Fotolia has launched a new product called PhotoXpress, which is a free image bank for creatives to access for personal or professional use. Upon launch PhotoXpress has more than 350,000 images as well as vector illustrations, spanning 22 categories.
So how does this work if its all free? The activity on this site is somewhat limited for members, as they are only able to license up to 10 RF images for free on a daily basis. The images themselves come through several partnerships from image libraries.
PhotoXpress isn’t the only free image catalog out there, but it is being launched by a company that’s well-versed in building image databases and is rumored to have recently raised a major round of funding. Fotolia, the company behind PhotoXpress, charges for the images in its catalog, utilizing a credit system in order to support a marketplace for artists to receive royalties.
Is Fotolia launching a competing service with PhotoXpress, and could it have anything to do with the rumored round of funding?
The company says that PhotoXpress is in fact a vertical for Fotolia, and will merely expand the feature offerings of the Fotolia umbrella. In this way, Fotolia has an inside track and established network for providing a free database of images and vector illustrations, while growing its own offerings in order to reach more clients and users. Whether or not the launch of PhotoXpress had anything to do with Fotolia’s rumored funding is unconfirmed, but I imagine that funding for Fotolia would serve its purpose in launching a free image catalog.
The plans for PhotoXpress are to expand its database and continue to bulk out its offerings as a legal image library for both personal and professional use.