Hallstatt – World Heritage Site by Gerd Pischl
The 500px Story
The elevator pitch goes something like this: “500px is the premier photo community for discovering, sharing, buying, and selling inspiring photography, powered by a world-class community of photographers from around the globe.” And that actually sums it up pretty well.
Created by co-founders Evgeny Tchebotarev and Oleg Gutsol, 500px was born because there wasn’t a service out there that combined the high-quality photography and vibrant community that the co-founders were hungry for… so they made their own. Since its Web 2.0 release in 2009, the service has grown to include over 5 million photographers and 50 million photos. It’s safe to say Tchebotarev and Gutsol’s creation took on a life of its own.
Creating 500px Prime – A Different Kind of Licensing Marketplace
As the community grew beyond the founders’ wildest expectations, so did the vision behind the company. In 2013, the team at 500px began to dream a new dream: they envisioned a licensing marketplace exclusively for 500px users, where this world-class community of photographers could license their top-notch imagery to discerning buyers around the world, and get paid fairly for it.
The idea spread through 500px HQ like wildfire, and by March of 2014, 500px Prime was ready to unveil to the world.
It was unlike any other licensing marketplace out there; there’s nothing “stock” about it. Where major agencies might offer photographers a measly 20 or 30 percent cut, Prime listened to the community’s feedback and offered 70 percent instead. Where other agencies are chock full of cheesy stock imagery, Prime was overflowing with real life photos taken by talented photographers from the world-class 500px community.
They had created something awesome. Now it was time to water it, point it towards the sun, and watch it grow.
500px Prime Today
In the year since 500px Prime was unveiled to the world, the marketplace has grown to include over 120,000 contributing photographers who have submitted over a million images. Those images are, in turn, already being licensed by some of the world’s largest publishers, advertising agencies, and technology companies.
The scope is bigger and the players more impressive, but the vision is the same as it was on day one: this is a premium marketplace. Top-notch photography for top-notch creatives that refuse to “make it work” with crappy stock photos or free libraries.
Prime deals in unique, beautiful, and authentic imagery that’s backed up by statistics provided by the 500px community. Buyers no longer have to guess if a photograph will be popular with their target market, a community of over 5 million discerning users has already weighed in. And because you’re dealing with a small, dedicated team instead of a massive, faceless company, the folks at Prime are always available to help you find the perfect image.
The 500px Prime elevator pitch, then, is pretty similar to the 500px version. 500px Prime is the premier licensing marketplace for discovering, buying, and selling inspiring photography, powered by the world-class 500px community.
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