Photo stocks were some kind of a revolution in the area of visual content exchange, but they have to change now. Major challenges come from smartphones, VR\AR and blockchain. We think they are threats – they are opportunities. 

What’s good for Instagram is good for everyone

In the XIXth century, taking a photo required bringing a lot of equipment and having models standing still for many minutes. Later, it became a bit easier and less expensive and much faster.

In the middle and the end of the XXth century it was still laborious process as you needed taking a shot, then having your film developed and then pictures “printed” on paper.

It became also affordable for ordinary people to produce their family’s self-made photo albums but anyway kept them at a considerable distance from professionals.

Today anyone can make a professional-like photo with his smartphone.

While photo stocks continue to focus on professional photographers, there is a growing demand for pictures made by ordinary users. Well, it will not fit for a big advertising poster, but for other purposes, they will.

As platforms for selling users-made photo have started to appear, photo stocks should take it a signal for cooperation with non-professionals. That will undoubtedly require great resources for storage and powerful servers to edit the content. But inviting ordinary users to sell their works seems to be difficult to ignore.

From becoming user-friendly to mass media friendly

Stretching the trend of “smartphone-generated” content to the other end of the business process, we come to the press.

Viral videos shot by ordinary people are what draws huge traffic to websites, including the ones of traditional media. Just look at the specialized section with such video on the website of The Telegraph.

So we see now that even serious newspapers publish amusing, shocking, scandalous and other kinds of hot video to attract viewers. They may start soon buying it from people like some TV stations have started to.

With the number of smartphones on earth hitting 2.3 billion in 2017 and set to grow at a double-digit pace over coming years, that’s going to be a huge market.

The first stock to build a bridge between the user and the media will make good money, provided it manages to make this bridge fast and easy. What do we mean?

There should be user-friendly download interface and a tool of fast upload to a content management system of a media outlet. Let alone organizing the transaction process which guarantees quick and reliable payment to the creator. Again, it’s all about the technical reliability of service. Another issue is securing the exclusivity of content. There is a solution to these problems, we covered it down the post.

VR \ AR are GR which is “generating revenue” for stock

Virtual and augmented reality tools are spreading across business sectors, including those that were reluctant to jump on the new technologies bandwagon. As we see the demand growing, so the supply must comply with it.

With numerous agencies and individual artist being able to create VR products of high quality all over the world, that’s photo stocks to be first to become platforms for sharing it.

That’s exactly the same story what happened to the photo industry when stocks revolutionized the exchange of visual content with the help of the Internet and payment infrastructure.

What they have to do now is to establish solid platforms for not only sharing VR content, but also for the creation of it, education of consumers, i. e. brands, and possible creators. Helping people produce VR products and helping consumers better understand what’s all about and how it works for their businesses seems to be a logical way for stocks to choose to form and develop this market and eventually earn with it.

Blockchain: when everything is under control

Photo stocks face crucial problems deriving from the absence of the ability to navigate in an ocean of information and act across various jurisdictions. Just a few problems to mention here: an appropriate use of photos purchased through a stock by a consumer; violation of copyrights when a photo is simply stolen and used numerous times across the Internet; great expenses for content storage; the inability to prosecute violators of copyrights and make them pay, etc.

That’s where blockchain technology steps in to secure rights, payments and deal with legal issues. Blockchain will not resolve all the problems, but it’s a great step toward this aim. The technology stores

content on numerous computers making it impossible to alter it or steal it, and enables the creators to get instant payments for the use of their works through smart contracts.

For example, IPStock (a startup) developed a blockchain-based platform which reduces fees paid to the stock by dozen times in comparison to traditional stocks.

Blockchain guarantees securing copyrights and payments as well as the exclusivity of a work for the customers.  This approach will effectively tackle with all the challenges listed above thus converting them from threats into opportunities.

Featured image via Pixabay