SmugMug Acquires Flickr

[Mike Farley]

SmugMug has announced its intention to acquire Flickr, which used to be the leading website for sharing photos. Competition, lack of innovation and former owner Yahoo's hamfisted attempts to monetise the service has seen its popularity decline in recent times. Despite being one of the first companies to exploit the Internet in its early days, Yahoo struggled to make much of an impact and last year it was bought out by Verizon. Flickr's new owner clearly does not have need of a photo sharing service and is now selling it on.

According to the press release, SmugMug will operate both its existing service and new acquisition as separate entities "indefinitely", although it is not yet clear how it will profit from its investment. As Adobe's customers already know, the term "indefinitely" does not necessarily mean "forever". An alternative definition is an unspecified period of time, which in Adobe's case was much shorter than many expected.

More details from PetaPixel, amongst others - https://petapixel.com/2018/04/20/flickr ... y-smugmug/.

[Mike Farley]

PetaPixel has an article from a longtime Flickr user which has a very positive view of the website's long term prospects under its new owners. What I had not realised is that SmugMug's owners, the MacAskill family, are photography enthusiasts which bodes well. Time will tell, of course, whether the MacAskills can expand their business without becoming overly top heavy with additional layers of management and retain the current Flickr ethos.

https://petapixel.com/2018/04/21/though ... quisition/

[Paul Heester]

I joined Flickr 11 years ago and loved the groups discussion aspect of it when I first started out. The redesign a few years ago was so-so and didnt really inspire people. They are rightly criticised for not picking up on the mobile photography aspect which passed them by and the community hasnt really grown much for a good few years. I hope this announcement is good news but there's no real specifics given at the moment.

[Mike Farley]

I hope this announcement is good news but there's no real specifics given at the moment.

There's now a FAQ on the SmugMug site but, other than the announcement that Flickr customers have to accept SmugMug T & Cs and the shared use of infrastructure, you are correct that there is no detail at this early stage. I have never really used Flickr and the main purpose for signing in has been to stop that annoying "Never miss a ...." pop-up every time I look at something new on the site. That is one thing which I would most definitely not miss in any future update.

https://www.smugmug.com/together/faq

[Mike Farley]

Amateur Photographer has an in depth interview with the new owners of Flickr about their acquisition.

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/la ... red-118481