Trade Mission

[Celluloid Hero]

On the back of Boris and George's little jolly to China, I wonder if Alamy is considering cracking the Chinese Market. Is there a market? If there is, is it a viable market?

[John Mitchell]

Somehow I think that the Chinese market would be a "free" or "almost free" market. But you never know.

[Alex Todd]

I've had a few sales in China through other agencies and I don't think any have hit double figures. That's not through any newspaper type scheme, those are the typical full fees you can expect.

[Robert M Estall]

It has to be a huge market eventually, but for now, I don't think they are share our attitude to copyright. Make's it an uphill battle. Alphonso from AGE went after it some years back, but I've not heard how he got on.

[losdemas]

I don't see any market that is unused to the concept of 'copyright' per se, much less respecting societies where that concept is (for the time being) still valid and valued, as being one where anyone is likely to make a buck either now or in any near future selling (licensing) copyrighted products, that have no defined tangible value (such as brands).  On the contrary, I would say that Western societies are more likely to convert to that view and happily erode copyright and other rights (at least for individuals) as fast as they can in order to get the bigger bucks from foreign investment.

 

In short,

• "Is there a market?", Yes
• "If there is, is it a viable market?". NO

[CandyAppleRed Images]

Given my current battle with a Hong-Kong based infringer, I'd say any attempt at trying to sell images in the region would be doomed to heroic failure.

[dustydingo]

"On the back of Boris and George's little jolly to China, I wonder if Alamy is considering cracking the Chinese Market. Is there a market? If there is, is it a viable market?"

 

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You will hear all sorts of stereotyped bias about China, but the truth of the matter is there is a very, very viable market, especially via businesses based in Hong Kong and to a lesser extent (IMO), Macau.

 

dd

[York Photographer]

I've had a couple of decent sales to china through alamy, including one for almost $1000, which took me by surprise as I'd figured that they'd have a relaxed attitude to copyright.

 

It was for a front cover of a magazine, which was weird since it was a landscape shot, and at that price it must have been full page. Unless Chinese mags are landscape! 

[dustydingo]

which took me by surprise as I'd figured that they'd have a relaxed attitude to copyright.

 

Like I posted earlier, it appears there are more who believe stereotypes based on . . . well, I'm not sure what exactly . . . than there are folk with actual experience. To believe that a whole country's business is conducted on the same basis as cherry-picked examples from the fringe of society is rather limiting, to say the least. That would be like comparing the standards of the whole USA film industry to the standards of the porn movie industry . . . no, wait . . . ummmmm . . . anyhow, you get the picture :-)

 

EDIT: coincidentally, royalty report just in Friday evening from another mob shows four-figure sale to . . . Hong Kong. And only a one year license too.

 

Which prompted me to check if Getty have an office in Hong Kong . . .

 

dd

[losdemas]

Dusty, good to hear that you have a less-cynical attitude than me (certainly at the moment anyhow)! But the reason for cynicism (perhaps generalisation, but most certainly NOT stereotyping) in this particular case is practical experience of what happens - not just in China, but across the majority of Asia. Authorities in that region have been notoriously lax when it comes to prosecuting businesses and individuals for manufacturing, selling and using counterfeit goods. The fact that the market for those goods has likely been in the main Western is another story: the point is that producing such goods has generally not been seen as a problem. Copyright and trademarks are just not respected in the same way as in many Western cultures. That's not to say that we're all goodie-goodies in the West - very far from it! - just that we have laws in place to prevent such abuse and prosecutions are made for infringes of those laws.

 

Upmarket originals, however are another matter: where there is a known, labelled (often extremely overpriced) upmarket 'designer' brand known well to the Chinese, it is highly sought-after: it would appear that Biscester Village shopping mall is more favoured as a tourist destination than the Tower of London! Quality and price matter in Chinese culture. Appearance matters. Social standing matters. It's a question of perception and the perception seems to be that stock photography is not (generally) a valued item: it's something that can be produced rapidly, in quantity and with ease - where's the value?

 

Have you ever tried to chase someone in the East for using one of your images? Even given the language difficulties, it's something that most will give up on easily - not just individuals. but firms set up precisely to protect your intellectual copyright - they know that it's not worth the effort, time and costs involved for the potential return - if any.

 

There are multiple examples over the years about large Western corporations getting upset about abuse of copyright in China and I am sure that the number of contributors here who can offer you examples of unauthorised image usage far outweigh the lucky few who have profited from licensing there. Hong Kong and Macau have differing histories to the majority of mainland China and their long-standing connections and trade with the West (still) put them in a different category, IMHO.