As the battle for the tech photo space rages on, we are starting to see appearing a new functionality for photos online. And it has nothing to do with filters.

The recent release of Facebook’s ephemeral app Slingshot, the so-called Snapchat killer, has brought forth a new definition for photos on-line : Photos as currency.
In order to view a Slingshot, an ephemeral picture sent to you via the app, you have first to send a picture yourself. In effect, paying for the view of the image via an image of your own. Built to accelerate the network effect, this feature is of interest because of its implication for the market.

Beyond the network effect

It is not the first time we see such approach. Frequently today we see small businesses, from Coffee shops to Laundromats, offering you discounts or additional services if you volunteer to take and post a picture of their location or products on your social media feeds. You also pay with a photo.

Since photos are at the core of every successful social media site as well as  the largest potential for advertising revenue, it is not a surprise that businesses compete to offer you retribution in exchange for your photos. In fact, we see this trend accelerating in the next few years.

What about using your photos directly?

The demand for a constant flow of images is already very competitive between platforms. But now brands, advertisers and marketers also want your photos. And they are ready to pay big bucks for them.

Currently, if brands want to use your images, they have to pay a fee to whatever platform you are using to post them. Well, they actually pay to insert their images within your feeds. That is fine, but it is using the old interruption advertising method the kind that plagues TV or YouTube by inserting itself between what you want to see. What about using your photos directly?

 

Well, Slingshot, with its pay it forward method, offers such a possibility. A brand would receive an image an exchange for the promotion they just send you, an image they could then use. That is a model we can expect to see duplicated in soon to be released apps. Platforms that will ask you to deliver images in exchange for an offer or service. Or cash.

Photos=Cash

We already pay with our photos. Every time we use free services like Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or G+, we use our photos as a payment. Surely they cannot take these to the bank, but they can, however, convert them into hard cash by slapping advertising all around them. The next step is to either let brands use those images and/or slap advertising within the photos themselves. But, in order for that to happen, they will need to pay you somehow.

It is no longer sufficient for an app or a platform to offer you free storage or free editing tools in exchange for your images. These are not incentives strong enough to make the majority of people abandon their current platforms  and use a new one.

Significantly, as we were finishing this article, we just heard that EyeEm, the Instagram competitor, is offering $20 worth of UBER credit in exchange for photos. Or, to put it another way, you can pay for an UBER ride with a photograph.   And it’s only the beginning.

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