Fotolia Instant is first app to successfully monetize smartphone photos

- Smartphone photography app is first to hit scale, with 50,000 images sold; adds Android app alongside its iOS app

LONDON, June 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Fotolia, the world's largest microstock agency based outside the US, announced today over 50,000 image sales via its Fotolia Instant app, making it by far the most successful platform for selling smartphone photography. Until now available only on iOS, Fotolia today also launched an Android version, which is available free on Google Play.

Fotolia Instant is, to date, the only smartphone app to succeed in enabling photographers to sell their smartphone images. It is the only such offering from the "Big 3" microstock providers, and is designed specifically for selling, rather than for monetizing private, non-commercial photos, as some social networks have at times tried to do. And it is far ahead of other photographer community sites, who have announced plans to sell images, but do not have a professional selling background, or the other half of a marketplace: an audience of millions of image buyers looking to purchase.

"At first Instant was an experiment, because we knew mobile photography is a big trend that we should not ignore. Now we see that Instant is a source of fresh new images and sales for Fotolia that goes far beyond our expectations. It is hard to mix the 'magic ingredients' to make a marketplace take off, so we're thrilled by its success, and excited to see how the launch of the Android app will boost the number of mobile contributions and sales," says Oleg Tscheltzoff, founder and CEO of Fotolia.

Fotolia Instant allows any iPhone – and now Android – user to download the app, get a free account, and upload photos for sale. It is mobile-only, and plugs in to Fotolia's community of 5 million image contributors and buyers. Proceeds from sales are shared with the photographer, as in Fotolia's other image collections. Over the past nine months, Fotolia Instant has been established amongst users as a convenient tool to earn money with smartphone pictures, as well as a market for a new group of photographers, with iconic, fresh and spontaneous mobile photography.

Since launching in October 2013, more than 135,000 images have been uploaded, and over 35,000 images have been accepted to the Instant collection, which is curated to ensure quality. Images from the Instant collection have been downloaded more than 50,000 times, an impressive demonstration of the acceptance of smartphone images among buyers of creative stock photo content.

Morgan David de Lossy, Head of Mobile at Fotolia adds: "What we call 'phoneography' has brought photography closer to a much wider audience. This new generation of mobile photographers enjoys an fresh, youthful, nonchalant approach to commercial photography. The best sellers of the Instant collection are generally images of younger people having fun outdoors. Sun, fun, bright colors and a spontaneous, authentic atmosphere create the look that buyers are looking for in mobile images. Instant embodies the joy of life, urbanity and temporary lifestyle. It's a brand new iconography that is being created, a mood that reflects the way people shoot nowadays and that buyers need to reach the younger generation."

A selection of Fotolia's Instant collection images can be viewed here

The Fotolia Instant app for Android is available for free at Google Play

About Fotolia

Fotolia is a leading provider of royalty-free photos, vectors, illustrations and HD video, and the preferred choice by millions of artists and content creators worldwide. As the first worldwide microstock organization to offer both crowd-sourced and professional images on one site. Fotolia provides its members with quality, reliability and affordability. Today, Fotolia is over 4.9 million members strong, and spans the globe with websites in 14 languages and offices in 23 countries. With over 29 million files to choose from, Fotolia offers something for everyone on any budget. Fotolia was founded in 2004 in New York City.

Press contact:
Daniela Reissmann
Daniela (at) fotolia (dot) com