Getty Acquiring Unsplash

[ELBeavers]

I just saw the news that Getty Images is acquiring Unsplash. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for Affinity?

Does anyone know what impact this may have with Unsplash integration in Affinity apps?

[GarryP]

My guess is that:

• at best, nothing will change;
• at worst, we will not be able to use any Unsplash images directly from the Stock Panel;
• probably, something in between (maybe we will only see a small subset of the images available from the site itself).

I doubt anyone outside of Getty Images (or maybe Unsplash) will know exactly what will happen at the moment.

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, GarryP said:

at best, nothing will change;

From the FAQ:

Quote

Will anything change because of the acquisition?

Unsplash will continue operating as we have been with the same team, the same site, the same community. Unsplash images will continue to be free.

 

[GarryP]

But no timescale has been given.
Therefore “continue operating as we have been” could have “for the next two weeks” added to it ‘behind the scenes’ without making it incorrect ("continue" doesn't mean forever).
Also, “Unsplash images will continue to be free” may not mean ‘free to everyone’ after a certain time (there's "free" and then there's "free to some").

Given that they say “Unsplash will continue operating as we have been with the same team” and “We’ll be hiring and adding resources”, at the same time, they seem to be contradicting themselves already. (How can it be the same team if they are hiring other people? And, if they are hiring other people, will those other people be additions or replacing existing people? They don’t say.)

There are no details so we can only guess.

[Alfred]

16 minutes ago, GarryP said:

(How can it be the same team if they are hiring other people? And, if they are hiring other people, will those other people be additions or replacing existing people? They don’t say.)

How could the newly hired people replace existing people if it’s “the same team”? I read it as saying that their intention is to keep on the current staff but expand the team.

[GarryP]

The way I see it, an expanded team isn’t the same team, it’s a larger team with more people in it.
If you fill a car with a team of people and go on a journey, and then add more people to the team, can the same team still fit in the car for the return journey? I would say no, so it’s not the same team.
So they are either keeping the same team, with the same team members, or they are expanding the team (not the same team), or they are hiring people to replace people (same sized team, perhaps, but not the same team).
We don’t have the details so we can’t know for sure.
We can guess, or assume, but not know.

[Alfred]

14 minutes ago, GarryP said:

The way I see it, an expanded team isn’t the same team, it’s a larger team with more people in it.

[v_kyr]

• Getty Images (Wikipedia)
• Simpson, Meagan (30 March 2021). "Unsplash to be acquired by Getty Images | BetaKit". BetaKit. Retrieved 30 March 2021.

I believe @GarryP's skepticism about this deal is appropriate. Usually you don't throw in an undisclosed sum of money for nothing, of course one hopes for some income and future profits from it.

[Andy05]

Maybe there's something planned like

• Getty Images -> expensive, exclusive
• Unsplash -> free (though probably the archive will grow in a way slower pace in the future), because
• there are already some approaches towards making more profit on Unsplash's side, i. e. Unsplash Hire or Unsplash Brands

Basically a concept might be, keeping Unsplash's reputation as for "teasing" people for free into their stocks in order to pass them to one of their paid services or the premium stock at Getty.

[nezumi]

Every single time some company is buying other they ALWAYS say nothing will change or it will be better. It rarely is.
Here we have company that is making money on selling pictures acquiring company that is giving pictures away for free. What do you think will happen? Come on now...
You think they spent money, bought free competition to make it even more competitive and keep giving away nice photos so they can make less money? Yeah, that makes sense

The only good thing that can possibly come out of it is that other sites that are offering free photos - like Pixabay and Pexels - can grow. But thinking that this is good for Unsplash is like believing in advertisement. Naive.