By Daryl Lang
© Trent Bell/Courtesy iStockphoto
Stock images such as this one, recently named "Photo of the Year" at iStock, are appealing to small business customers but have made little inroads with consumers.
A full third of Americans are downloading images or videos off the
Internet for personal use, but many are clueless about copyright
and most don't even know what stock photography is.
These findings are from a recent phone survey of 1,003 adults
commissioned by
iStockphoto,
the microstock service owned by
Getty Images.
The results show that consumers are interested in using images but
unsure where to get them or how to do it legally.
"There is a huge, huge market that we haven't even begun to tap,"
said Kelly Thompson, Chief Operating Officer of iStock, in an
interview last week.
Past attempts to get consumers to fork over money for image usage
have flopped. Most stock agencies only target business customers.
Micropayment sites like iStock have grown rapidly in recent years
by pitching low-priced imagery to small businesses customers.
Why would consumers want to license imagery? In a word:
scrapbooking.
Bucking conventional wisdom, the survey shows that people are more
interested in using images for projects such as scrapbooks and
invitations than in publishing content online.
Among the findings:
- The survey asked if consumers had downloaded music, photos,
artwork, images or videos for various uses. Thirty-three percent
said they had done so "for personal creative uses such as
scrapbooking, albums, invitations, etc." Twenty-three percent said
they had done so for their job, and 16 percent said they had for a
"blog, Web page, or social networking site."
- Only 65 percent answered yes to the question, "Are there any
legal ramifications for downloading images or videos without
receiving permission from the image’s or video’s owner?"
- Just 27 percent of those surveyed said they had heard of "Stock
photography or video or stock audio." Asked if they had heard of
"Companies that sell images, videos, music or sound effects for
business or personal use," 41 percent said yes.
- In a bad sign for stock agencies (or perhaps an indication that
people are suspicious of telephone surveys), respondents
overwhelmingly said they were not interested in learning more about
such companies.
Thompson says iStock is considering ways to teach consumers about
copyright laws, perhaps spelling out exactly what can and cannot be
done with imagery found online.
"There are still a lot of people who don't understand copyright,"
he says. "Most of it is probably not malicious, but it's going to
take a lot of education."
The telephone survey was conducted in June by KRC Research and has
a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
Survey: Consumers Know Little About Stock Photos
Aug 25, 2008
By By Daryl Lang
Stock images such as this one, recently named "Photo of the Year" at iStock, are appealing to small business customers but have made little inroads with consumers.
A full third of Americans are downloading images or videos off the Internet for personal use, but many are clueless about copyright and most don't even know what stock photography is.
These findings are from a recent phone survey of 1,003 adults commissioned by
iStockphoto, the microstock service owned by
Getty Images.
The results show that consumers are interested in using images but unsure where to get them or how to do it legally.
"There is a huge, huge market that we haven't even begun to tap," said Kelly Thompson, Chief Operating Officer of iStock, in an interview last week.
Past attempts to get consumers to fork over money for image usage have flopped. Most stock agencies only target business customers. Micropayment sites like iStock have grown rapidly in recent years by pitching low-priced imagery to small businesses customers.
Why would consumers want to license imagery? In a word: scrapbooking.
Bucking conventional wisdom, the survey shows that people are more interested in using images for projects such as scrapbooks and invitations than in publishing content online.
Among the findings:
- The survey asked if consumers had downloaded music, photos, artwork, images or videos for various uses. Thirty-three percent said they had done so "for personal creative uses such as scrapbooking, albums, invitations, etc." Twenty-three percent said they had done so for their job, and 16 percent said they had for a "blog, Web page, or social networking site."
- Only 65 percent answered yes to the question, "Are there any legal ramifications for downloading images or videos without receiving permission from the image’s or video’s owner?"
- Just 27 percent of those surveyed said they had heard of "Stock photography or video or stock audio." Asked if they had heard of "Companies that sell images, videos, music or sound effects for business or personal use," 41 percent said yes.
- In a bad sign for stock agencies (or perhaps an indication that people are suspicious of telephone surveys), respondents overwhelmingly said they were not interested in learning more about such companies.
Thompson says iStock is considering ways to teach consumers about copyright laws, perhaps spelling out exactly what can and cannot be done with imagery found online.
"There are still a lot of people who don't understand copyright," he says. "Most of it is probably not malicious, but it's going to take a lot of education."
The telephone survey was conducted in June by KRC Research and has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
