A new report by BBC Research, a publisher of market research reports and technical publications, estimates that the global market for digital photography technology was worth $136.7 billion in 2007 and will grow 69% to $230.9 billion by 2013, a compound annual growth rate of 8.3%.
The market is divided into products and applications, with 56% of the 2013 revenue coming from products such as digital still cameras, interchangeable lenses, photo processing equipment, photo printers, image sensors, camera cell phones and storage products. Applications include professional photography, traditional stock and microstock photography, photography software, photo processing, photo books, surveillance and security, automotive, machine vision and medical visualization. Combined, these applications are expected to reach $100.4 billion in revenue in 2013.
For the stock-licensing industry, the question is how the market for still stock images fits into the overall photo-industry revenues. Selling Stock has estimated the 2007 market for still stock photography and illustration at about $1.8 billion; this figure is expected to decline slightly by 2013. Corbis recently estimated that the market, including stock footage and illustration, would decline from $2.3 billion in 2007 to $2.2 billion in 2012. Goldman Sachs expects Getty Images to grow from $857.6 million to $1.141 billion by 2012; however, non-microstock still images are expected to decline from $699 million to $637 million at the same time.
While these figures demonstrate a declining trend in stock-photo revenue in the years ahead, overall digital-photography revenue is expected to grow 54%, from $45.7 billion to $100.4 billion. The use of photography will increase, and the growth opportunities will be in areas other than stock.