I've written in the past about how much I enjoy reading Mark Cuban's blogs on everything from networking, business, sports and most recently on ways to change the BCS bowl system to enable a true college football champion! ( TCU not having a shot at Auburn is a crime!)
I really enjoyed his post a few weeks ago about Google entitled;
Am I Living The Google Lifestyle http://blogmaverick.com/2010/12/10/am-i-living-the-google-lifestyle/
It's amazing at how fast Google has grown in just 10 years! It has mushroomed into an internet giant being innovative across all facets of our lives and marketplace. So much has happened so fast for this company that it's exciting to think what the next 10 years will bring. In fact, I've recently dropped my love affair with Blackberry, rejected the IPhone and bought an android powered HTV Evo Shift. It's amazing what a truly innovative smart phone can do and so far I've been nothing short of being impressed!
In terms of images, search and the explosion and influence that the image has become in our networked, cloud driven, mobile life these are exciting times for those of us in the photo business. Yes, the precipitous drop in licensing images has effected everyone from top to bottom but I believe, seperate from the market place right now, the editorial industry rode the horse as long as it could in terms of getting maximum prices from what used to be limited resources. I was speaking with someone the other day about the state of the music industy and the decline in revenue due to the napsters of the world (as I stream Pandora!) and how much revenue the industy generates now as opposed to a decade ago. At the same time, we both agreed that for years consumers were being hoodwinked into paying premiem dollars for a piece of round plastic that cost the record companies pennies on the dollar and made 1000% return on the account of all of us. The same has been happening now for the last few years for imagery. The game is over and both agency's and photographers need to re-write their playbooks to survive in the new world we are all living in.
What's been taking place in the photo industry is emblematic to say the least to that of what the music industry just went through and continues to as we speak. What's different is that there is only one Rihanna, one U2, one Arcade Fire, etc. Contrast that with editorial imagery and the over saturation of the market we have all created in all places from entertainment, sports, news, etc. Thus, my decision to retreat from this part of the business since back in April of last year doesn't make me sad at all. I'm not certain that market will sustain itself anytime soon and it amazes me that even today so-so events are 2 rows deep with photographers whose images I have no idea where they go!
But I digress, this post is about the image armageddon that has been and continues to take place on all fronts. Facebook, Twitter have all made sure that their platforms remain photo friendly from all of its users and Google' s foray in to the image world is no joke. They are making serious strides related to the monetization of images both editorially and commercially. They couldn't buy GroupOn but man can they buy a company like Getty. It's a drop in the bucket for a company sitting on $50 billion dollars of cash money! If I were an analyst on Wall Street my recommendation to Google on GYI would be an underperform short of market expectations for 2011 and a sell rating which would be ripe for an acquisition!
Sites, apps, Ipad's, etc are all being driven by the relevance and beauty of the image that draws the reader to the story. No longer are headlines (and I mean real news headlines) the drawer of audiences like it used to be but rather the image as the central means of communication in today's flash an image up world we live in. So, the marketplace to exploit the image will, in my opinion, only become that much more important this year and years to come. Most will fail but the ones that succeed will be sitting on gobs of relevant content that has value and a never ending life in the cloud it will sit in.
For now, the world is gravitating more now than ever to the power of the image in their world, their friends world, the celebrities they love worlds, politicians,etc. The question for 2011 will be who will truly be the first to market a succesful platform that makes content generators the money they deserve!
