123RF
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Stock photography, stock footage, stock music |
| Founded | 3 April 2005 |
| Founder | Andy Sitt, Stephanie Sitt |
| Fate | Active |
| Headquarters | |
Number of employees | 350 (2015) |
| Parent | Inmagine Group |
| Website | 123rf |
123RF (Part of Inmagine Group) is a stock photos agency founded in 2005 which sells royalty-free images and stock photography. In the past few years, 123RF expanded the portfolio to serve the growing market of the web-based content industry. In addition to over 170 million images in its library, the company also has a large collection of vector graphics, icons, fonts, videos and audio files. The marketing is mainly carried out by about 350 employees from 40 offices around the world.[1]
History
In 2000, the founder, Andy Sitt, had just left his job at a British company that sold stock images in CDs while showing customers printed catalogs. Andy launched his e-commerce business by setting up Inmagine, selling premium large-format photo prints. Together with Stephanie Sitt as a co-founder and current CEO,[2] Inmagine Group is one of the few technology companies to have bootstrapped globally from Asia.
From the beginning, Inmagine produced proprietary content, which required in-house photographers, graphic designers, professional models, makeup artists, and a sales team to cater to demand.
In 2005, Inmagine set up 123RF, which offers royalty-free stock images, videos, as well as audio clips, from just US$1 to US$3 apiece. Unlike the previous business model, 123RF allows photographers around the world to sell their work on the platform under a crowdsourcing model.[3]
In 2011, Inmagine established a global presence with 44 regional offices worldwide[4], with offices in North and Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australasia[5]
Subsequently, Inmagine Group has expanded by building new businesses such as Stockunlimited.com, Designs.net. In addition, the company also acquired TheHungryJPEG.com, Craftbundles.com, Pixlr.com, Vectr.com, and Storyandheart.com in 2017.[6]
In 2019, Inmagine had also consolidated and streamlined its offerings into three main products; 123RF, Pixlr, and Designs.ai, along with launching Pixlr Market (now Stock by Pixlr) and Pixlr Editor.[7]
That following year in 2020, the company launched its first artificial intelligence platform, Inmagine Brain[8]. In November 2020, the company confirmed that it had been subject to a data breach, with 8.3 million customer records from the breach available for sale on the dark web.[9]
Through 123RF, Inmagine created a visual guide in 2021 to predict image search trends and colors that will be used throughout the year[10].
Starting in 2021, the company has also begun exploring the NFT marketplace with Pixlr Genesis, its first large-scale project in the digital collectibles market.[11]
In June 2022, the company launched its free images section, where audiences can download images for free, but with only a limited amount of daily downloads[12]
Acquisitions
In March 2017, 123RF acquired TheHungryJPEG, a UK-registered font and graphics marketplace and its sister company Craftbundles for an undisclosed sum.[13][14]
In April 2017, 123RF acquired Pixlr, an online web-based image editor from Autodesk for an undisclosed sum.[15]
In November 2017, 123RF acquired Vectr, a web-based vector editor and Story & Heart, a video education platform.[16]
References
- ^ "Malaysian stock photo startup 123RF acquires TheHungryJPEG with plans to go IPO". VC News Network.
- ^ Tan, Tee May (2017-10-11). "5 Of The Most Common Startup Pain Points—Solved By This M'sian Startup Worth US$220 Mil". Vulcan Post. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
- ^ "How Malaysian husband and wife bootstrapped one of the world's top stock image players". Tech in Asia.
- ^ Administrator, Systems. "Inmagine - About". Inmagine. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ Administrator, Systems. "Inmagine - Contact". Inmagine. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ Administrator, Systems. "Inmagine - About". Inmagine. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ "This company makes content production easier with AI: Q&A with Designs.ai CEO Warren Leow". KrASIA. 2020-11-17. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ Editorial (2022-05-01). "Inmagine Evolved From A Digital Stock Photo Library To A Complete Creative Ecosystem Driven By Creativity, Technology, And Entrepreneurship". Tech Company News. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ "Popular stock photo service hit by data breach, 8.3M records for sale". BleepingComputer. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ^ "123RF's visual guide to image search trends and colours in 2021". www.marketing-interactive.com. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ "Pixlr Sets up the World's Biggest Autonomous Art Museum". Tokenhell. 2021-11-03. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ "Free Stock Photos and Images - Download free images for free!". 123RF Stock Photos. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ^ "Malaysian stock photo startup 123RF acquires TheHungry.JPEG to grow design resources globally". e27..
- ^ "123RF acquires design marketplace TheHungryJPEG". www.dealstreetasia.com. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
- ^ "123RF acquires Pixlr, looking towards securing 50M monthly active users". e27.
- ^ "Malaysia: Digital stock media firm Inmagine Group buys two US companies". www.dealstreetasia.com. Retrieved 2017-11-19.