Which of the big picture agencies are worth owning stock in? Given the state of the industry today that’s a much more complicated question than it used to be. As a whole, the industry was worth around $2.88bn in 2012, but the shift in formats as print publishing declines and new licensing models are established for digital has seen many smaller companies come and go.
The biggest and most recent shock to the system was the bankruptcy of the French agency Sipa at the end of 2012. The company had around 20 million traditional format pictures and 12 million digital images in its archives and specialized in news photography. Unfortunately it was bought out by the German agency DAPD in 2011, just before the purchasing company developed serious financial problems.
Microstock companies
One result of the shifting market has been the swift rise of microstock companies such asDreamstime, which sources material exclusively from the Internet and then sells images at low prices to small publishing businesses. They tend to work with a wider range of photographers than traditional agencies, with many freelancers opting to start out there, and as a result they are gradually achieving financial dominance at the lower end of the market.
Private companies and cooperatives
Of the big players remaining in the current market, one of the largest is the Corbis Corporation, which is privately owned by its founder, Bill Gates. Although it does not now disclose its finances it was known to have annual revenue of around $250m in 2007.
The Associated Press, a non-profit cooperative, has around 10 million images in its photo archives and declared annual revenue of $627.6m in 2011.
Getty Images
Acquired by the Carlyle Group in 2012 for $3.3bn, with an archive in excess of 80 million stills and illustrations, Getty has a deal with Flickr that gives it access to select images posted on the site, ensuring a constant stream of new, quality approved content. It owns the Hutton Archive, Jupiterimages, Redferns Music Picture library and a number of other substantial archives. It is chaired by Mark Getty, with Jonathan Klein as its executive officer; it is supported quite substantially by a Getty family trust. It made $907m in its last full year of trading (to April 2013) but its midstock profits slumped slightly over the following months; its high-end business is still going strong and its range gives it considerable buoyancy.
Reuters Pictures
A division of Thomson Reuters, Reuters Pictures processes around 1,600 images a day, concentrating on news material, and has an archive of around six million. 53% of its parent company is held by the Woodbridge Company, which operates on behalf of the Thomson family. No financial statistics are available for the image division but the parent company, entirely focused on media, has annual revenue of $13.27bn.
Shutterstock
Founded in 2003, Shutterstock is a publicly traded company with an archive of around 30 million images and one million video clips. Still growing rapidly, its annual revenue for the last financial year is expected to be $232m.
If you are seriously considering investing in the world of stock photography agencies some thorough research is advised.
via:http://www.zentrader.ca/blog/?p=22172&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Zentraderca-Blog+%28zentrader.ca+-+Blog%29
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