Major acquisition announced

[Chuck Nacke]

Another example of Shxt floating.  It is time for someone to flush the toilet......

 

Chuck

[Panthera tigris]

Unsplash has always fascinated me. Whether we like it or not they hit on something and the fact they have nearly 3 billion downloads (!!) proves that. 

I have always been of the opinion it was sham and that it appealed to camera owners who had no interest in monetisation or were against monetisation and did for "philosophical" reasons. The sham IMHO was that after it had its first employee it was always going to be up for sale, that was the aim I believe.

 

Getty have been wise in my mind as Unsplash is a classic "disrupter". They will not want to kill it as a hundred startups can replace it if it disappears. I think they have bought it as a vehicle for their own marketing and brand awareness whilst keeping it big enough to put off lookalikes threatening to disrupt the larger market. 

[MizBrown]

13 hours ago, Olivier Parent said:

 

If you are willing to work for free, you will never run out of clients… 😉

 

 

I guess the "philosophical reasons" start with flattering one's ego by being published, even when the "client" has so little respect for the work done that he is not ready to pay a penny to acquire it. 😂 The fact that people submit their images to this platform only proves how little respect they have for those who make a living from photography.

 

 

I fully agree with your analysis. I cannot think of any other reason for them to acquire that platform.

 

A number of on-line magazines are collections of product and venue placement ads, where the client pays someone to write what is given away.  Most of the photos that get used for that will be like International Living paying a writer $75 for an article on a location they're promoting and giving it away for free (knew someone who did that once -- IL edited out the "shacks" he mentioned and called them "cabins"). 

 

Since the Unsplash photos are used a lot, this looks promising for product placement visuals that aren't obvious ads.  Getty uses the numbers of the free downloads to sell a paid-for service.  Companies have been paying for product placement in movies and t.v. shows for at least decades, and occasionally in books if I'm remembering correctly.   Tweak the search engine to show the produce placement photos first.   They're still free to the end user.