microstock – Appotography

It is recent news that Pictorama, one of the most popular iPhone microstock photography agencies, is shutting down. Pictorama’s servers, according to the company’s official statement, have already been disconnected. Likewise, the app is not available for downloading anymore.

The End of Pictorama

Honestly, this doesn’t come as a total surprise. Given Pictorama’s overall sales, the turnover could not be enough to cover their costs. As Pictorama’s statement about the reasons behind the shutdown clearly explains,

Unfortunately not as many clients as we expected bought our pictures. This forces us to shut down Pictorama due to insufficient funds.

Whereas microstock seems to be flourishing in other forms, with new providers popping up continuously and older ones getting huger, mobile-oriented microstock seems unable to compete. Is this really an issue with resolution and final quality of images sold through mobile outlets and of flexibility concerning their actual use? Is it just a question of marketing? What are mobile shooters supposed to think?

Continue reading “Is It Too Early Or Too Late For Mobile Microstock?”

Last week I have been testing Pictorama, an app that combines mobile photo taking with elements from microstock photography. Pictorama is quite simple: you take photos; you submit them for evaluation; if they are good enough, they are sent to the app’s marketplace, where people can purchase them. Part of the profits from the sales of your images is your own. At entry level, you earn 20% on sales. After deducting VAT for each purchase, Pictorama pockets the rest for “marketplace fees” that will be automatically withdrawn from your PayPal account. Talk about penny-pinching! As the number of your contributions grows though, your earnings will also increase, with up to 50% when you have more than 2,000 photos in the marketplace. You can keep track of your stats and revenues from the app’s main site, Pictorama.com.

Pictorama App — Pictorama's Homepage. Can you guess which one is our photo?

Continue reading “Pictorama: The Mobile-Only Take On Microstock”