A new wrinkle in the gig economy: workers get most of the money
The arresting images on Stocksy.com are far from the standard fare found on many stock photography sites. Colorful portraits, unexpected compositions and playful shots greet visitors.
The most distinguishing feature, however, may be the structure of the site’s owner, Stocksy United: It is a cooperative, owned and governed by the photographers who contribute their work. Every Stocksy photographer owns a share of the company, with voting rights. And most of the money from sales of their work goes into their pockets rather than toward the billion-dollar valuations pursued by many venturebacked startups.
Stocksy was founded in 2013 by Bruce Livingstone and Brianna Wettlaufer, the core team behind iStockphoto, which in 2000 pioneered the idea of selling stock photos online in exchange for small fees. (Livingstone was the founder and Wettlaufer, the vice president of development and employee No. 4). IStock — which billed itself as “by creatives, for creatives” — caught the attention of Getty Images, which acquired it in 2006 for $50 million.
Livingstone and Wettlaufer, who are now married, grew dismayed as the community spirit they had cultivated and the royalties photographers received began to erode under the new ownership. Like many artists in the digital age, their photographer friends grumbled that they were being underpaid and exploited by online sites.
“Everyone had the same story,” Wettlaufer said. “They were feeling disenfranchised. They weren’t creatively inspired anymore. The magic was gone.”
So using money from the sale of iStock to Getty, she and Livingstone set out to create Stocksy, paying photographers 50 to 75 percent of sales. That is well above the going rate of 15 to 45 percent that is typical in the stock photography field. The company also distributes 90 percent of its profit at the end of each year among its photographers.
“We realized we could do it differently this time,” said Wettlaufer, who took over the chief executive role in 2014. “We could enter the market with a model that ensured artists were treated fairly and ethically.”
Stocksy is part of a new wave of startups that are borrowing the tools of Silicon Valley to create a more genuine “sharing” economy that rewards the individuals generating the value.
According to a recent Pew poll, 72 percent of Americans have used some sort of shared or ondemand service, whether it’s Uber for rides or TaskRabbit for things as diverse as dog walking and household chores. But there has been much criticism that, after the platforms take their cut and the workers’ pay for expenses, little may trickle down to those doing the actual work.
And, although many workers appreciate the flexibility to schedule their own hours, they don’t have the same protections and benefits as fulltime employees. Evidence suggests that the shift to on-demand labor may increase economic vulnerability for the roughly onethird of Americans who are contingent workers.
In just a few years, Stocksy has grown to 900 photographer-members, carefully selected from more than 10,000 applications. It has 20 full-time employees at its headquarters in Victoria, British Columbia, and another five contractors who work remotely.
Hugh Sitton, a photographer based in Britain, is typical of the quality of talent Stocksy is attracting. His profile page on Stocksy showcases his globe-trotting style, from portraits of a Samburu tribesman in Kenya to Vietnamese women in a pond of lotus flowers. His images have sold to clients ranging from travel sites to financial institutions.
“The stock photography industry has become much more competitive, and many photographers are definitely struggling due to the current price war for images,” he said.
He said he found the Stocky site easy to upload photos, create a portfolio page and track his sales. And he likes the fact that any member of the cooperative can submit an idea for discussion or to be put to a vote.
When Wettlaufer and Livingstone set out to create Stocksy, they considered making it a nonprofit organization, but decided to form a digital cooperative (“Think more artist respect and support, less patchouli,” reads the website).
Stocksy is what’s known as a multi-stakeholder cooperative, with three classes of shares: one for executives, one for staff and a third class for photographers. There is no fee to join or annual dues; members pay just $1 for their share of stock. That collaborative approach has helped the upstart thrive in a crowded and competitive market.
Stocksy’s customers include major media names, such as the magazines Glamour and Elle, as well as startups and small businesses.
Vanessa Bruce said she was mesmerized when she came across an ad for Stocksy while flipping through a magazine. The images were “clean but quirky,” said Bruce, who was then a brand manager for ReferralMob, a job referral site. She licensed several Stocksy photos, including one of a dog and a dinosaur that inspired language for a ReferralMob ad: “Match your friends with unique opportunities,” the ad read.
That Stocksy was owned by photographers was even more satisfying. “That made us love them even more,” said Bruce, who is now a co-founder of a marketing and branding agency called Six Things.
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