by Stock photography refers to royalty-free images that are licensed to users by stock photography agencies and libraries for use in various creative projects including advertising, publishing and multimedia. These photos are diversified in genres including people, nature, lifestyle, industrial and abstracts. Stock photos help designers, publishers and marketers to easily search, browse and incorporate relevant visuals into their projects without requiring permissions or payments of licensing fees each time. The globalization and digitalization has fueled a surge in visual content consumption across websites, publications, presentations and mobile applications. Moreover, social media platforms are extensively using stock images to engage target audiences. This rising dependence on graphical illustration has highly boosted the demand for stock photographs worldwide.
The global Stock Photography Market is estimated to be valued at CAGR of 7.1% in 2024 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 7.1% over the forecast period 2023 to 2030, as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights.
Market key trends
The stock photography industry is witnessing a rising influx of user-generated content (UGC). Individual photographers are increasingly uploading their archives on stock sites to monetize original photos. UGC provides more authentic, diverse and niche content options to brands. It has enhanced the visual variety of stock libraries. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies are enabling innovative search filters in stock image marketplaces. Platforms are employing AI to recognize objects, scenes, colors and sentiments in photos to enhance search relevance. This has boosted the discoverability and usability of vast image collections. AI technologies are also automating tasks like tagging, captioning and curation to decrease human efforts.
Porter’s Analysis
Threat of new entrants: The stock photography market poses moderate threat of new entrants as requires high initial investment and established brand recognition.
Bargaining power of buyers: Buyers have moderate bargaining power due to availability of substitutes and relatively low switching costs.
Bargaining power of suppliers: Suppliers have low bargaining power due to presence of several image repositories and photographers.
Threat of new substitutes: Threat of new substitutes is moderate as alternate image sources and self-generating/editing content can be used.
Competitive rivalry: Competition in the market is high among Shutterstock, Getty Images and others.
Key Takeaways
The global Stock Photography Market Share is expected to witness high growth. The global Stock Photography Market is estimated to be valued at CAGR of 7.1% in 2024 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 7.1% over the forecast period 2023 to 2030.
Regional analysis related content comprises Regional analysis related content. The North America region dominates the stock photography market currently due to high commercial photograph usage. Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at fastest CAGR during the forecast period due to increasing use of images in e-commerce and multimedia sectors in China and Japan.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
