Fotolia, one of the biggest stock photo website, becomes the first of its kind in South Africa to set up local pricing in local currency.
Fotolia’s move is also meant to attract talent and images from South Africa and in return bring in more buyers of royalty free photos on the continent.
“We’re looking forward to discovering and recruiting more talented local artists”, Oleg Tscheltzoff, CEO and co-founder of Fotolia, said. “Localizing to countries such as South Africa means expanding the customer base for stock imagery to millions more people and we’re excited to be the leaders here.”
For years, the website has registered many photographers from the country and this will enlarge their market space further.
The company has expanded into 21 countries and is available in 13 official languages since its launch in 2004 in New York.
Compared to other bigger stock photo websites such as Getty Images, Fotolia is doing a lot to catch up. With over 3.5 million users across the globe, the website offers apart from photos, HD videos and graphics for sale.
Getty Images on the other hand was acquired last month by The Carlyle Group for US$3.3 billion just to underline the massiveness of the business.
“With the introduction of the Infinite Collection, Fotolia became the first worldwide microstock organization to offer both crowd-sourced and professional images on one site,” the company confirmed.
The digital avenue has seen many photographers apply for photo sharing and storage options on the web. Such platforms enable photographers to sell their work easily across the internet.
Photos from such platforms are not only bought for newspapers and magazines but also for advertising agencies who buy the photos at a premium price.
