Shutterstock has announced that it passed 60 million downloads since 2005. In homage to the founding editor of Selling Stock, let’s try to put these numbers in context.
In 2007, iStockphoto licensed roughly 17.5 million images. Shutterstock’s figures suggest that it may be serving as many, if not more, single images as the company that bills itself as "the world’s busiest image marketplace." Shutterstock’s three-year average is 20 million images per year, and its founder Jon Oringer says the company has grown tremendously. That can well mean that the company is now serving 25 million or more images annually.
iStock generated $72 million in revenues; Shutterstock does not disclose financial information. But consider this: Shutterstock would need about 29,000 standard annual-subscription customers paying $2,559 each to surpass that figure.
And these are just the standard rates. Shutterstock also offers higher-priced plans, including its extended-license subscription that allows huge print runs and use of images on for-sale items. In addition, the company just launched on-demand subscriptions, which sell images based on total number of downloads as opposed to a timeframe. For example, a 25-download subscription—equal to the daily download limit of any standard Shutterstock subscription—costs $229.
iStock and Shutterstock have a similar number of contributors—more than 50,000—and apparently similar download numbers. Traffic-monitoring companies place Shutterstock below iStock, nearly identical to Dreamstime and Fotolia, and above Jupitermedia’s traditionally priced Photos.com, which now also carries amateur imagery. The three single-image microstocks each claim over 500,000—and iStock over 2 million—buyers. It is safe to say that Shutterstock’s client list outnumbers 30,000.
The industry grapevine has Shutterstock earning upwards of $20 million per year—successful, but far from an undisputed leader. Insiders have speculated that the company may lose money on high-volume customers who max out their subscriptions, since it has to pay contributors a flat fee per download. Others have pointed to the turbulent nature of a subscription-based business: its long-term success depends on a healthy supporting renewal rate.
With subscriptions being a growth area among both micro-payment and traditional stock retailers, the next couple of years will be interesting for Shutterstock. Given its niche success, the market’s current preference for low-cost imagery and several new services, it may emerge as the overall subscription leader. It could just as easily be swallowed by new competition from all the top single-image microstocks, which have recently launched comparable subscription plans, and hybrids like Photos.com. Or it could change ownership—rumor has it that Shutterstock has long been open to offers, which makes it no different from most privately held businesses.