Apple’s icloud recent hack of celeb nude selfies is a good thing for both Apple and the Phototech space. Here’s why :
While they might find some buyers in certain market, nude selfies are not images anyone can monetize. They are usually stored in a private areas of an archive and if they are shared, it is only to one other person. They sit idle for many years until eventually deleted or forgotten.They take valuable storage space that the hosting company cannot monetize in any other way than as part of an overall monthly fee. Even if shared ( again, in a very limited group) they are not the right support for any type of advertising as no brands ( besides maybe the sex industry) would want to be associated with it.
Thus, by being hacked and some of the images made public, Apple has send a very strong signal that no image is safe. The immediate reaction will be for commoners to remove all self nakedness from any cloud platform and to avoid uploading any in the future. New storage space is released and a path is created for photo cloud solutions to start thinking about ways to monetize the SW ( as opposed to the NSW) content. Some, the ones shared the most, could be slapped with automated related advertising and others, when the technology is ready, with shopping links for the items within. Considering the volume of images shared, multiplied by the higher engagement rates if products are recommended by friends or family, this is a massive market .
It won’t happen soon as a mentality change first needs to take place. At first, users will not be comfortable if ads appear on their family photos. But with the right incentives along with the correct display, there is no reason why it wouldn’t. If perceived as a service instead of nuisance, advertising is actually sought after ( Think about all issues of Vogue Magazine).
In the mean time, photo cloud hosting services should rejoice in Apple’s latest incident as they will probably see a massive retreat of highly personal images from their servers leaving more space for the more sharable – and monetizable- images.
Author: Paul Melcher
Paul Melcher is a highly influential and visionary leader in visual tech, with 20+ years of experience in licensing, tech innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is the Managing Director of MelcherSystem and has held executive roles at Corbis, Stipple, and more. Melcher received a Digital Media Licensing Association Award and is a board member of Plus Coalition, Clippn, and Anthology, and has been named among the “100 most influential individuals in American photography”