Photo crowdsourcing service Scoopshot has secured $1.2m of new funding to grow its on-demand service
Scoopshot offers an on-demand crowdsourcing photography service, which gives photo buyers the ability to set assignments to Scoopshot’s network of 280,000 mobile photographers. The company hopes to position itself as an alternative to stock photo libraries and agencies.
Yuri Arcurs, the world’s top selling stock photographer (selling one photo every eight seconds!), has now invested $1.2m into Scoopshot, which the company will use to develop its on-demand crowdsourcing platform and accelerate its growth in the UK, US and German markets.
“Crowdsourcing offers the unique opportunity to gain relevant and unique content while adding the element of engagement to the photo sourcing process itself,” says Petri Rahja, founder and COO of Scoopshot.
Born in Finland
The company was formed in 2010 in Finland by Rahja, launching throughout Scandinavia. Scoopshot’s mobile app allows users to sell their photos and media organisations to post paid photo assignments anywhere in the world.
Location-based local tasks can be created for free with national and global tasks available for a fee. Photo buyers can pay to send an instant notification to photographers in a specific location to alert them of a task, and all photos submitted are available to buy for $5 each. This on-demand service has already been used by brands including Oxfam, Malibu, Fiat and Vogel’s.
“The iTunes of photography”
“Buyers are tired of wading through page after page of stale and over-used photography before having to compromise. For the first time, they can request exactly what they want and receive it within minutes and without spending a fortune,” says Scoopshot CEO Niko Ruokosuo, who likens the birth of on-demand photography to how the introduction of iTunes changed the music industry.
“It is our belief that the majority of stock photography will be on-demand within the next five years. To survive, photo sites must adapt and adopt new models for monetising photography. It really is a case of do or die.”
Scoopshot has signed up more than 280,000 mobile photographers and 1,100 professional photographers across 177 countries, and more than 60 media companies in 15 countries use the service.