Do you know that stock photography is worth billions of dollars? Do you know that by the year 2020 the stock photo industry will exceed $4.4 billion?
Interestingly, this industry is dominated by two companies (Getty images and Shutterstock) and this monopolized nature as birthed unfair distribution of revenue, exorbitant prices of photos and poor treatment of the photographers.
Being a photographer is very demanding and requires a peak level of creativity but unfortunately photographers are not getting the right amount of credits they deserve owing to the fact these Stock photo agencies due to their large customers are greedily charging 85% to 90% of the photo sale price just for advertising and selling the photos while the hardworking photographers who used hours and resources in planning, shooting, editing and describing these photos get just 15% to 10% percent even after loosing right to the photo. Is that fair?
Well, after so many years of this "Suffering and Smiling" scenario by photographers they seems to be a glimmer of hope thanks to blockchain.
Succinctly, Blockchain is a kind of database distributed among multiple computers at the same time.
In checkmating the centralized stock photo industry, Blockchain will serve as a replacement for the greedy middle men (stock photo agencies) and the same time ensures transaction is safe, transparent and swift between photographers and customers.
That aside, lets take a look on the blockchain pillared projects which aim is revolutionize stock photography.
Photochain
Photochain is a marketplace developed on an Ethereum blockchain where photographers and buyers can interact and carry out transaction. This platform will enable photographers to set the prices for their contents and as well protect copyright. As a photographer using this platform, you will get 95% after selling a photo while 5% goes to the pocket of Photochain. Transactions on this marketplace will be carried out with the company Crypto currency called Phototoken.
Kodakone
Kodakone is a blockchain based platform that seeks to help photographers sell their images to buyers directly. Payment in this platform will be executed with the company own Crypto currency called Kodacoin.
Wemark
Wemark is a blockchain marketplace for digital contents creators and has created a platform where photographers can share and sell there contents directly to buyers with zero worries of copyright. Transactions on Wemark will be done with the "Wemark token"- the company own cryptocurrency.
Having digested a brief intro about these projects lets carefully compare each with what they have to offer.
PHOTOCHAIN, KODAKONE AND WEMARK- THE COMPETITION
All three projects are based on a blockchain technology called Ethereum and are both offering huge amount of profit to photographers. Photochain and Kodakone are offering 95% of a photo sale while they keep 5% but Wemark is offering 85% of photo sale and keeping 15% . All three projects will also enable photographers to monitor their photo after licensing it to customers to combat copyright infringement.
Aside from that, the stock photo industry been a hard nut to crack for recent years now, and as a company ready to challenge the giants you will need to have lot of funding and backing. interestingly, Wemark has lot of backings from top Vc’s unlike the other projects most notably Kodakone once a photography company who went bankrupt in 2012 with over 800m debt.
Also, while Photochain and Kodakone are only focused on images. Wemark in the nearest future will be building more market place for other digital contents making it one of a kind and different from it's competitors.
Wemark also will be giving out incentives to members who use and share the platform whereas in Photochain, sellers will rise high in ranking depending on the amount of their sold works and will be rewarded with the Photo token.
CONCLUSION
All three projects are commendable but Wemark wears the crown in terms of backings, financial support and keeping the right balance. Wemark advisors ; Lars Perkins, former CEO and founder of Picasa; Keren Sachs, former director of content development at Shutterstock after carrying an extensive research realize that 5% wont be able to sustain a growing and developing a marketplace at the same time providing the right distribution. With Wemark they seem to be right balance between how much photographers get and how much goes for distribution. No wonder more than 40,000 photographers have already signed up with more still joining on daily basis.
What are you waiting for ? Visit the Website and Sign up now to begin to enjoy the benefits brought to you by this innovative platform.
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