123rf is a stock content agency founded in 2005 which sells royalty-free images. In the past few years, 123RF expanded the portfolio to serve the growing market of the web-based content industry. In addition to over 90 million images in its library, the company also has a large collection of vector graphics, icons, fonts, video 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 catalogues. Andy launched his e-commerce business by setting up Inmagine, which sold premium large-format photo prints. Together with Stephanie Sitt as a cofounder and current CEO, Inmagine Group is one of the fewtechnology 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, Designs.net and has also acquired TheHungryJPEG.com, Craftbundles.com, Pixlr.com, Vectr.com and Storyandheart.com.
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.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a cloud-based set of image tools and utilities, including a number of photo editors, a screen recorderbrowser extension, and a photo sharing service. The suite was intended for non-professionals, however the apps range from simple to advanced photo editing. It can be used on PCs, and on smartphones or tablets using a mobile app. Time put Pixlr on its list of the top 50 websites of 2013. Pixlr was founded in Sweden in 2008 by Ola Sevandersson. On 19 July 2011, Autodesk announced that they had acquired the Pixlr suite and that Sevandersson had joined the company. 123rf acquired Autodesk Pixlr for an undisclosed agreement on 24 April 2017.
