A major contributor to this article appears to have a
close connection with its subject. (February 2021) |
Company type | Platform cooperative |
---|---|
Genre | Stock photography |
Founded | March 2013 |
Founders |
|
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Brianna Wettlaufer (Co-founder & CEO) |
Website |
www |
Stocksy United, also referred to as Stocksy or Stocksy United Photography, is a Victoria, British Columbia based platform cooperative [1] that accepts and provides royalty-free stock photography and stock video. Stocksy uses a curated editing approach to select useful and authentic photos. [2] The co-op differs from other stock photography firms by its stated focus on fair pay and creating sustainable careers for its members. [2] [3]
Stocksy United was founded April 20, 2012 and publicly launched on March 25, 2013. [2] It was started by iStockphoto founder Bruce Livingstone and co-founder Brianna Wettlaufer. [4] At the time of launch, Stocksy had about 220 contributing photographers, with plans to grow to approximately 500 photographers in its first year. [2] Stocksy now has over 900 contributing members, selected from over 10,000 applications. Its revenue doubled from 2014 to 2015, to $7.9 million. For 2015, Stocksy paid out over half of its revenue as royalties to its contributors, totaling $4.3 million. [5] Revenue for 2016 has grown to $10.7 million, with $4.9 million paid out to contributors. [6] Total for the first four years of business, Stocksy has paid out over $20 million to their nearly 1,000 artists during the period from 2013 to 2017. [7]
Stocksy is a platform cooperative with three classes of shareholders. Class A is made up of advisors, including CEO Brianna Wettlaufer. Class B is made up of staff, and Class C is the artists who contribute content. Currently there are around 980 photographer shareholders in this category. Each member co-owns the cooperative and has one vote. Each class has at least two directors on the board. [6]
Contributing photographers live in 65 countries. [6] After two years of closed membership, Stocksy's Call to Artists is now open. [8] Achieving membership into the cooperative is a single step process whereby interested artists submit a portfolio using Stocksy's Call to Artists webpage. Accepted members license creative content and receive 50% royalties on standard license sales, 75% on extended license sales, and year-end profit sharing in the form of patronage returns. [9]