Like Google buying Blogger and Yahoo buying Flickr, Getty Images have just bought iStockphoto for $50 million, that’s a lot of money…
I like iStockphoto, I’ve used it on a couple of freelance jobs. At a dollar a pic, it’s very cheap, but does that make it the Aldi of images? Well, sort of… Some of the images lack uniqueness or sophistication, but that can be said about most royalty free stuff. They pick out the really good exclusive stuff for the homepage, but search for something like food and you get some pretty standard results… But hey, it’s costing 70p a go right? Who cares, it’s cheaper than clip art.
So, wonder what they’ll do with it? Keep it as a sideline, or try and integrate it into the rest of the business? I would have thought it would knacker their current RF set up though. Who’s going to pay $50 an image when you can get one for $1?
The press release says The acquisition demonstrates that Getty Images recognizes, supports and embraces the power of the culture of participation that is sweeping the Web and is continuing to implement its stated strategy of serving image buyers at all price points on all platforms and in all markets.
Like Bix Snyder said in Robocop… “I’d buy that for a dollar!”.
We’ll see.
