Photo Stock Marketplace Pixerf Launches in Indonesia

Photo stock marketplace, Pixerf, is officially launched in Indonesia. The startup offers original content from Asia that used to have a gap between supply and demand from brands to advertise.

The SIngapore-based startup has arrived since 2015, but recently launched in June 2018 with seed funding worth of $2 million (almost 28 billion Rupiah) from the unpublished investor.

Pixerf's Founder and CEO, Sa'at Ismail said, Indonesia becomes a target market because the country has been the second biggest contributor in terms of users (photographer) for 27% of a total exceeding 80 thousand people.

He has a big commitment to rub business in Indonesia. Within the next 5 months, they will set an office in Jakarta, followed by Bali and Jogja, also to recruit marketing team for further development.

"It's almost two years we run business in Indonesia after the beta version. However, our photographers aren't very active. We want to be more reactive, therefore, an office will be set as our physical existence," Ismail said on Thursday (9/12).

Business Model

Ismail said on Pixerf's business, not only the marketplace, but they also run custom commissions and crowdsourced mission. These two are said to differ them from others. They only provide Asia-related content.

Custom commissions is a business model for brands looking for content related to their project, either for ads or others. There's also a platform for brands to publish their project to Pixerf's photographer community. Next, Pixerf is to identify photographers with the best portfolio to use for brands.

Meanwhile, Crowdsourced mission is a simple way to improve brand awareness by making quizzes to encourage people in producing segmented content. Pixerf is to curate all contents submitted and decide the winner.

"Custom commission is the most interesting part. The brand is to have the requested content by our community and choose certain photographers. Therefore, brand and photographer shouldn't have come from the same country."

Each business model has different commission rates for photographers. Custom commission sets 20%-35% fee for photographers of the total project worth. While crowdsourced mission will give the whole commission to the winner (photographer).

Pixerf doesn't take any commission from these two business models. They only monetize the photo stock marketplace, around 30%-50% of the total sales. The other 50%-70% will be given to the photographer.

The rate on Pixerf starts from $10, it's automatically displayed when the photo uploaded. The rate is calculated based on image quality and resolution.

Stock photo marketplace has been the most contributing business line in Pixerf. It's because the business tends to have direct sales channels.

"Many other players are selling their photo cheaper because they have a membership. We, with different approach, want Pixerf to have authentic content as a reward to photographers."

Since the launching last year, Pixerf has received over 250 thousand curated visual content for editorial and commercial license.

In terms of crowdsourced mission, there are more than 50 missions sponsored by brands and more than 5 thousand photos are received. In Indonesia, Pixerf has its first partner to promote the current campaign, #Cerdikiawan.

They have over 80 thousand photographers in total. Five most contributed countries are India (39%), Indonesia (27%), Malaysia (13%), Singapore (6%), and Thailand (2%).

Further plan

Ismail expected Pixarf can acquire more photographers in Indonesia. In fact, they have no specific requirements. Either a beginner or just an enthusiast, anyone can join the platform. They only have to upload the images.

Pixerf team is to curate the content originality before published for sale, also the copyrights. "Anyone can join because we want to connect the underexposed content creator to brands. We didn't take any royalty."

In terms of technology, the team plans to develop advanced AI on its platform. It's to facilitate brands and buyers of related contents, also to learn user behavior.

"We want all the process to be fully automatic, brands to find photographer easier from the information displayed on the calendar. Usually, the most difficult process is to sort the photographer's schedules, and we're to create the solution."

Regarding expansion, Indonesia won't be the last destination. Within the next 18 months, Pixers is to expand to Malaysia, Thailand, India, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. After the SEA, the next destination is Korea and Japan.

The CEO said on a different occasion to DailySocial that the company is in progress for pre Series A funding. It's expected to be finalized at the end of this year.

"We're now focused on developing AI technology, for all the processes to be automatic. Along the way, we're also on progress to the pre Series A funding to support the whole Pixerf's business plan on its aim to top Asia's market," he added.

Currently, Pixerf is available through the website and app. Soon, the app will be available in Bahasa Indonesia.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian