Virtually every person and company has benefited in some way from the so-called image banks–web pages where people can download royalty-free images. Many Gen Z YouTubers today use these pages when editing their videos.
What people don’t know is that these pages also represent a source of income for thousands of photographers who can upload their creations and sell them for a small fee. So these image banks are also platforms for photographers whether professional or not to make themselves known.
Christina Hawatmeh is the CEO and founder of Scopio, which stands for Scope it Out, an AI-based image marketplace with more than 300,000 photos from creators in 150 countries. This marketplace was created after Christina identified a crucial problem: Gen Z is the most creative generation in history and is producing a lot of content (about 1.8 billion photos a day), but they don’t have an income and want to pursue their art.
“Scopio leverages AI to give artists and photographers a way to instantly monetize their art and get access to the best global community. Our mission is to make stock photography more diverse, authentic, and affordable, and to license and sell anyone’s art in minutes. Over 20,000 companies like Instagram, NASA, Shopify, and the American Medical Association use Scopio to download diverse images for powerpoints, presentations, ads, and more. Over 13k photographers earn extra money on Scopio, with millions of views of their photos.” Christina explains.
Scopio’s SAAS Image Subscription for Diverse Images has an unlimited photo subscription that grows by tens of thousands daily. Scopio’s images have more than 145 million views.
The creation and launch of Scopio stems from Christina and dates back to almost ten years. She knew that Gen Z artists were not stock contributors but artists. Scopio looks to foster and advance these artists with low cost of sourcing and production of images, authentic content, additional revenue options, and data driven products for buyers.
“I wanted to do something great with my life, and organizing and saving the images of our lives for history while democratizing access to the world’s images is big enough to dedicate my life to it.” Christina shares.
In order to achieve success, it was important for Christina to have the right team. She believes that teamwork makes the dream work, and also trusts that having the right mindset can be everything when starting a business.
Through it all, Christina has been able to recognize that the biggest challenge to starting a business is convincing people and being able to communicate “the why” behind a given project.
“Why now? COVID-19 has accelerated shifts in consumer behavior for personalization, diversity and use of more images. Artists and Gen-Z need new income streams, tools and community.” Christina states.
Today, Scopio is not just Christina’s company, it is a space that serves as an opportunity for artists to obtain financial freedom.
“Financial freedom is about supporting the underdog, and the ability to financially support more opportunities and give more financial freedom to others (whether they be artists or under represented founders etc). Scopio is a double bottom line by paying artists in 150 countries and opening access to them to a world that was ivy gated before.” Christina says.
Scopio differentiates itself from its competition simply by being able to identify and capitalize from the growing generation of creators who do not see themselves as “stock contributors,” but as creators who wanted to monetize from their own art.
“Licensing is inaccessible to the average citizen. Scopio is breaking down barriers and paying artists in over 150 countries.” Christina adds. “For all the small businesses out there looking for content and to build their ideas and dreams, Scopio is an affordable solution for diverse imagery. By supporting Scopio you are supporting rising artists in 150 countries.”
Scopio’s upcoming projects include growing their recently launched contributor portal, where photographers can earn money from 150 countries, which can help them buy their first cameras, invest in their businesses, buy their first houses and build their dreams.
“Artists are able to view their stats, some of whom have hundreds of thousands of views and downloads of their images, and get perks on products to enhance their art such as Adobe for editing. We installed our AI in search and curation which we are excited about and will make innovative moves in gender and ethnicity tagging and automatic publishing of powerful images in a matter of minutes so you can win.” Christina says.
Christina and Scopio will also be launching a historical book of 2020 events soon. This book will showcase global artists and underrepresented artists, and will make its way to coffee tables around the world.
Learn more about Christina and Scopio here.
