Shutterstock Acquires Turbosquid

In the last month we heard information that shutterstock intends to buy Turbosquid – turned out to be real.

The largest player on the stock photo market has decided to purchase the largest portal offering 3d models. According to the press release, Turbosquid was purchased for $ 75 million. From the perspective of an ordinary person, it is an astonishing amount, but if you look at it from a different angle, it may not seem like much.

Turbosquid is currently the largest marketplace with 3d models, bringing stable profits all the time. We also know the cases of 3d pages that, after being purchased by external companies, collapsed after prestige (for ex. the3dstudio.com). In 2012 my personal sales of 3d models on the3dstudio.com website was almost half of what on turbosquid. And after they were bought by an outside company, earnings dropped significantly, and eventually dropped to zero until the site stopped working.

Many turbosquid sellers share these concerns and are worried about the future of Turbosquid. An additional element is the royalty rates. Many 3d artists fear that their royaltie rates will drop significantly after this – to the standards at which shutterstock’s photos are offered. And yet photography and 3d modeling are completely different fields, the rates of which should be considered separately.