In order to fulfill the growing demand for specific & effective imagery, Klaud9 has been supplying creatives around the world with unique Asian stock photos. Hmm, stock photos? Did it cross your mind that this thing is outdated?
There’s a fair amount of people who wouldn’t use stock photos because it has been perceived as an old-fashioned way to produce visual content. Some photographers don’t even want to be stock photographers for the same reason. However, we are certain that stock photos are still in favor and might even be more favorable. Keep reading, we might change your mind.
1. Growth in Social Media User
Reported by Hootsuite in 2017, Southeast Asian internet users spend an average of 3.6 hours each day on mobile phones, which is the longest duration compare to any other regions in the world. Moreover, according to Google-Temasek e-Conomy SEA 2016, Southeast Asia is the world’s fastest growing internet region with 260 million users and projected to reach 480 users in 2020. It is obvious for businesses to construct a strong social media strategy in order to be successful.
Social media is then directly correlated with visual content. It’s not social media if it doesn’t mainly use visual to deliver information. Cydney Hatch advised that less text a post has in a caption, the more engagement it gains. Businesses most likely use photographs compare to graphics. It can be combined, but it’s seldom that they solely use graphics. This is because photographs are more humanly, so the audience engages better. Stock photos specifically would be the most convenient resource when comparing to commissioned shoots.
2. The Emerge of Online Businesses
In the last decade, world sales of e-commerce have risen by 450% (Statista). Business Insider has also shown that there is a steady increase in year-over-year of the Global Holiday E-Commerce Sales from 2015 to 2018. Furthermore, Adweek has named 2018 the Year of E-Commerce for Southeast Asia. As e-commerce became very popular, the citizens in the region are building habits regarding online purchases. Every line of business can use a tech model and more efforts can be seen towards achieving it.
In the Asia region, stock photos are not as popular as it has been in Europe and America. However, we see a shift towards better awareness of stock photos. With everyone having access to anything nowadays, not only big firms and the specialists can use stock photos, but also many newly established small businesses that are looking for ways to develop and grow with the limited budget it has (including marketing budget). This lead to opportunities for stock photos to distribute well in the region.
3. Stock Photographer as a Solo Career
From the daily life, we may realize most of the photographers are working solo based on the projects, instead of building a company and establish cooperation with many people. Cross-checking with the facts presented by Insureon, around 63% of photographers are self-employed which indicate this popular trend. This number was predicted then to grow by 4% between 2012 to 2025.
Solo photographers have a lot of freedom to create and do the type of photography they want. Thus, many of them become stock photographers. Stock photography provides opportunities to sell photos without having to have a client first and at the same time to build a portfolio. Stock photos are also allowing the same photos to be sold numerous times and to be distributed anywhere in the world. This efficiency contributes to the popularity of stock photos.
4. Innovation from Stock Photography
As mentioned by Tai Kaish, in ’80s stock photographs were stored in the form of prints and evolved a decade later into floppy disks and CDs. Right after that, the conglomerate Getty Images appeared. We agree with Tai Kaish that stock photography has been creating a lot of innovations from the technology and business model side, instead of the technical and creative aspects from the photography side.
In the 21st century, where technology advances faster than ever, stock photographs are distributed worldwide in just seconds. Additionally, stock photo companies use tech platforms, even featured with AI and Machine Learning. Wemark that were launched in 2018 drastically revolutionized the transaction systems using blockchain. We predict that stock photography only goes forwards.
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Scale your photo shoots with technology. Klaud9.com is Asia’s fastest growing photographer community showcasing the latest and best work of talented local photographers. If you are a photographer or a client and want to start your journey with Klaud9 On Demand platform, contact us directly today!