Monday 19 January 2015

industry consolidation

With the news of Shutterstock going head to head with Getty with increasing acquisition of collections, it's not at all clear that creating vast content stores with all encompassing shop windows for the passing purchasers is the way the market wants to go - at least from the buyer perspective. Of course there are economies of scale and the big guys do the ecommerce thing better than anyone but the worry is that once the boutique is gone, the unique, the different, the distinctive that all buyers prize almost all alse, is lost. It's not the intention of the consolidating powers but like the designers of the huge out-of-town shopping malls that have sprung up around the world, the entrepreneurs might have got it wrong. The purchasing jury's definitely still out....