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iStockphoto is an online, royalty free, international microstock photography provider operating with the micropayment business model. Images cost between 1 and 20 credits, depending on size (with credits ranging from $.96 to $1.30 each). General consensus attributes the pioneering of the microstock photography industry to iStockphoto, which claims to be "the world's fastest growing collection of original, independent, royalty-free images."
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Wikipedia About IStockphoto
iStockphoto is an online, royalty free, international microstock photography provider operating with the micropayment business model. Images cost between 1 and 20 credits, depending on size (with credits ranging from $.96 to $1.30 each). General consensus attributes the pioneering of the microstock photography industry to iStockphoto, which claims to be "the world's fastest growing collection of original, independent, royalty-free images."
The online photo library contains (as of April 2008) over 3 million images (up from 760,000 in April, 2006) contributed by over 50,000 photographers at the rate of 27,000+ images per week. iStockphoto.com is currently (28 September 2008) ranked 668 on Alexa.
History
On February 9, 2006 iStockphoto was acquired by Getty Images for $50 million USD. Livingstone promised that the site would continue "functioning independently with the benefits of Getty Images, yet, very importantly for them and us, autonomy. They will nurture and encourage our pioneering spirit so that our entrepreneurial culture will continue to thrive."
On September 18, 2006 iStockphoto displayed the first results of the Getty Images ownership. A new system called a "Controlled Vocabulary" was borrowed from Getty Images and implemented on iStockphoto to control and manage keywords and searches, and to provide multilingual searching abilities. The system allows a contributor to keyword in any language, and because the controlled vocabulary is pre-translated, the image is searchable in any of the supported languages. Support for several languages was also added and the website can now be viewed in English, French, Spanish, and German. Keyword searches can also be performed in British English or American English, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Greek and even in Japanese and Cyrillic characters.
As of March 31, 2007, iStockpro closed. iStockpro was a more expensive version of iStockphoto that was never as popular as iStockphoto, and became redundant after the acquisition by Getty Images.
The company also supports the following international currencies: US dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Euro, Yen, Chinese RMB and British pound.
On April 1 2008 Getty Images disclosed, as part of its agreement to be sold to a private equity firm, that iStockphoto's revenue in 2007 was $71.9 million USD of which $20.9 million (29%) was paid to contributors.
Contributors
Contributing photographers apply (via a short quiz regarding policies, requirements, basic photographic knowledge, and legal issues) before they are eligible to upload their images. The applicant's sample images are screened for quality and suitability before being approved. Photographers must be over 18 years of age to join (Or have a parent consent form).
