500px nixes Creative Commons option and replaces Marketplace with Getty Partnerships and Visual China Group – TechCrunch



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Photographers who use 500px to distribute their work are adapting to two major changes. First, the platform removes the option of downloading or uploading photos with a Creative Commons license. On Saturday, it also closed its 500px Marketplace Photo Platform and replaced it with distribution partnerships with Visual China Group, which acquired 500px earlier this year, for users in China and Getty Images for the rest of the world.

The decision to close Marketplace was announced for the first time at the end of May.

On its website, the company said that royalty rates will remain unchanged and that Marketplace closure will allow 500px to meet the needs of a cohort of "In its FAQ, however, 500px also admitted that "The marketplace is not as well behaved in the photographic space as hoped. Therefore, we had to choose between investing resources in the promotion and promotion of 500px Marketplace, or considering a distribution model only for 500px, a revenue model that has developed in recent years. "

Two weeks ago, 500px Aneta Filiciak, former vice president of strategic development, took the reins of the platform, which has 13 million members, with the aim of making changes to the platform to increase the revenue of its photographers Founded in 2009, 500px and its rival Flickr were originally positioned as alternatives to established photography distribution channels like Getty, but both platforms suffered when Instagram and Imgur have attracted users.The acquisition of 500px by Visual China Group in February would have been a fire sale for $ 17 million.Also known as VCG, Visual China Group is one of the Largest Photo Distributors and an Investor in Getty Images.

A 500px spokesperson told The Verge that he had decided to stop his Creative Commons program because of a lack of activity .ad clared that & # 39; it could be added to the & # 39; future depending on the response of & # 39; user. The decision is a waste for many organizations, including non-profit organizations, who use Creative Commons licensed images for their sites. Critics include 500px co-founder, Evgeny Chebotarev, who left the company in 2016. He said on Twitter that "Creative Commons is critical for the growth and support of the open web", adding another tweet [500pxadéclarédanssaFAQqu'ilneprévoitpasd'offriruneautreoptiondelicencededroitd'auteurmaisquelesphotographespeuventchoisirdetéléchargerleurtravailavecuneredevancelicencegratuite500pxpourdistributionviaGettyouVCGLasociétéaégalementdéclaréqu'ellenefournitpasdechemindemigrationpourlescontributeursexistantsquisoumettentdesimagesCreativeCommonscequialaisséquelqueshistoriensduWebetdesarchivistesInternetbrouillantParexempleJasonScottquitravailleavecInternetArchive tweeted that "tens of volunteers" spend the weekend using Wayback machine to back up photos .

TechCrunch contacted 500px for an additional comment. [19659008] [ad_2]
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