Splash News has an archive of more than five million images and is adding new images at a rate of 5,000 a day, up from 3,000 a day a year ago. Splash was acquired by Corbis last summer. Its images are being added to both
Splashnews.com and
Corbis.com.
Last month Splash saw a spike in activity on the site when news broke of Whitney Houston’s death – but she still wasn’t the most searched name. Rihanna was the most sought after celebrity, followed by, in descending order, Whitney, Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé and Katy Perry. Chris Brown is the first male to appear in the download league.
The most downloaded image in February was of Beyoncé seen for the first time since the birth of her baby, Blue Ivy. The image was shot by New York photographer Jackson Lee outside a Manhattan nightclub.
Splashnews.com is searchable in seven languages, and typically has over 600 people logged in at any one time, around the clock. Additionally, there are more than four million images downloaded a year. Access to the Splash database is only available to accredited picture buyers, but a fan app is expected soon.
“I think the statistics speak for themselves,” said Splash president Kevin Smith. “Splash is the number one destination for celebrity news, and when news breaks, it is where publishers around the world look for the content to inform their readers.”