As a 100% bootstrapped company since 2005, we have grown to be one of the world’s largest digital stock agency with an evenly distributed global footprint. 123RF has helped a wide clientele of individuals and businesses tell their stories using creative imagery, sounds and motion contributed by talents from around the world. Moving forward, we are ready to impact the creative industry in a big way as a global player that enables creative solutions through constant innovation, new products and services.
Interested in our story, and wondering how our stock photography brand was created back in the early days? Check out the full interview with Website Planet here, where 123RF’s creative director Simon Dayton talks about how the 123RF brand came to be, how artificial intelligence makes a perfect fit into our creative ecosystem, as well as where things are headed for stock photography.
The idea originally came back in 2000 when Andy and Stephanie Sitt, our co-founders, were inspired to bring the digital stock image market to SE Asia under the Inmagine premium brand. Back in those days, there were only a handful of serious players like Getty and Corbis, plus a few large content creators such as Image Source and Stockbyte.
In the beginning, it was pretty tough because many clients, especially the local ones, couldn’t really grasp the concept of buying a bunch of images on a CD and then having to pay a license fee. I think it was beyond a lot of people’s comprehension, and they probably thought we were somehow trying to rip them off. Over time, they began to understand and appreciate that having numerous bespoke images was financially beneficial and easier than hiring a production crew to shoot for you.
It’s difficult to have any kind of insight into what’s going to happen in five years. I mean, even at the beginning of 2020, no one saw the massive disruption the coronavirus would cause.
Thankfully though, with our evolving nature and the insights of our co-founders, we have rapidly moved on and are now fully committed to opening up a world of creativity and innovation to everyone by making design faster, smarter and easier.
–Original excerpt and image courtesy of Website Planet.
This article was originally shared on https://blog.123rf.com/123rfs-creative-director-on-our-history-and-the-future-of-stock-images/
