Getty Images CEO Craig Peters joined Cheddar News to discuss the company’s Q2 results from the New York Stock Exchange. The company reported $233 million in revenue at the end of the quarter in large part due to the shift of the marketplace to corporate subscriptions, part of a years-long shift as companies build out their social presence and website, relying even more on video. He also touched upon the importance of diversity of content, driven by a slew of new talent who have different perspectives, and how NFTs are impacting its business. 

Opening Bell

Getty Images CEO on Q2 Results, Growing Video Business

joining me now is craig, Peters ceo of getty images, craig, just first of all, congratulations on, on ringing the opening bell this morning? I'm sure that was an exciting moment for you. Thank you and yes, it was, it was a bit surreal but but exciting for sure. Alright, let's jump into kind of the growth story that gets reported its last earnings. What are some of the main contributors for growth for the last quarter? Well, you know, it all starts with fantastic content. That's the base of what we do, but we continue to grow that out through more and more customers into our business. Our customers um that are in the business already continue to use us more and more every day as they need to cut through in a very visual world on a very compelling basis and using our content to do so and then we continue to expand into new geography ease and video is increasingly a big part of our business. So those are some of the real drivers that sit behind this quarter and we expect to sit behind our growth going forward on the flip side of those drivers, then then what's the challenges, especially when you look at something like improving subscriber growth and then subscriber retention. Yeah, so subscribers, um we continue to grow them and it's just, you know, really subscription growth, really speaks to the core need of our product and how customers need it every day as part of their production and and workflows when you look at the industry within it. I'm curious to get your insight, your keen insight on trends that you're noticing? Um Can you break that down in terms of trends you're seeing within the industry? Um you know, within the industry, it's really about the corporate customer. Um They continued to need to bring their digital presence in the house and and you know, build out their websites out their social media presence and they need to do that faster and faster and it's more vision And again, increasingly video. So really within our industry, it's really about that corporate customer, you know, last time we were on the New York Stock Exchange, you know, the corporate customer represented about 20% of our business and that represents over 50% and so you can really see that trend in in in our composition and and we expect that to continue. We add more and more customers every day. Last year we added over 450,000 new customers. Over 90% of those were corporations. Is there a particular content category that is getting the most attention? You know, the content categories? Again, video is is really increasingly a bigger part of our business. But you know, all all elements of getty images really come together. We're we're the only company that can offer you, you know, editorial imagery, you know, we can offer you archival imagery, we can offer you creative image, we can do stills and video and so it's really about all of that imagery coming together that makes it such a compelling offering. Speaking of that range of imagery, what is the company doing to improve kind of diversity within the stock footage. Um you know, we put a lot of energy around that and, you know, it starts over 10 years ago where we partnered up with lean in and Sheryl Sandberg to really, you know, portray uh you know, women uh and gender and in a more authentic way. And and that's moved into, you know, communities of all of all sorts and sizes where we really tried to not only bring representation into the imagery, but but do that in a very positive way. And and we've been really pleased to partner up with a number of entities around that. The A. C. P. Glad on L B G T Q Plus National Association of disabilities. And we most recently partnered up with HBC used to bring some of their archival content. So, you know, it's really at the core of what we do, audiences react to authenticity. They react when they see themselves in imagery. And so we try to make sure that we do that uh you know, across the board. And I think it's something our customers really look to get images for from that diversity and authenticity that you're talking about then to just volume what is getting doing to to grow the number of video and Photo contributors. Well, you know, the amazing thing I've got it here, you know, it was ringing here in a bit ago, but, you know, phones, every everybody is a photographer and a videographer. And, and we try to to really recruit on a broad basis. Um, it's important that we have diversity and, And representation behind the lens as much as we have it in front of the lens. And so we have teams that, you know, over 400 staff that that are working to not only bring content to the forefront, but to recruit and uh, and and make sure that we've got the right level of diversity behind the lens and uh, and bring on new talent with new perspective. And so that's something that, you know, we were always committed to. We know the company made Candy Digital, it's official marketplace for Getty Images, N. F. T. S. Can you talk to us about this move? You know, what opportunities does the N. F. T. Space provide for Getty and the photography community more broadly? Yeah, Well, I mean, first it starts with, we work with a lot of our customers to help them bring N. F. T. S. And uh, to market. And we work with, you know, the N. B. A. And Dapper Labs and, and, and other N. F. T. Offerings that are out there that really allow people to kind of connect with their passion. And so our relationship with Kandi Digital is the same. You know, our content represents history, it represents, you know, passions that people have around music or sport and and how do we allow them to connect with that passion point could even be the passion point of photography itself. And and so we're gonna be working with candy to to really bring some of those offerings together using our content and then we'll continue to work with other partners and brands that want to offer their own offerings away from Getty images on their own. It does seem like a smart way to continuously evolve the image space into the digital realm. And certainly kind of the cutting edge of of an asset class before I let you go. Where do you see the stock photos and video industry moving forward? Let's say the next two years, you know, I think it's it's one again where you've got more customers that need more content faster than ever and they need it to be more authentic than ever to cut through. And, and what is a visual world. I've just been doing photo shoot after photo shoot this morning. And but you know, my my image won't cut through. But you know, we need to really help our customers do that and we need to have the right technology there in order to help them. But you know, I have a fundamental belief that it's about enabling our customers to connect with their audiences and and that's gonna only increase in importance. It's gonna always be something that they're trying to do. And so if we stay focused in on that and really bringing value to our customers to allow them to connect with those audiences, um, I think this, this industry and get images within this industry has a really bright future. I wouldn't sell yourself short. I think your image will do just fine as a ceo of getty images, I'm sure. So craig, really appreciate your time you're inside. Congratulations again, Craig, peters ceo of Getty images.