Communiqués de presse
Leading international picture agency age fotostock and their technical services arm THP Photo Services have selected Similar Image Search from imense® to further improve the way that clients search on their industry leading websites.
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THP Photo Services, the technological hosting platform created and managed by age fotostock, the renowned stock photo agency based in Barcelona, has announced the incorporation of two new members to the platform: MyMediastore from Italy, and VMS Images from South Africa, who will now benefit from all the technical aspects related to hosting, search engine, and content management that the THP offers to all its members.
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The stock agency closed the first quarter of 2009 uploading 902,705 images from the 351 collection of images they distribute to the THP Photo Services, their technological hosting platform that serves the needs of 59 other stock agencies and age fotostock group of companies as well.
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age fotostock has announced the incorporation of the Stock Photography agency PhotosIndia, based in New Delhi, to the THP community. PhotosIndia has also signed a distribution agreement in India for Pixtal, age fotostock’s Royalty Free collection, and is currently searching for additional content to offer clients in their market.
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age fotostock, la célèbre agence photographique de stock basée à Barcelone, et présente également à Madrid, New York et Paris, vient d’annoncer qu’elle a clos l’année 2008 avec 8,6 millions d’images dans son portefeuille. Ces images sont disponibles à travers le site Internet d’age fotostock, et pour tous les membres de la plateforme technologique THP Photo Services.
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age fotostock and THP select imense® Similar Image Search
June 2009
Leading international picture agency age fotostock and their technical services arm THP Photo Services have selected Similar Image Search from imense® to further improve the way that clients search on their industry leading websites.
Similar Image Search from imense® provides image agencies and their picture buyers with a new and exciting visual journey through image and video collections. Users of Similar Image Search reduce wasted time scrolling through large image collections to find the image they require, resulting in a faster time to purchase and a more satisfying search experience from the image agency website.
In addition to age fotostock using Similar Image Search from imense® on their own website, they will also be offering the service to all of the picture agencies on the THP network. THP has long standing relationships with picture agencies from all over the world and offer a wide range of hosted website and image retrieval services. Agencies who have their websites hosted by THP will be able to capitalise on the benefits of Similar Image Search to enhance their customer user experience.
Tony Rowland imense's Director of Sales said "imense are delighted to be working with age fotostock and THP on the implementation of Similar Image Search. The combination of our technology and age fotostock's leading technical solutions provides a compelling value added service for picture agencies on the THP network and their clients, whilst making age fotostock's own website even more user friendly for their direct sales clients".
Two hemispheres, one solution: THP Photo Services welcomes VMS Images and MyMediastore to the international network of agencies in the THP
April 2009
THP Photo Services, the technological hosting platform created and managed by age fotostock, the renowned stock photo agency based in Barcelona, has announced the incorporation of two new members to the platform: MyMediastore from Italy, and VMS Images from South Africa, who will now benefit from all the technical aspects related to hosting, search engine, and content management that the THP offers to all its members.
MyMediastore has been licensing Royalty Free Imagery since 2003, providing images and other graphic contents to advertising companies and graphic studios. MyMediastore has implemented the advanced e-commerce tools provided by the THP platform, which in addition to the storage, content management, and reporting capabilities for the agency, also provides online payment functionality, immediate HighRes download, and many other advantages for end users.
The agency had been distributing the Pixtal brand since 2005 and has done very well with it. Other than distributing the 78,000+ Pixtal images, the agency is adding several other collections to their website via the THP Photo Services hosting platform, adding up to almost 1 million images.
Joining the THP from the other hemisphere is VMS Images, a South African agency lead by Celia McCulla, which with over twelve years’ experience in the digital media industry, envisions a service that provides the widest possible selection to their client base. Celia McCulla´s comments regarding the VMS Images portfolio and Technological Hosting Platform offered by THP Photo Services are: “We are always on the lookout for exciting new collections to add to our rapidly-growing library. By featuring the best of the best, and offering it to clients by means of the technological platform THP Photo Services offers to us, we can best serve both our customers and our suppliers, for the benefit of all.”
Teresa Alonso, Director of International Sales at age fotostock, comments: "We are extremely pleased to welcome VMS Images and MyMediastore into the THP network. Their long standing experience in the industry, together with the THP technology, will definitely provide the teams and customers of these agencies with the perfect tools and services to commercialize their imagery. The THP Members network keeps growing as a force in the stock photography market, and now more than ever, THP Photo Services keeps focusing on saving cost, time, and efforts to all members of its community.”
Both MyMediastore and VMS Images are now distributing age fotostock’s Royalty Free collection, Pixtal. Pixtal is a fresh, fun, and trendy collection but startlingly representative of today’s world, that offers contemporary images of a great variety of themes and styles. Pixtal is a flexible and adaptable collection that can even fit the needs of two such diverse countries as Italy and South Africa.
Today there are close to 60 image distributing agencies in the THP network, and with the addition of MyMediastore and VMS Images, THP Photo Services continues to grow the network of distributors in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, to maximize sales opportunities for its own collections, age fotostock and Pixtal, and for the over 350 image producers and providers.
How many images area actually too many images today?
April 2009
If content is your problem, it is clear that it is not at age fotostock’s website. The stock agency closed the first quarter of 2009 uploading 902,705 images from the 351 collection of images they distribute to the THP Photo Services, their technological hosting platform that serves the needs of 59 other stock agencies and age fotostock group of companies as well.
However, if that was not enough, age fotostock received another additional 250,459 images from the more than 1800 image exclusive and active photographers they distribute. In this instance, only 31,232 images met age fotostock quality standards. Approximately 12% of the images received from photographers will have the opportunity to be seen when clients search for images. The THP now contains close to 9 million images that are feeding the websites of 59 image distributors worldwide, as well as the age fotostock offices.
With nearly one and a quarter million images received in three months, one wonders if digital technology is actually helping photography to go further away by selling images at lower than ever prices. If we assume that age fotostock is not the only stock agency showing millions of images on the internet, it is clear that the offer of images is substantially higher than its demand, therefore forcing the industry to increase distribution with the aim of compensating for sales price with sales volume. However, Royalty Free has already experienced what happens with mega non-exclusive distribution models based on fixing the selling price: the model vanishes when somebody sells images cheaper than those that have fixed prices and this is especially true when advertising, the obvious market for RF, goes down forced by a cyclical economy downturn.
If we assume that the “old good days of analog photography and great prices” will never come back the question that remains today is how many of these millions of images are really worth the trouble - all of them? Should we start accepting that a very minimal percentage of them have any possibilities of producing a sale? The more one sees images around - whether user generated, royalty free or rights managed - it is clear that only a small percentage of the images actually have selling options. Is this something that we need to care about?
If we don’t, because the term “control” when applied to the context “controlling the flow of images” will not be elegant in modern times, the reality then becomes something like, “if the user generates the content, let the market decide what it wants to buy” and let us, stock agencies, furnish the technical means to deliver the avalanche of digital images to the final user in a kind of yo-yo paradox “…from user generated images to the final user of them…” with no intermediate steps. Is this what the stock photography industry is aimed for?
age fotostock and THP Photo Services welcome Photosindia to the THP Community
March 2009
age fotostock has announced the incorporation of the Stock Photography agency PhotosIndia, based in New Delhi, to the THP community. PhotosIndia has also signed a distribution agreement in India for Pixtal, age fotostock’s Royalty Free collection, and is currently searching for additional content to offer clients in their market.
PhotosIndia has been in the image business since 2006 and by fully implementing the THP Photo Services technology to their website is becoming uniquely positioned to meet the rapidly growing demand for locally relevant images and the best international stock images in the key emerging markets of Asia. Now PhotosIndia has the tools necessary to serve the clients in their market which include top advertising agencies, multinational corporations, graphic design firms, and magazines even more efficiently than before.
Amit Narain, CEO at PhotosIndia comments: “After running the business for 3 years, we realized that considerable time of the management including myself had been spent on technological issues. With the business showing unprecedented growth, we thought it will be much more fruitful to concentrate on managing it from a Sales & Marketing point of view and leave the technology to the people who specialize in it – THP Platform by age fotostock. Now, with the technology burden off our back, we are aiming at faster rate of customer acquisition via concentrated Sales & Marketing efforts as well as increasing the depth of the content available by partnering with the best collections available across the globe. Eventually, this focus will enrich the customer’s experience on the site as they will seldom need to refer to another site to get what they are looking for. The decision is in keeping with our motto of being a : One-stop-shop for all stock photo needs.”
Teresa Alonso, International Sales Manager at age fotostock comments: “I am sure that Amit Narain and his team will benefit from all technical aspects related to hosting, search engine and content management that the THP offers to all its members. The THP Members network keeps growing as a force in the stock photography market, and now more than ever, THP Photo Services keeps focusing on saving cost, time and efforts to all members of its community.”
With the implementation of the THP system, PhotosIndia has made 1.5 M images available on their website. The company has taken the distribution of over 75,000 images that make up the Pixtal collection, which has great potential in the market thanks to the richness and versatility of the content which covers global subjects, perspectives and styles from thousand of international photographers. In addition to the distribution of the Pixtal collection, the agency is distributing over 30,000 images that are part of their own collection called PhotosIndia that delivers shots starring multi-cultural casts engaged in contemporary Indian lifestyle, and has been available on the THP to other distributing agencies since 2007.
PhotosIndia has now access to the over 300 brands and 8.5 million images that are currently available on the THP, should they decide to set up distribution agreements with the image providers directly. With their business experience, aggressive marketing plans, and the implementation of the powerful technology provided by THP Photo Services, PhotosIndia is now more than ever ready to compete in the Indian and global stock photography industry.
Forte augmentation du portefeuille d’images sur age fotostock et THP Photo Services en 2008
January 2009
age fotostock, la célèbre agence photographique de stock basée à Barcelone, et présente également à Madrid, New York et Paris, vient d’annoncer qu’elle a clos l’année 2008 avec 8,6 millions d’images dans son portefeuille. Ces images sont disponibles à travers le site Internet d’age fotostock, et pour tous les membres de la plateforme technologique THP Photo Services.
“Tout a été dit sur le thème trop de contenu tue le contenu…, mais chez age fotostock, nous croyons fermement que la possibilité d’offrir une grande quantité d’images est la clé d’une présence dominante sur notre marché. Les clients manquent de temps, ils doivent rechercher rapidement et efficacement les images dont ils ont besoin. En leur proposant le choix le plus large, nous nous assurons de répondre au mieux à leurs aspirations”, commente Teresa Alonso, Directrice des Ventes Internationales d’age fotostock.
Au cours de l’année 2008, age fotostock a conclu des accords de représentation avec des centaines de nouveaux fournisseurs d’images (photographes et agences) aux quatre coins du monde. Grâce à cet effort, un total de 2.612.089 images a été ajouté à un portefeuille qui compte désormais 334 collections. Ceci représente un bond de 67,66 % par rapport à 2007. Les efforts d’age fotostock se sont concentrés sur l’ajout de contenu graphique dans des domaines très demandés, répondant aux besoins d’une base de clientèle très variée : voyage, gastronomie, diversité ethnique, styles de vie, Histoire.
Alexa Plourde, Directrice du Contenu d’age fotostock, commente : “Nous travaillons dur pour enrichir le portefeuille d’images disponibles à travers age fotostock, afin de nous positionner comme l’une des sources d’images les plus complètes et les plus variées du marché mondial. En 2008, nous avons décidé de nous concentrer sur du contenu nouveau visant à couvrir des domaines très variés ; par conséquent, la diversité et l’originalité des images que nous représentons ont été déterminantes pour nous détacher de la concurrence et nous protéger des cycles violents de notre marché. Par ailleurs, 2009 promet encore plus de croissance : 175.000 nouvelles images, issues de collections d’une grande originalité, ont été intégrées depuis le 1er janvier.”
Toutefois, age fotostock ne concentre pas ses efforts uniquement sur la distribution de collections d’autres agences de stock. Elle travaille également pour enrichir considérablement ses collections propres age fotostock (Droits Gérés) et Pixtal (Libre de Droits). En plus des nombreuses productions photographiques menées au cours de l’année avec de nombreux photographes, le volume d’images reçues par age fotostock pour sélection de la part de photographes professionnels a atteint le total de 1.078.072 unités, soit 19,42 % de plus que le volume reçu en 2007. 127.730 d’entre elles, soit 11,87 %, ont été finalement intégrées à l’une des deux collections après un strict processus d’édition.
Alfonso Gutiérrez, PDG d’age fotostock, qui a édité depuis 36 ans toutes les images reçues par age fotostock de la part de photographes, commente : “Le travail d’editing est un style de vie en soi, il demande une grande attention aux évolutions de la société, aux sujets dominants et à la manière dont ces sujets sont approchés, afin de s’assurer que la demande qui en résulte est bien couverte par le matériel soumis par les photographes. L’editing est à la fois relaxant et dynamisant, surtout pour moi qui suis toujours un photographe numérique très actif. Toutefois je n’oublie pas que je suis aidé par Anna Judy et Jennifer Paul, qui me suggèrent au cours d’une première vision les images que nous ne pouvons laisser passer.” Ce travail d’editing et cette persistance ont permis, en 2008, de porter le total combiné des collections RM et RF d’age fotostock à 775.942 unités, ce qui en fait l’un des plus importants ensembles d’images professionnelles au monde.
Toutes les images ajoutées en 2008, et beaucoup d’autres, sont disponibles à travers age fotostock Spain, et une grande majorité sont également disponibles à travers age fotostock America et age fotostock France. De plus, tous les membres du réseau THP Photo Services qui distribuent des images à l’aide de la plateforme technologique mise à leur disposition par age fotostock, bénéficient automatiquement de ce nouveau contenu.
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