14 DAY TRIAL // Stock.XCHNG has recently passed the 400,000 mark for uploaded images. In the last few days, the website has begun to inform its users of the merger with Getty Images that was concluded last February.
An announcement was made on Stock.XCHNG's official blog, informing its users that the 400,000-uploaded-photo landmark had been reached. The 400,000th photo belongs to Michal Zacharzewski from Poland, a proficient user that has uploaded more than 1,500 photos in five years. He is currently ranked at number nine on the website's all-time list of most downloaded users. The celebrated picture is an image of a construction site, a photo taken with an Olympus C740UZ camera.
To celebrate this occasion, Stock.XCHNG has launched a special offer for all its users. For only $59.99, members can download up to 100 images from the Stock.XCHNG, and its affiliate website, Stockexpert. Both websites have a combined database comprising over four million images.
The rise to stardom has been a long road for the Hungary-based company. Its initial owner, HAAP Media, has worked towards building a complete and interactive stock photography website since 2001. Its efforts have been noticed by bigger names in the business and, in January 2006, Jupiterimages, a subsidiary to the Jupitermedia Corporation, bought 49.7% of its shares.
This company was, in turn, acquired by Getty Images in February 2009, but the deal went unnoticed by the website's visitors and many news outlets. By acquiring Stock.XCHNG, Getty now owns the majority of stock photography websites, currently operating GettyImages, iStockphoto, Stock.XCHNG and Stockexpert.
In the last couple of days, Getty made its presence felt on Stock.XCHNG by sending out newsletters announcing and inviting all members to the Getty Images family of stock photography websites and informing them of last February's transaction. Banners, ads and copyright modifications have also been added or made to the Stock.XCHNG website.
Currently, Stock.XCHNG gets about 25 million page views per day and has over 500,000 registered users.