responded 3 said their 2013 revenue was about the same as in 2012, One said his revenue was lower and everyone else said their revenue had increased. Ten reported increases of 10% or more and one reported a 300% increase.
While this is a small sample, I think it is indicative of how Shutterstock is beginning to dominate the market.
About half the people who attended Microstock Expo were image creators including many of the industry’s top producers. The rest of the attendees were microstock distributors and service providers. Mexpo was certainly the leading educational event in 2013 for people engaged the microstock business. Shutterstock brought 9 people to Berlin for this event and sponsored several events. It was interesting to me that no one from iStock, Fotolia or Dreamstime bothered to attend this important microstock industry event.