Shutterstock is a leading global provider of quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations, and music. Founded in 2003 by "serial entrepreneur," Jon Oringer, the company aims to provide businesses of all sizes images for their commercial and creative needs at a reasonable price. Since founding, Shutterstock has acquired multiple companies including BigStock, Premium Beat, Rex Features, and Offset.
When Shutterstock took off, it's success was widely noticed. Oringer's founding story was published and shared in multiple mediums across multiple industries—and for good reason. Oringer founded 10 other companies before Shutterstock, and while none were nearly as successful, they led him to his current business model. Shutterstock's entire premise was based off his past learnings, he said in an interview:
"It wasn't just that I understood the pain points in the process—I learned from my own frustration trying to use traditional stock imagery companies and I looked for ways to make it better."
Oringer recognized that there were limited options for businesses when it came to affordable, licensed imagery and wanted to simplify it. So, where did he start? He grabbed his camera and set out to take original photos to offer to customers. In his first year, he captured over 100,000 images, cut and edited them, coded his own website, and eventually revolutionized the stock imagery industry.
Shutterstock captured a global audience by offering a simple subscription based model and throwing out the complex usage rights. Shutterstock reports that over 70% of business comes from outside of the United States—and they aim to keep it that way. Oringer said that his goal is to be everywhere for everyone, to offer customers local content no matter where "local" may be, and reflect diversity in Shutterstock's collection.
The company recognizes that their global mission is going to take some time, but is already taking action to further their goals by increasing photographer and editor coverage at international events, and recently announcing their Amazon storefront which makes the Shutterstock collection more accessible to a broader range of customers.