500px to Shift Distribution of Catalogue to Getty Images

A Toronto social photography network has teamed up with one of the leading names in the industry to grow the ways users can sell their product.

500px has announced a distribution partnership with Getty Images to allow 500px users the ability to sell their images directly on Getty’s website.

With this new deal, Getty will be able to build unique collections that specifically house 500px content, letting writers, editors, artists and anyone else find the exact right image they need for a creative or journalistic work.

This move signals a pivot for 500px’s business model, as before they operated using a direct-licensing platform called the 500px Marketplace. This transition to putting all uploaded images on Getty and using their platform will help 500px better reach every country in the world, except for China, where Visual China Group (VCG) has exclusive rights.

VCG acquired 500px earlier this year after leading their $15 million Series B in 2015.

“We’re excited to build on 500px’s brand heritage and strengthen our focus on the premium market through Getty Images’ world-leading distribution capabilities,” said Aneta Filiciak, VP of strategic development for 500px. “This is an important step in expanding the reach and sales of our contributors’ content to a broader customer base, and represents a significant opportunity for the company and our global photographer community.”

Getty will also give back to 500px through better search innovation. Advanced AI-powered keyword identification will help guise the 500px community to the correct photos, which means more licensing revenue and exposure for artists.

500px boasts more than 13 million users from 165 countries, and they have collectively shared 120 million images. Getty has 300 million assets on their site (they also feature music and video) from 240,000 contributors.

“As we incorporate the best of 500px into Getty Images, our customers will gain access to a diverse range of images,” said Craig Peters, COO of Getty Images. “Getty Images is proud to represent 500px’s renowned global community which produces high-quality content and we look forward to giving customers around the world access to this incredible content.”

500px came in right at number 50 on the 2017 Deloitte Fast 50 and has launched new features like photographer directories and business-facing portals over the last couple of years.

The migration of 500px content to Getty will being immediately and should be finished by July 1.