24 Jun 2009 iStockphoto Triple: Vetta Collection, Localized Search Results and $200 million in Revenue

iStockphoto have announced the Premiere Collection they started building in December will be launched today branded as the Vetta Collection. They also announced intentions to start serving localized search results based on geographically aware user behavior data that they’re already collecting. And what’s not on the press release is that they expect 2009 revenues to reach $200 million.

The Vetta Collection

The Premiere Collection, now known as the Vetta Collection, launches with 35,000 photos, and will continue to grow. Contributors and inspectors can nominate files for the collection, though standards are obviously very high.   The photos in this article are four of the 35,000 that made the cut.

Vetta Collection files will appear in regular search results but identified with a gold camera icon. They’ll sell for $20 for the small size up to $70 for XXXL which is a substantial premium to the $1 – $20 standard prices.

Localized Search Results

Continuing to innovate, iStockphoto’s search results will soon start showing the results which work best in each region of the world. There are theoretically different styles and subjects which work better in some countries than others. iStockphoto have been mining this data from the search and buying activities of their customers so the next version of Best Match will include country and language factors in the search result order.

Anything that gives buyers improved search results is great for contributors, though assessing the performance of our keywords is about to get a little more complicated.

$200 million in Revenue for 2009

While not included in the announcement, iStockphoto have publicized their expectation to reach $200 million in 2009 Revenues. They’re also paying $1.2million to contributors each ‘week’ and selling a file every second.

By comparison, the official figures for 2007 were revenue of $71.9 million, $20.4 million to contributors for the ‘year’ (equal to $392,000 per week), and a file sold every 1.4 seconds. Owner Getty Images predicted iStockphoto revenue to reach $262 million by 2012 back in November, 2007 which was considered impressive at the time. At this rate of growth they’ll reach that figure at least a year ahead of schedule.