“Inaccessible” | San Francisco, CA | Jan 2009

Michael Arrington, The Photo Marketplace That Never Launched: Flickr Stock

In late 2007 Flickr was strongly considering creating a marketplace where users could buy and sell photographs hosted on the service. It was to be called Flickr Stock.

But Flickr abandoned the idea in early 2008 and decided instead to partner with Getty Images. A just launched beta program lets a handful of Flickr photographers sell their images on the Getty Images website. That program is being expanded and should launch in the next couple of months…

Frankly, Flickr Stock seems like a lot more fun to me. The barrier between professional and amateur photography has steadily been eroded exactly because of sites like Flickr. Giving those photographers a chance to try to sell their stuff is a good way to generate even more growth. The Getty program is great but it effectively turns Flickr into the minor leagues where talent can be spotted and whipped away.

Wrong.

(The idea that “talent” should be whipped away to Getty is wrong and misunderstands the economics of the business: maybe Getty will do that, but then I’m not sure they understand how to address the fundamental changes in the stock photography industry themselves.)

Thankfully Flickr clarified the Getty program, as anyone that followed Flickr would now:

The editors at Getty Images have recently sent a preliminary set of invitations to be part of the collection to a small group of Flickr members. The photos are being chosen based on Getty Images’ expertise in licensing digital content and insight into customers’ needs. The photos will be for sale when the full collection launches.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is wrong with this venture.

As I said in July 2008,

Getty and Flickr (Yahoo) are framing the deal on traditional, orthodox sources of advantage, yet those sources of advantage are dead.

Ryan Gillespie nails it with his comment in the article:

That’s a disappointing move by Flickr, although not altogether surprising. Flickr has seemed like a business lost at sea since the Yahoo acquisition with not nearly as much innovation as it once had going for it. The “old Flickr” would have pushed this out without going through Getty.

Perhaps with the economy sinking, and the tight purse strings I’m sure Yahoo has put on all departments, they decided to go with the cheaper, lower-risk play with Getty.

Andrew posits that Yahoo got it right, that 90% (just a rough estimate) of the photos on Flickr have no commercial value.

Perhaps. But Getty and Flickr decided to find the top PHOTOGRAPHERS rather than the top PHOTOS. Huge difference: vastly different business models, incentive structures and community involvement principles, and honestly it seems to fly in the face of the vaunted Flickr ethos.

Failing to involve the “non-professional” community, as Collin points out, is a huge strategic mistake.

What could the future bring?
Let’s think about this a bit more broadly.

What happens when everyone that grew up with a digital camera in their hands, unmetered Internet access at their hands, and a cultural frame of sharing their lives and their creations to the world, starts thinking about how to monetize their images, content and context (directly and indirectly)?

Could we see an “unbundled” stock photography marketplace?

Could ClusterShot point a path towards a new model?

Perhaps. But in any case, executing a short-sighted, “old DNA” strategy in a limping industry in desperate need of innovation is not the path. Maybe Getty and Flickr will realize that…