Back in 2014, Yahoo launched Flickr Marketplace to help photographers monetize their images.
The service promised that photos would be shown across the Yahoo network, i.e. Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, and Flickr. The site also said that photographers can share images and videos to other media groups.
Yahoo said at the launch of the service: "Licensing is a great way to earn money with your photos, and whether you are new to licensing or an experienced pro, we want to make this process transparent and easy. We'll handle the tedious work and keep you focused on taking great photos!"
Now, recent reports say that Yahoo will be shutting down the service in the next few months permanently.
The company said that affected users will be notified by email soon and members who are due royalties will be paid in full.
TechCrunch reports that this shutdown is apparently part of Yahoo's broader strategy to make a new service more akin to what professional photographers want.
Yahoo has reportedly received numerous "consistent feedback" saying that the service has a lot of problems that need to be solved and improved.
Yahoo addressed the issue of the closure in an official statement, saying: "Over the past year we have received feedback from several of our users regarding the experience around licensing and royalties. It was our hope to create the right Marketplace for our contributors, but based on consistent feedback, we understand there is more work to be done. As a result, we have decided to close the Flickr Marketplace licensing program."
Yahoo's statement suggests that the future of the service will be up in the air especially now that Yahoo has been sold to Verizon.
The shutdown of Flickr's marketplace seems to have started when Yahoo's relationship with Getty Images deteriorated.
From 2014 to 2015, Flickr worked with Getty Images to handle image licensing, but later there was a falling out in the relationship and the partnership got dissolved.
Yahoo stumbled in finding ways selling the images especially that it has many competitors these days like 500px and EyeEm.
