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March 2016 (published: 30.03.2016)
Number 1(24)
Home > Issue > Imagery aggregators on financial market: capital fresh stream
and new investment risk
Voronov V.S.
It has already become common practice in economic literature to call companies, which form large patent portfolios for the purpose of intellectual property risk management, as ‘patent aggregators’. In recent years however, new intermediary companies successfully applying the same strategy to other intellectual property assets classes in the e-commerce market have emerged. This article deals with the problems in development for so called microstock photography companies, which basic assets consist of large stock digital image portfolios (collections). In a similar way to the already known concept ‘aggregator’ it is offered to classify these companies as intellectual assets aggregators, particularly as stock imagery aggregators. The reasons for the rapid business expansion of microphotostocks on the background of impetuous growth of Internet at all are investigated. RF-licensing model and its specific enhancements, mass subscription sales techniques for images and other innovations in microstock photography companies are analyzed. Financial results in connection with successful IPO of industry leading company are investigated. Short facts about Russian analogues of microphotostock companies discussed. The strict need for identification, systematization and assessment of specific risks highly important for investors in terms of the underlying assets features of such companies and fast-changing trends in the development of the low-budget e-commerce market are emphasized in conclusion.
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Keywords: copyright license, e-commerce, intellectual property, intellectual asset, imagery aggregator, photostock, risk management, stock imagery.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
UDC 336.7
Imagery aggregators on financial market: capital fresh stream
and new investment risk
It has already become common practice in economic literature to call companies, which form large patent portfolios for the purpose of intellectual property risk management, as ‘patent aggregators’. In recent years however, new intermediary companies successfully applying the same strategy to other intellectual property assets classes in the e-commerce market have emerged. This article deals with the problems in development for so called microstock photography companies, which basic assets consist of large stock digital image portfolios (collections). In a similar way to the already known concept ‘aggregator’ it is offered to classify these companies as intellectual assets aggregators, particularly as stock imagery aggregators. The reasons for the rapid business expansion of microphotostocks on the background of impetuous growth of Internet at all are investigated. RF-licensing model and its specific enhancements, mass subscription sales techniques for images and other innovations in microstock photography companies are analyzed. Financial results in connection with successful IPO of industry leading company are investigated. Short facts about Russian analogues of microphotostock companies discussed. The strict need for identification, systematization and assessment of specific risks highly important for investors in terms of the underlying assets features of such companies and fast-changing trends in the development of the low-budget e-commerce market are emphasized in conclusion.
Read the full article
Keywords: copyright license, e-commerce, intellectual property, intellectual asset, imagery aggregator, photostock, risk management, stock imagery.
DOI 10.17586/2310-1172-2016-9-1-81-91