123RF (Part of Inmagine Group) is a stock photos agency founded in 2005 which sells royalty-free images and stock photography. In the past few years, 123RF expanded its portfolio to serve the growing market of the web-based content industry. In addition to over 170 million images in its library, the company also has a large collection of vector graphics, icons, fonts, videos, and audio files. The marketing is mainly carried out by about 350 employees from 40 offices around the world.
History
In 2000, the founder, Andy Sitt, had just quit his job at a British company that sold stock images in CDs while showing customers printed catalogs. Andy launched his e-commerce business by setting up Inmagine, which sold premium large-format photo prints. Together with Stephanie Sitt as a co-founder and current CEO, Inmagine Group is one of the few technology companies to have bootstrapped globally from Asia.
Inmagine also produced proprietary content which required in-house photographers, graphic designers, make-up artists, and a sales team to cater to demand. In 2005, Inmagine set up 123RF, which offers royalty-free stock images, videos, as well as audio clips, from just US$1 to US$3 apiece. Unlike the previous business model, 123RF allows photographers around the world to sell their work on the platform on a royalty-free model.
Subsequently, Inmagine Group has expanded by building new businesses such as Stockunlimited.com, and Designs.net and has also acquired TheHungryJPEG.com, Craftbundles.com, Pixlr.com, Vectr.com and Storyandheart.com.
In November 2020, the company confirmed that it had been subject to a data breach, with 8.3 million customer records from the breach available for sale on the dark web.
Acquisitions
In March 2017, 123RF acquired TheHungryJPEG, a UK-registered font and graphics marketplace, and its sister company Craftbundles for an undisclosed sum.
In April 2017, 123RF acquired Pixlr, an online web-based image editor from Autodesk for an undisclosed sum.
In November 2017, 123RF acquired Vectr, a web-based vector editor, and Story & Heart, a video education platform.
References
- ^ “Malaysian stock photo startup 123RF acquires TheHungryJPEG with plans to go IPO”. VC News Network.
- ^ Tan, Tee May (2017-10-11). “5 Of The Most Common Startup Pain Points—Solved By This M’sian Startup Worth US$220 Mil”. Vulcan Post. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
- ^ “How Malaysian husband and wife bootstrapped one of the world’s top stock image players”. Tech in Asia.
- ^ “Popular stock photo service hit by data breach, 8.3M records for sale”. BleepingComputer. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ^ “Malaysian stock photo startup 123RF acquires TheHungry.JPEG to grow design resources globally”. e27..
- ^ “123RF acquires design marketplace TheHungryJPEG”. www.dealstreetasia.com. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
- ^ “123RF acquires Pixlr, looking towards securing 50M monthly active users”. e27.
- ^ “Malaysia: Digital stock media firm Inmagine Group buys two US companies”. www.dealstreetasia.com. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
