Dreamstime
 | |
| Headquarters | Nashville,TN and Bucharest, Romania |
|---|---|
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
Serban Enache (CEO) Dragos Jianu (CTO) Jeff Prescott (COO) |
| Products |
stock photography illustration vector graphics clip art stock footage |
| Website |
www |
Dreamstime is a microstock photography agency online since 2000, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, with offices located in Bucharest, Romania. It is a community based agency sourcing stock photos and illustrations from worldwide contributors. In March 2016, Dreamstime had over 42 million images online from nearly 250,000 contributors and more than 13 million users.
History
Early years
The website has been online since 2000 as a Royalty free stock photography website. In 2004, Serban Enache and Dragos Jianu co-founded Dreamstime.[1] The agency is the second launched company in the industry after Istockphoto. Dreamstime is one of the major players in the microstock market along with Istockphoto, Fotolia and Shutterstock.[2] In 2005 the company turned down a buyout offer from Microsoft. [3] In September 2006, Dreamstime became the first microstock photography agency to become a member of both the Picture Archive Council of America(PACA) and CEntre of the PICcture Industry (CEPIC).
Later years
By 2008 Dreamstime was available in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. As of February 2012, it became available in Chinese, Greek, Polish, Russian and Swedish.
On May 31, 2012, Dreamstime launched a new site, Time Line Images (www.timelineimages.com), dedicated to providing a legal, safe way for users to find and use images for social media profiles, as Facebook and Google Plus. Users have access to the entire database of images from Dreamstime, including a section of images specifically sized for use as Facebook cover photos. These images cost users $1.00 and can safely and legally be used on social media profiles.[4]
On July 17, 2014 Dreamstime launched a mobile app for both iOS & Android, Dreamstime Companion app, which allows users to upload and sell photos directly from their smartphones. It also allows users to submit photos from Instagram, Pixlr and other popular photo sharing sites and apps.[5]
On September 23, 2014, Dreamstime announced new social and sharing features aimed at helping users discover new photos. The social feature uses an algorithm to surface new stock photos based on a user's past behavior on the site as well as similar searches by other designers. The sharing feature allows users to share images they have found on the site with most popular social media platforms and feeds this data to its algorithm to further personalize recommendations for users.[6]
New developments
On January 19, 2015, Dreamstime was chosen by Google as a beta provider of stock images for the Google Display Network. The deal allows Google to use pre-selected Dreamstime royalty-free images for ads in limited sizes. The deal has been criticized by Dreamstime contributors, who feel there should be added compensation for images used more frequently than others.[7]
On May 5, 2015, Dreamstime launched a mobile app targeted to customers who want to purchase and download images directly to smartphones and tablets. Dreamstime offers a dual-pane view so users can see both search results and a selected lightbox. The app offers real-time filtering by letting users pull down on the results and select or deselect filters on iOS or open the filters overlay on Android while still in the search screen. Other amenities include iOS support of TouchID login; Android automatic cycling through free daily home screen wallpaper images and the ability to re-download images previously purchased on the Website. [8]
In April 2016 the company launches megapixl.com, a new website that utilizes machine learning to offer more refined stock image choices based on past user behaviors. This artificial intelligence (AI) utilizes data garnered from all of the Dreamstime sites regarding which content is the most relevant and suitable for the individual user. Dreamstime analyzes user-driven Big Data that is collected into its main AI from across its library of websites and across multiple electronic devices. It then leverages that information to recommend megapixl.com images to designers based on the actions of other aggregated user decisions. The end result is a more engaging and relevant user experience. The system "learns" user preferences over time, and will give higher priority ratings to content that is most suitable to the individual user. [9]
As of March 2016, Dreamstime had an Alexa ranking of 1499 in the US and 989 globally.[10] The average Dreamstime contributor makes from a few tens to a few hundreds of dollars a month, while top contributors make over $10,000 a month.[11]
External links
Other Dreamstime Properties
See also
- Image hosting service
- List of online image archives
- List of photo sharing websites
- Stock photography
References
- ↑ Gibson, Steve (April 13, 2008). "Dreamstime Site Review". Microstock Insider. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
- ↑ Levine, Robert (April 4, 2007). "Photo wars: A $2 billion business gets rough". CNN Money. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
- ↑ Bryant, Linda (23 December 2007). "Dreamstime has $100M dreams". Nashville Business Journal. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- ↑ Struck, Amos. "Dreamstime Launches Timelineimages.com". My Stock Photo. My Stock Photo. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ↑ Stapley, Jon. "Stock photo firm Dreamstime launches mobile companion app for photographers". Amateur Photographer. Amateur Photographer. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
- ↑ Fratti, Karen. "Dreamstime Stock Photos Adds Social Features for Designers". AdWeek. AdWeek. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ↑ Zhang, Michael. "Dreamstime Selected as a Stock Photo Provider for Google Ads, Photogs Grumble". PetaPixel. PetaPixel. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ↑ Dove, Jackie. "Dreamstime launches on-the-go stock photo search for iOS and Android". The Next Web. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- ↑ "Dreamstime Leverages Machine Learning to Launch Megapixl.com - Site Uses Dreamstime's Artificial Intelligence Data to Recommend Images". PR Newswire. PR Newswire. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
- ↑ "Dreamstime Stock Photography". Alexa. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
- ↑ "Interviu cu fondatorul Dreamstime – un succes international "made in Romania"". Arenabiz (in Romanian). August 31, 2009. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
