Picture perfect

Foreigners arriving in China for the first time are sometimes surprised and occasionally amused to see images of Western stars such as Jessica Alba or George Clooney displayed on many advertising billboards and magazine covers in major Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Supplying such images is what Corbis, one of the world's largest photo licensing companies, is all about. The US-based company says it has the world's broadest, deepest and most easily accessible collection of imagery in the world. It includes contemporary creative, entertainment, iconic and historic photography as well as art and illustrations. It adds hundreds of thousands of new images every year.

As China's media and advertising market has been riding on the boom of the country's growing, though now slowing, economy, the need for quality Western photos and images are also starting to gain momentum.

"For us, China is the most significant expansion opportunity. It is a market with dramatic media growth and an enormous population and we work with the creative professionals, "says Ivan Purdie, senior vice-president of Corbis. "We have an ambitious plan to make China a significant part of our overall business and we try to be the largest provider of imagery in the country."

Established by Bill Gates in 1989, Corbis came from the belief that people would someday decorate their homes with a revolving display of digital artwork using digital frames. The company now has a collection of more than 100 million images.

However, Corbis did not come to the Chinese mainland until 2005 along the relationships with advertising agencies such as WPP, IPG and large magazine publishers such as Conde Nast. "Before that, we were very focused on building our operations in North America and Europe," says Ivan. "But I guess we can see China becoming maybe almost 10 percent of our global revenues in perhaps five years time."

China's advertising market grew from about 30 billion yuan in 1996 to over 200 billion yuan by the end of last year, according to statistics.

Research firm Nielsen announced in August that China's advertising market reached 244.9 billion yuan in the first half of this year, mainly boosted by the Olympic Games.

Such a rapid growth has also attracted major image companies like Getty Images and Panorama.

Ivan says that the company is currently lagging behind its competitors in China, but adds that the "high quality standard" that Corbis sticks to will help the company to become No 1 in the field in China.

"I think China associates itself with very high end products now. It wants to be sophisticated and want to put on sophisticated displays," says Ivan. "So this material is starting to get momentum in the Chinese market place.

Domestic shift

Over the next three years, Corbis plans to look for more local photographers and suppliers to increase the number of domestic images in Corbis's archives, because the local contents and partners are vital in the competition between different imagery companies in China.

Ivan says China's fascination with the West is changing as the Chinese people become more proud of their own identity. "That's a great thing which means the marketing campaign would need to adapt to reflect the real China. So in terms of content, we need to shift and reflect that changing demand," he says.

Corbis now has about 20 employees in China, compared with the 900 the company has globally. The company said it is now looking at individual partners and media partners to supply content for China.

Although Corbis has experienced a rapid growth in China, Ivan says the company's biggest challenge is the low Internet penetration in China (13.8 percent by last year, according to CNNIC), which prevents most Chinese people from interacting with the Internet digital community.

"We see campaigns in the rest of the world by and large always having a digital element, more often than not beginning online, and then moving offline," he says. "But it is a little bit different area in China that the campaigns tend to be very straightforward on TV or the press."

But he says the company's current priority over the next 18 month in China is to continue to invest in the company's website, which he says is still the best way to tap end customers in a country as large as China.

Ivan says Corbis's business will be difficult next year as advertisers, which account for 75 percent of the company's revenue, may reduce their budgets because of the global financial crisis.

But he said Corbis would be in a better position to get through it due to its reputation for high quality images and service.

"And international expansion is a good way to ease the crisis impact," he adds.

(China Daily 11/17/2008 page6)