Getty Announces End to Partnership with Flickr

Hat Tip: PetaPixel
(Also thenextweb)

Getty has terminated its 6-year long partnership with Flickr.

Under that partnership, visitors to Flickr could request a license to use images loaded to Flickr.  The licensing was done through Getty.  Getty would also actively browse Flickr images to add to its library.  When Getty encountered a Flickr image it wanted to add to its library, it would contact the owner and ask permission to license it.

Both of those are now ending. 

Flickr users now have to go through the same contributor process as every other photographer.


The images licensed from Flickr will now be part of Getty's "Moment" collection.  This means people that already have images with Getty will just have the location on Getty's website change.

The Moment collection includes something called "Moment Mobile".  These are images taken and submitted using a mobile device.  Currently only iOS devices qualify for mobile submission.  Android devices will be added later.


 My take on this?

Getty is abandoning a revenue source with this move.  Currently, anybody that finds a Flickr image they want to license can do so by requesting a license online through Flickr.  The request goes to Getty and Getty handles the license request.

Ending that process forces anyone wanting to license a Flickr image to contact the photographer directly.  Many professional photographers are capable of handling licensing themselves. Those that don't want to handle the licensing themselves can go through a site that doesn't screen submissions first.  Forcing the licensee to contact the photographer cuts Getty out of the equation.

A company abandoning a revenue stream is a questionable decision, no matter how small the stream.


Couple the move to allow submission via mobile devices with embedded images for social media sites seems to indicate Getty becoming obsesses with Social Media.  Social Media sites had around $16 Billion in revenue in 2013, and Getty apparently wants a piece of that.

The largest share of that revenue was generated by facebook.  Facebook accounts for roughly a third of that $16 Billion.  (Maybe more, since that $5 Billion was in 2012, not 2013.)  Zynga and Groupon are the other "Social Media" companies that had over a billion in revenue that year.  (I accused Getty of having Google envy yesterday, I might have to revise that to facebook envy.)



The problem?

Getty is not a Social Media company, and its current business model is largely incompatible with being one.

Professionals that use Social Media use it as a promotional outlet.  It is a cheap way to provide information about themselves and their products or services.  This includes photographers looking to sell photos or looking for clients.  Photographers may upload images to sites like facebook as part of this promotional effort.

These same photographers may then link to sites where there images can be purchased.  This would include sites like Getty where they can be licensed for use in magazines, newspapers or on web sites.


Getty as a source of Social Media content has an interest in offering that content as cheap as possible.  Free being best.

The lower the price they charge for the content, the less desirable they become as an outlet for those seeking to license their images.


In order to make this Social Media targeted move to work, Getty needs to spend as little as possible on the images it offers.  This explains, in part, the termination of its partnering with Flickr.  Under the Flickr TOS, the photographer retained the rights to the images uploaded to that site.  Getty can not just use those images.

Don't be surprised if Getty's agreement with Flickr is replaces with a similar one with facebook.

Facebook's TOS states that uploading images the facebook provides the company with a transferable royalty free license.  Getty could re-market those images without having to pay the photographer that uploaded them.  (A product you can get for free and make money off of, what could possibly go wrong?)


This move to becoming a Social Media content provider does not bode well for the photographers doing business with Getty.  Getty now has a conflict of interest when it comes to marketing their images.