The previously free Fotolia-owned stock Web site PhotoXpress has relaunched with millions of new images and a new paid subscription option.
Fotolia launched PhotoXpress last May to provide free stock images upon user registration. At the time, insiders speculated that Fotolia was planning on using PhotoXpress to upsell free-image users to its microstock business by using user information for promotional purposes.
It now appears that PhotoXpress is flourishing into an entirely separate source of revenue. In addition to an inventory of 500,000 free images, the site now offers a premium library of 6 million photos, accessible via subscription.
Pay-for images are now returned before the free ones in PhotoXpress search results; users have to click another button to proceed to the free content. Subscription plans are offered in two tiers, starting with $9.99 per month for 15,000 images. This price point—which could theoretically redefine microstock into nanostock—will certainly be perceived as absurdly low by traditionalists, but it is a step up from free, and volume of sales has made the low end of the stock photography business extremely profitable for a small group of distributors.
In addition to new images and paid subscription products, PhotoXpress also has a number of new technical features. These include bulk download capabilities, a lightbox dashboard with drag-and-drop functionality and downloadable browser plugins. The company also said it responded to customer demand for editing the content to make it “safe and tasteful for our young, academic, and impressionable users.”