The Beginning
The modern image editing industry got off the ground, commercially speaking in the early 1990s. A key reason was Adobe Photoshop emerging two years prior. In those days, with no real internet to speak of, professional image editing was mostly done in house. Any occasional “outsourcing” would be to a local contact, such as another photo studio that had some capacity, and images would be transferred by CD. In this blog lets examine The rise of the Imagining Business in the market.
Thus early image editing hubs emerged in California, both in the Silicon Valley and in LA. The next sustained hubs appeared in New York and London, and soon thereafter in Tokyo. However, despite their prominence in High Fashion, Paris and Milan never became hubs. One key reason for this is probably because they were less quick to adopt innovation and technology than some of the other cities which did become hubs. In this blog lets examine The rise of the Imagining Business in the market
The Rise of International Outsourcing
The word “outsourcing” started being widely used soon after the practice of outsourcing significant parts of manufacturing began to take root in the 1970s. With improved internet and telecommunications, international locations (notably India) became major software outsourcing centers in the 1990s. With the time difference, strong work ethic and talented workforce, and cheaper cost, outsourcing was a win-win. Once the concept proved itself in one area, it spread to others like wildfire. By the end of the Millennium, international outsourcing had become commonplace. In the image editing business two major centers, with dozens of small and large firms specialized in image editing were Bangalore in India, and Manila in the Philippines.
The Value Chain
The value chain of the image editing industry includes several stakeholders. At the beginning of the chain are the clients, who may be photographers, graphic designers, or aggregators. It may also be the brands themselves. In particular, eCommerce companies, Marketing firms, Real Estate companies, Event Managers, Graphic Design companies, and Printing companies are the most active in seeking out good image editing partners. These image editing companies are the next stage in the value chain. The companies in question may be small, boutique firms employing less than 10 people, or large corporations employing hundreds, or even thousands of people. The final stage of the value chain involves distribution, as the final images may be used in various media.
Several secondary industries support the image editing industry, such as software development, hardware manufacturing, and digital asset management.
Creating Value
The entire basis of existence for any industry, and certainly for the image editing industry is that it creates clear value for clients. Nor is it a slow moving industry with a handful of competitors. Image editing is a multi-tiered industry, with a handful of premium service providers at the top, and a fragmented bottom end, made up of thousands of freelancers, mom & pop shops and similar. Companies like Manipal Digital, which successfully scale up sufficiently do so due to a number of factors. These are transparency in their work quality and turn around time, superb customer servicing, domain expertise, and value for money pricing.
Consider Manipal Digital: Processing over 1 million images a year with a staff of over 400. Manipal Digital has broad industry expertise, but has depth in the FMCG, Fashion, and eCommerce domain. The company is considered one of the best globally. It has a fairly accommodative hiring practice, but excellent in-house training. This ensures all workers, irrespective of the level they came in with will be employable soon. The company also ensures up to date equipment throughout the process.
Conclusion
The image editing industry is going from strength to strength. New players and teams come in everyday. What sets the winners apart is that they treat their customers really well, invest in innovation in-house to be able to create unique value, and keep upskilling. Till a better technology comes by image editing is going to keep growing bigger, with more sophisticated tools to enable it and expand its outcomes range.
