123RF
| 123RF
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Ltd. |
| Seat | Malaysia |
| Branch | Content industry |
| Website | www.123rf.com |
The company 123RF is a picture agency founded in 2005 with headquarters in Malaysia . Originally she only marketed rights to photographs. In recent years, 123RF has expanded its portfolio and serves the growing market of the web-based content industry . In addition to the over 40 million image marketing rights, the company also has databases for vector graphics, icons, video and audio files. Marketing takes place mainly through approx. 300 employees who work from their home office . They sell products such as photos and illustrations to agencies, publishers and media makers, but also successfully to semi-professional and private Internet users. The future development of the company is strongly linked to developments in electronic media, the spread of social networks and future changes to copyright law.
Pricing policy
The margins for the artists and photographers are between 30 and 60 percent and thus in the upper range compared to the competition. Due to a diversified pricing policy, the company put its competitors under great pressure right from the start. In addition to the fee-based usage rights for photos, which can be acquired in the form of so-called credits , the company also sells credits for royalty-free images, so-called royalty-free or image packages. This takes place in the form of subscriptions in different price categories and thus specifically addresses non-professional users in addition to professional customers who mostly work with premium stocks . The relatively high margins for the photographers or artists and designers who have their work marketed by 123RF compared to the competition, combined with the addressing of a broad target group that goes beyond the previous customers of agencies, media makers and advertisers, the company has in a dynamic phase of the market development in the content segment, based on the number of users and sales. However, an initial public offering originally planned for 2014 did not materialize.
External presentation
Unusual for the industry is an offensive marketing strategy by the marketer, which, despite the actual core business of image rights marketing, is aimed at private Internet users. For the design of the website, the former world-class surfer, designer of the music magazine Ray Gun and internationally renowned graphic designer David Carson has been available since 2016 . It is intended to give the lack of entertainment character of the marketing of stocks a new, unconventional note. This form of PR implies a further shift in weighting from B2B communication, which is otherwise typical for the industry, to private Internet users. Carson has worked with pop stars like Prince in recent years , but also for global lifestyle brands such as Pepsi , Burton Snowboards and the games company Sega .
In addition to this innovative design strategy, the marketing mix also includes a community category geared towards professionals . Here the specific customer loyalty to professional graphic designers is emphasized with image processing tips, workshops and news. On the other hand, creative and young -looking images are created in a targeted manner in order to break this focus. This is shown in particular by the 123RF subsidiary SoundBounce, which focuses on audio and sound content. In 2015, the company published its own music productions, which, notably, are also sold commercially through competitors (Amazon, iTunes Store and cdbaby). The name of the subsidiary SoundBounce acts as the supposed name of the artist on the album Lumière .
The company uses a mix of guerrilla marketing instruments , creates a lifestyle-oriented world of experience with the attributes creativity, youthfulness and pop ('credibility') and at the same time continues to stage itself as a specialist forum in the field of professional design of new media.
In recent years, the market development in the publishing industry has forced traditional publishing houses such as Springer (ASMI), Bertelsmann , the Pro7 subsidiary Seven One Media and Gruner & Jahr into this terrain, global players who are now massively transferring their resources, which were previously gained in the print market, to the content market have relocated. In contrast, the strategic orientation of 123RF is a unique selling point and as such is similar in its nature to the strategies of later Internet giants from Silicon Valley that were previously criticized as rebellious.
There are 110 million media on offer. The German branch is located in Berlin .
Web links
- Literature by and about 123RF in the WorldCat bibliographic database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Photos for the world market from the home office. In: IHK magazine. »Economy«, 2/2016.
- ↑ Stock image & design business firm123rf looks to list (English)
- ↑ 123rf.com
- ↑ soundbounce.net
- ↑ https://de.123rf.com/ourstory.php