July 7, 2008 by pmelcher.

Even in a world of quirky names, content continues to rule. Picapp, the source for free legal images for blogs, has just signed up celebrity news agency Splashnews as a new provider. Here’s the deal : 2 companies, one similar idea. How to license images to the high volume community of bloggers worldwide ( 6 billion , I believe). Also, how to license images without these images ever leaving the server, thus avoiding illegal duplication. ( Orphan work anyone ?)

Historically, Picapp was the first to launch, with a revenue sharing deal that made advertising the only source of revenue. GumGum, not far behind, launches with a similar idea. However, the user here has a choice of adverting or paying a pay per view fee.

But the business model is not enough to grab attention, you need the right content. Again, two strategies : Picapp leverages its existing relationship through Picscout and draws the big guns ( i.e Getty). Gumgum, in order to outsmart them and after looking at the blogosphere, goes for entertainment. After all, the celebrity obsessed blogs are not only the most active, but also the biggest consumers of photos. What would be a celebrity site with no images, right ? They quickly signed Pacific Coast news, Splash news and Starmax. The show can begin. And it did. While Picapp runs around making deals with blog publishers and refine their offering ( ie multi size images, hidden Picguy, etc), GumGum seems to be satisfied with their offering.And it seemed to work.

But Picapp is no dumdum. They just signed Splashnews too, realizing they where the biggest money making content provider of Gumgum. Ouch ! The result will soon be felt. One has vast offering, from sports to paparazzi celeb, while the other seems stuck in the muck. Same technology and very similar business model. Who do you think will win?

At the end, it is always the same result. Technology is not an answer in itself, it is just a pipe. You can have the greatest system in the world, if you do not have the content, you die. Think Betamax or more recently, Blu Ray. Geeks are the worst managers of their own technology as they always, always make the same mistake in believing it can overcome everything.  It can’t.

Posted in technology, gumgum, Pacific coast news, idee, license, transaction, finance, web 2.0, editorial | Print | No Comments »

July 7, 2008 by pmelcher.

Barely waiting for the ashes of the CEPIC congress to cool down, Istockphoto descended on the island of Malta with a vengeance. In a quite ironical move, the microstock giant has picked the same location than the commercial stock industry association. The difference is that while one was only there to blabber endlessly about photography, the other supplied an opportunity for its contributors to mingle with each other and produce more images. Same place, same industry, two different approach.

Now, most people would react and think : all these photographers are shooting the same thing. What is the purpose? Well, those who have attended the Cepic congress before know that most of the agencies who participate in the congress also keep on trading the same images over and over : You represent me, I represent you, this guy represent us, we represent him, we all represent each other. One day, an agency will end up representing its own work without even knowing it, as it will come back through various representation under a different brand name.

So Istock has thousands of photographers shooting the same thing while traditional stock agency each all represent each other ad nausea. what is the difference ? As we know, volume, quantity, range, depth, millions are the buzz words of this industry, quickly followed by cutting edge, fast search, new website (always a new website), new servers, bigger files.

It used to be that grandad of this industry, Image Bank , claimed high and loud, with proudness and defiance, as badges of honor, the names of the photographers they represented . Today some Istock photographer are better known then any in the traditional world, most certainly the RF world. Lisa Gagne, Yuri Arcurs are better known than any JupiterImage photographers. Go ahead, name one…No, Banastock is NOT a photographer.

So who will criticize Istock for throwing a contributor lovefest in Malta?  Which commercial stock agency will dare throw the first stone, especially knowing that none have done anything equivalent. They throw sub agents lovefest,  a la self declared king of European stock, Alfonso Guieterrez of Age fotostock. Does any RM agency even know their photographers anymore ? I know RF do not, as they rebrand all their images under a theme rather than photographer. RF photo production reminds me of surrogate mothers. You pay someone to have your baby and then you never see them again.

Istock has innovated by creating a market for microstock . It has, however, not lost touch with who the creators are, probably because its founder was an ignored commercial stock photographer before. Lesson learned.

More on Malta Istock lovefest here

Posted in technology, commercial stock, Midstock, web 2.0, CEPIC, Microstock | Print | No Comments »