Getty Images Banks on Web Image Market

By Adam Dewitz on January 9th, 2008

The Wall Street has an article on Getty Images attempts to its online presence (7 day free link):

Getty, which sells the rights to images to major advertisers and publications, seeks to boost sales from sources outside its high-resolution photos and capitalize on the growing ease of Web image posting.

The Seattle company’s turnaround began in February 2006 when it purchased iStockphoto, a site for inexpensive photo licenses. Getty continued to implement the new strategy through the end of 2007, when it began offering low-resolution images from its entire collection for Web use at a rate of $49 for multiple uses.

The article also cites the low barrier to entry for start-ups to offer competing products and services as the iStockphoto site. I also wonder what effects of social networks combined with modern copyright licensing (E.g Flickr creative commons image search) have on iStockphoto services.