Freepik Company achieves almost 15,000 contributors worldwide

Freepik Company, the Malaga-based technology company specializing in the production and distribution of graphic resources, has a catalog of more than 22 million resources generated internally or with the help of contributions from designers and photographers from all over the world who create content.

The company has already achieved 14,659 contributors from dozens of countries around the world, including Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Germany and Ukraine, with Spain contributing 3.3% of the total contributors. “This variety of nationalities is very important to us”, says Esmeralda Baños, PPD Product Manager at Freepik.com, “because we are a global company, present all over the world, and we must attend to the resource needs of all societies, cultures and idiosyncrasies.”

There are currently two models of collaboration in catalog development for Freepik Company: catalog purchase from specific creators, through which the company acquires part of a creator’s catalog – Freepik currently has 95 creators in this modality – and pay-per-download (PPD), which totals 14,582 creators, who upload their collections directly to the website.

In the PPD mode, the resources undergo a very strict validation process in which the contributor must first register and upload 20 test resources in any of the 3 formats accepted: photos, pds or vectors. These resources are evaluated manually by a team of more than 20 people and, if they meet the company’s quality criteria, the creator is validated.

“From that moment on, you can upload more resources that also undergo validation,” continues Esmeralda Baños, “which includes aesthetic, technical, cultural and even copyright criteria, since registered trademarks cannot appear in the images, or even certain built structures, such as the New York Skyline, which is registered, or the night-time lighting of the Eiffel Tower, which is an artistic creation and subject to copyright.”

If the content is not suitable, the creator is informed of any deficiencies that have been found so that he/she can correct them. In this regard, Freepik Company supports creators so that they are aware not only of the company’s quality requirements, but also of market trends, the best times to upload their resources and how best to catalog and label their resources, with the aim of achieving quality content with the largest number of downloads.

In addition, the company organizes free webinars with which it trains contributors on the most appropriate way to work in the microstock sector, the next one will be held on October 4.

On average, Freepik Company receives about 18,000 registrations per month from new contributors, of which an average of 15% launch the test of 20 resources, and the approval rate is around 20%, so that of the initial 20,000 registrations, between 300 and 400 creators manage to include their content in the Freepik Company catalog.

The contributor can enter the platform and see which content has been accepted or rejected, with the reasons given for not having passed the quality criteria so that, if they wish, they can correct them and try again. From the moment the content is validated, it automatically becomes available for users to download, and the author can monetize his or her work from the first moment, which is remunerated at a fixed rate per download.

Freepik Company also works to encourage downloads from contributors, generating more profits for contributing creators. In this way, it encourages the uploading of specific content for events or holidays that are coming up in the calendar, anticipating the needs of users on dates such as Valentine’s Day, Ramadan, Christmas or Black Friday. There are even specific campaigns for which thematic resources are requested, and if creators manage to upload a certain number of resources to the platform, after passing quality control, they are rewarded with a bonus.

Another feature is the referral program, in the classic ‘member get member’ model, in which if someone registers a contributor who passes the quality criteria, they get a percentage of the profits generated by that contributor.

Freepik Company has also set up an Ambassadors program, with a total of 16 ambassadors of diverse nationalities, forming a team of content creators who are particularly close to the company, who answer other contributors’ questions and help them with any issues that may arise.