Corbis says it will scrap its two-year-old
SnapVillage microstock site by the end of the year and start fresh with a new microstock service under its Veer brand.
Veer, a higher-end, designer-focused brand that Corbis acquired in 2007, will soon introduce a new service that licenses royalty-free photos for between $1 and $20.
The shift in strategy reflects Corbis’s failure to gain a foothold in microstock, which is one of the only segments of stock licensing that shows signs of growth.
Corbis says its new microstock service, Veer Marketplace, will be launched in two phases. By the end of February, Corbis expects to offer a sampling of microstock images through Veer. By spring or summer, the second phase will include a full microstock site with images, type, and illustrations available a la carte or by subscription. Details about the service appear in a Frequently Asked Questions file posted February 5 on the
SnapVillage blog.
Veer is based in Calgary, Alberta, which is also the home of leading microstock site iStockphoto, which is owned by Corbis rival Getty Images.
Developing a new microstock site is a tall order. Despite many efforts, no major new microstock brand has emerged in the last three years or so. Veer Marketpace will have to compete with iStockphoto and other well-entrenched microstock sites including Fotolia, Shutterstock and Dreamstime.
SnapVillage contributors frequently complained about the site’s clumsy image uploading system. (A contributor writing on a
Veer forum refers to it as “painful.”) Corbis has promised SnapVillage contributors that Veer Marketplace will have a more efficient uploading system.
Individual image pricing will range from $1 to $20 depending on the size of the image. Contributor royalty rates have not been announced; for SnapVillage they were 30 percent.
Veer Marketplace will have a credit-based payment structure similar to most other micropayment sites. SnapVillage was one of the few sites where customers paid per image rather than having to buy credits in advance. Corbis is also doing away with the practice of letting photographers set the price of their images themselves, which was one of the other unique features of SnapVillage.
Corbis was years late to microstock and watched as rival Getty Images acquired the most popular microstock site, iStockphoto, in 2006. Rather than partner with an existing site, Corbis built SnapVillage internally and launched it in June 2007.
SnapVillage never attracted the devoted community of contributors like the ones that power other microstock sites. And Corbis appeared to do less marketing of SnapVillage compared to competitors. The executive who oversaw the launch of SnapVillage, senior vice president
Adam Brotman, left Corbis amid a round of layoffs and restructuring last September.
Microstock agencies have reporting growing sales even during the poor economy, and both Getty and Corbis have predicted that microstock will make up a larger portion of stock sales in coming years.
Related stories
June 25, 2007: Enter Corbis: SnapVillage Microstock Site Is Launched
February 13, 2008: Is $7 The Magic Number For Microstock?
