Unsplash is a Canadian stock photography platform founded by Mikael Cho in 2013, as he was unable to source high-quality stock images for his freelance website Crew, he got the idea to create a platform where others could freely download stocked images. Advertising is the sole source of revenue for Unsplash. Some of the companies utilizing this service include Google, Le Creuset, Square, and Harley-Davidson.
Unsplash is a Canadian stock photography platform founded by Mikael Cho in 2013.
The idea for Unsplash came about after Cho was unable to source high-quality stock images for his freelance website Crew. After hiring a photographer, Cho posted the unwanted photos from the photoshoot online and invited others to use them as desired. The platform – at the time a humble Tumblr blog – saw 50,000 views on its first day of operation.
Unsplash then moved to its own website in September 2014 after surpassing 1 million downloads per month. The company partnered with Apple to furnish Apple stores with images sourced directly from Unsplash galleries. An API launched soon after, allowing third-party app developers like Trello to incorporate Unsplash images.
Crew was eventually sold to Dribble in 2017, giving Cho the funds and time to focus solely on Unsplash. An iOS app was released soon after.
Unsplash was acquired by Getty Images for an undisclosed sum in March 2021. Operations will continue as a standalone brand with Cho at the helm.
Value Proposition
Vast Image Library: Unsplash offers a vast and diverse library of high-quality, royalty-free images contributed by a global community of photographers, artists, and creators, providing users with access to millions of visually appealing visuals for their projects and creative endeavors.
Free and Easy Access: Unsplash provides free and unrestricted access to its entire image collection, allowing users to download, use, and modify photos without any cost or licensing restrictions, making it an accessible and affordable resource for individuals, startups, and established businesses alike.
Quality and Curation: Unsplash maintains high standards for image quality and curation, ensuring that only the best photographs are featured on its platform, curated by a team of editors and reviewers to showcase a diverse range of styles, subjects, and themes that cater to different tastes and preferences.
Community Engagement: Unsplash fosters a vibrant and supportive community of photographers, designers, and enthusiasts who contribute, collaborate, and engage with each other through the platform, sharing knowledge, inspiration, and feedback to fuel creativity and innovation.
Creative Inspiration: Unsplash serves as a source of inspiration and creativity for users seeking visual ideas, concepts, and themes for their projects, offering curated collections, featured photographers, and trending topics that spark imagination and fuel artistic expression.
Unsplash revenue generation
Advertising is the sole source of revenue for Unsplash. Some of the companies utilizing this service include Google, Le Creuset, Square, and Harley-Davidson.
Through its Unsplash for Brands feature, companies can advertise on the platform and take advantage of the viral nature of online imagery. The company claims its images are downloaded more than the similar services of Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Adobe combined.
Unsplash stipulates that ads on its platform must be contextual and add value to the user experience. Ads are shown on related photo category pages or the advertiser can upload their own images and have them appear under relevant search terms. Brands choosing the latter option tap into a powerful form of advertising, as images are downloaded and repurposed in blog reposts, reports, or presentations.
In addition to collecting advertising revenue, Unsplash will also create authentic, high-quality imagery for each advertising campaign. Boxed Water is an example of a company that commissioned Unsplash photographers to create product photos in fun and engaging contexts.
At the time of writing, Unsplash for Brands is invite-only.
Revenue Streams
Unsplash for Brands: Unsplash offers a premium subscription service called “Unsplash for Brands,” which provides businesses with access to advanced features, customization options, and dedicated support for their visual content needs, generating subscription-based revenue from corporate clients, agencies, and marketing teams.
API and Integrations: Unsplash provides an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows developers, software platforms, and third-party services to integrate Unsplash’s image library directly into their products, websites, and applications, earning revenue through API usage fees, licensing agreements, and partnership arrangements.
Sponsored Collections: Unsplash partners with brands, companies, and organizations to create sponsored collections of images that align with their branding, marketing campaigns, or thematic interests, generating revenue through sponsored content placements, co-branded campaigns, and promotional collaborations.
Premium Content and Features: Unsplash may offer premium content, features, and add-ons for users seeking additional benefits and customization options, such as exclusive collections, advanced search filters, and priority support, generating revenue through one-time purchases, subscription upgrades, or premium memberships.
Advertising and Sponsorships: Unsplash may explore advertising opportunities, sponsorships, and brand partnerships to monetize its platform and reach a wider audience, allowing brands to promote their products, services, and campaigns through targeted ads, sponsored posts, and sponsored content placements on the website and mobile app.
Marketing Strategy
Content Marketing: Unsplash invests in content marketing initiatives, including blog posts, articles, case studies, and tutorials, to educate, inspire, and engage its audience, sharing photography tips, design trends, creative insights, and success stories to attract and retain users and contributors.
Social Media Engagement: Unsplash actively engages with its community and target audience on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, sharing curated images, user-generated content, featured photographers, and community highlights to showcase the diversity and quality of its image collection.
Email Campaigns: Unsplash leverages email marketing campaigns and newsletters to communicate with its user base, providing updates on new features, collections, and community events, delivering personalized recommendations, and encouraging user participation and engagement through calls-to-action and promotions.
Partnerships and Collaborations: Unsplash collaborates with brands, agencies, influencers, and creative organizations to expand its reach, visibility, and impact, partnering on co-branded campaigns, events, and initiatives that promote creativity, diversity, and inclusivity within the photography and design community.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Unsplash optimizes its website and content for search engines to improve its visibility and discoverability online, leveraging keywords, metadata, and descriptive tags to enhance its rankings in search results and attract organic traffic from users seeking free stock photos and visuals.
Distribution Channels
Online Platform: Unsplash operates an online platform and website where users can browse, search, and download high-resolution images from its extensive library, providing a centralized hub for accessing and discovering visually stunning photography and visuals for personal and commercial use.
Mobile App: Unsplash offers a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to access and download images on-the-go, browse curated collections, and engage with the Unsplash community, providing a convenient and seamless experience for mobile users.
API Integration: Unsplash’s API is integrated into various software platforms, design tools, and content management systems (CMS), enabling users to access and embed Unsplash’s image library directly into their applications, websites, and projects, expanding the reach and distribution of its visual content.
Partnership Networks: Unsplash partners with digital agencies, design firms, marketing platforms, and creative communities to distribute its image library and resources to a broader audience, collaborating on joint promotions, content sharing, and affiliate programs to drive traffic and engagement.
Word-of-Mouth and Referrals: Unsplash relies on word-of-mouth marketing and referrals from its existing user base and community members to spread awareness and attract new users to its platform, leveraging social sharing, recommendations, and user-generated content to amplify its reach and influence in the photography and design industry.
Key takeaways:
Unsplash is a Canadian stock photography platform founded in 2013 by Mikael Cho. He got the idea for the company after having difficulty sourcing high-quality photographs for his freelancer website Crew.
Unsplash earns revenue through contextual and organic advertising. It has worked with brands such as Harley-Davidson, Le Creuset, and Google. The company also charges companies if they require high-quality images for an advertising campaign.
Unsplash claims its advertising platform is five times more effective than TV and digital media. Brands may choose to advertise by uploading their own photographs, which are then shared across the internet.
Key Highlights of Unsplash’s Business Model:
Value Proposition:
Unsplash’s value proposition centers around offering a vast library of high-quality, royalty-free images for free. Its platform provides accessibility, community, and collaboration, making it a valuable resource for designers, marketers, and content creators seeking visually appealing imagery for their projects.
Customer Segments:
Unsplash serves a diverse range of customer segments, including designers, small businesses, bloggers, content creators, and developers. By catering to various user needs and preferences, Unsplash attracts a broad audience seeking free and high-quality images for personal and commercial use.
Distribution Strategy:
Unsplash distributes its image library through its online platform, mobile app, API integration, and partnerships with platforms like Adobe. By leveraging digital channels, API access, and community engagement, Unsplash extends its reach and accessibility to users worldwide.
Revenue Streams:
Unsplash generates revenue primarily through advertising, offering brands the opportunity to advertise on its platform and reach its global audience. Additionally, Unsplash may explore revenue streams such as premium subscriptions, custom licensing, and API fees to diversify its income sources.
Marketing Strategy:
Unsplash’s marketingstrategy focuses on word-of-mouth referrals, content marketing, social media engagement, and community participation to promote its platform and attract users. By leveraging user satisfaction, educational content, and community building, Unsplash drives organic growth and brand advocacy.
Organization Structure:
Unsplash maintains an organized structure with leadership, product development, community management, and marketing teams. This structure supports its mission of providing free, high-quality imagery while facilitating platform management, user engagement, and growth initiatives.
Origin Story:
Founded by Mikael Cho in 2013, Unsplash emerged from the founder’s frustration with sourcing high-quality stock images for his freelance website Crew. Cho’s initiative to share unwanted photos online led to Unsplash’s rapid growth, partnerships with Apple, and eventual acquisition by Getty Images.
Revenue Generation:
Unsplash earns revenue primarily through advertising on its platform, allowing brands to showcase their products and services through contextual and user-generated content. With its Unsplash for Brands feature, Unsplash offers advertising opportunities that leverage its viral image-sharing model.
Marketing Strategy:
Unsplash’s marketingstrategy focuses on content marketing, social media engagement, community building, and word-of-mouth referrals. By creating valuable content, engaging with its audience on social platforms, and fostering a supportive community, Unsplash promotes its platform and attracts users organically.
Key Takeaways:
Unsplash disrupts the traditional stock photography industry by offering a vast library of high-quality images for free. Its advertising-driven revenue model, combined with API integration and community engagement, positions Unsplash as a leading platform for visual content creation and sharing.
Business Model Element
Analysis
Implications
Examples
Value Proposition
Unsplash’s value proposition includes: – Free High-Quality Images: Providing a vast library of professional-quality photos that users can download and use for various purposes without cost. – Accessibility: Offering an easy-to-use platform that allows individuals and businesses to find and use images for their projects. – Community and Collaboration: Building a community of photographers and creatives who share their work and collaborate on projects. Unsplash delivers a valuable resource for designers, marketers, and content creators, making it easy to access high-quality images for their projects.
Attracts a wide range of users seeking free and high-quality imagery. Enables easy access to a diverse collection of images for various purposes. Fosters a sense of community and collaboration among photographers and creatives. Provides a valuable resource in the design and content creation industries. Establishes a strong value proposition in the stock photography market.
– A vast library of free, high-quality images. – User-friendly platform for image search and download. – A community of photographers and creatives.
Customer Segments
Unsplash serves the following customer segments: 1. Designers and Creatives: Professionals and enthusiasts looking for images to use in web design, marketing, and creative projects. 2. Small Businesses: Companies with limited budgets seeking quality visuals for their marketing materials. 3. Bloggers and Content Creators: Individuals and bloggers in need of compelling visuals for their articles and content. 4. Developers and App Builders: Developers integrating Unsplash’s API into their applications for image integration. Unsplash caters to a diverse range of users in need of free, high-quality images.
Attracts designers and creatives seeking visual assets for projects. Provides a cost-effective solution for small businesses with limited budgets. Offers compelling visuals for bloggers and content creators. Serves developers looking to integrate images into applications via the Unsplash API. Targets a broad user base with varied image needs.
– Designers and creatives in need of visuals. – Small businesses with budget constraints. – Bloggers and content creators for articles and posts. – Developers incorporating Unsplash images into apps.
Distribution Strategy
Unsplash’s distribution strategy includes: – Online Platform: Offering a user-friendly website and mobile app where users can search, browse, and download images. – API Integration: Providing an API for developers to integrate Unsplash’s image library into their applications and platforms. – Partnerships: Collaborating with platforms, such as Adobe, to extend the reach and accessibility of Unsplash images. – Community Engagement: Encouraging photographers and contributors to share their work on the platform. Unsplash uses its platform, API, partnerships, and community engagement to distribute its vast collection of images.
Provides a convenient online platform for users to access and download images. Extends its reach through API integration with various applications. Collaborates with partners to expand the accessibility of Unsplash images. Engages photographers and contributors to continually grow its image library. Implements a multifaceted distribution strategy to reach a wide audience.
– User-friendly website and mobile app for image access. – API for developers to integrate Unsplash images. – Partnerships with platforms like Adobe. – A community of photographers and contributors.
Revenue Streams
Unsplash generates revenue through the following channels: 1. Licensing and Marketplace: Offering a premium subscription service called Unsplash Pro, which provides access to additional features, such as advanced search and analytics. 2. Custom Licensing: Providing options for businesses and individuals to license specific images for commercial use. 3. API Pricing: Charging developers and businesses for API access, with pricing based on usage and features. Unsplash generates income from premium subscriptions, custom licensing, and API usage fees while keeping the core image library free to use.
Earns revenue from premium subscriptions for enhanced features. Generates income from custom licensing for commercial image use. Charges developers and businesses for API access based on usage. Maintains a balance between free access and premium services to support the platform. Establishes multiple revenue streams within its image-sharing platform.
– Revenue from Unsplash Pro premium subscriptions. – Income from custom licensing of images. – API fees charged to developers and businesses.
Marketing Strategy
Unsplash’s marketing strategy involves: – Word of Mouth: Leveraging its reputation and user satisfaction to drive organic growth and word-of-mouth referrals. – Content Marketing: Creating blog posts and articles that offer insights, inspiration, and tips related to photography and design. – Social Media: Sharing user-generated content and engaging with the creative community on platforms like Instagram and Twitter. – Community Engagement: Encouraging photographers and contributors to actively participate and share their work on Unsplash. Unsplash focuses on organic growth, content marketing, social media, and community engagement to promote its platform and expand its user base.
Relies on its reputation and user satisfaction for organic growth. Creates valuable content to engage and educate its target audience. Utilizes social media to showcase user-generated content and connect with the community. Encourages active participation from photographers and contributors. Implements a marketing strategy aligned with its user-focused approach.
– Reputation-driven organic growth and referrals. – Blog content offering photography insights. – Active presence on social media platforms. – Engagement of photographers and contributors.
Organization Structure
Unsplash’s organizational structure includes: – Leadership Team: Executives responsible for strategic decisions and platform management. – Product and Technology Team: Engineers, designers, and developers working on platform enhancements and mobile app development. – Community Team: Engaging with photographers, contributors, and users to foster community growth. – Marketing and Content Team: Creating marketing campaigns, content, and social media engagement strategies. Unsplash maintains an organized structure to support its mission of providing free, high-quality imagery to a global user base.
Led by an executive team responsible for strategic decisions. Employs technology experts to enhance the platform and app. Engages a community team to foster a sense of belonging among users. Utilizes marketing and content teams to promote the platform and engage with users. Maintains an organized structure to support its mission and business model.
– Executive team for strategic leadership. – Product and tech team for platform development. – Community team for user engagement. – Marketing and content team for promotion.
A platform business model generates value by enabling interactions between people, groups, and users by leveraging network effects. Platform business models usually comprise two sides: supply and demand. Kicking off the interactions between those two sides is one of the crucial elements for a platform business model success.
A marketplace is a platform where buyers and sellers interact and transact. The platform acts as a marketplace that will generate revenues in fees from one or all the parties involved in the transaction. Usually, marketplaces can be classified in several ways, like those selling services vs. products or those connecting buyers and sellers at B2B, B2C, or C2C level. And those marketplaces connecting two core players, or more.
A network effect is a phenomenon in which as more people or users join a platform, the more the value of the service offered by the platform improves for those joining afterward.
In an asymmetric businessmodel, the organization doesn’t monetize the user directly, but it leverages the data users provide coupled with technology, thus have a key customer pay to sustain the core asset. For example, Google makes money by leveraging users’ data, combined with its algorithms sold to advertisers for visibility.
In an asymmetric businessmodel, the organization doesn’t monetize the user directly, but it leverages the data users provide coupled with technology, thus having a key customer pay to sustain the core asset. For example, Google makes money by leveraging users’ data, combined with its algorithms sold to advertisers for visibility. This is how attention merchants make monetize their business models.
The wholesale model is a selling model where wholesalers sell their products in bulk to a retailer at a discounted price. The retailer then on-sells the products to consumers at a higher price. In the wholesale model, a wholesaler sells products in bulk to retail outlets for onward sale. Occasionally, the wholesaler sells direct to the consumer, with supermarket giant Costco the most obvious example.
A retail business model follows a direct-to-consumer approach, also called B2C, where the company sells directly to final customers a processed/finished product. This implies a business model that is mostly local-based, it carries higher margins, but also higher costs and distribution risks.
A B2B2C is a particular kind of business model where a company, rather than accessing the consumer market directly, it does that via another business. Yet the final consumers will recognize the brand or the service provided by the B2B2C. The company offering the service might gain direct access to consumers over time.
The term “crowdsourcing” was first coined by Wired Magazine editor Jeff Howe in a 2006 article titled Rise of Crowdsourcing. Though the practice has existed in some form or another for centuries, it rose to prominence when eCommerce, social media, and smartphone culture began to emerge. Crowdsourcing is the act of obtaining knowledge, goods, services, or opinions from a group of people. These people submit information via social media, smartphone apps, or dedicated crowdsourcing platforms.
While the term has been coined by Andrew Lampitt, open-core is an evolution of open-source. Where a core part of the software/platform is offered for free, while on top of it are built premium features or add-ons, which get monetized by the corporation who developed the software/platform. An example of the GitLab open core model, where the hosted service is free and open, while the software is closed.
Open source is licensed and usually developed and maintained by a community of independent developers. While the freemium is developed in-house. Thus the freemium give the company that developed it, full control over its distribution. In an open-source model, the for-profit company has to distribute its premium version per its open-source licensing model.
The freemium – unless the whole organization is aligned around it – is a growth strategy rather than a business model. A free service is provided to a majority of users, while a small percentage of those users convert into paying customers through the sales funnel. Free users will help spread the brand through word of mouth.
A freeterprise is a combination of free and enterprise where free professional accounts are driven into the funnel through the free product. As the opportunity is identified the company assigns the free account to a salesperson within the organization (inside sales or fields sales) to convert that into a B2B/enterprise account.
In a franchained business model (a short-term chain, long-term franchise) model, the company deliberately launched its operations by keeping tight ownership on the main assets, while those are established, thus choosing a chain model. Once operations are running and established, the company divests its ownership and opts instead for a franchising model.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
