It's typically not a good sign when a CEO dumps stock in his own company. But last month, when Shutterstock's Jon Oringer sold 2.5 million shares of the stock photo firm he founded as part of a larger secondary offering, the company's stock rose sharply, jumping 17% to trade above $70.

    It was a testament to investor demand for shares in the New York-based company, which went public just over a year ago and has seen its stock price rise 240% on the strength of growing sales of digital pictures and video. Shutterstock (SSTK) has beaten expectations each quarter since its IPO and has a market capitalization approaching $2.5 billion. But the stock isn't cheap. It trades with a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 45 (Google's (GOOG) trailing P/E is 28; Apple (AAPL) trades at 12), and analysts expect that ratio to climb to nearly 65 by the end of 2014.

    Analysts say demand for Shutterstock shares are due in large part to investors looking for a "quality story" in the mid-size technology space. The question is whether or not the company can deliver on the market's expectations of steady growth in revenue and earnings.

    "They've definitely set a high bar for themselves," says Andre Sequin, an equity analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "There's an expectation in the investor class that the growth rate is going to be pretty significant."

    Shutterstock's digital library has grown to 30 million photographs, and it sells three photos each second at an average of $2.33 per photo. Vetted contributors constantly send in photos and receive 30% of the sale price when their photos are purchased.

    Shutterstock finished 2012 with gross profit of $105 million on sales of $169 million, a 40% percent profit jump over 2011. This year, revenue and profit have ticked steadily upward. And Shutterstock recently inked a deal with Facebook (FB) to let advertisers use its photos and is expanding its catalog of stock video. The company is also growing its international business. In 2012, 72% of Shutterstock sales came from outside the U.S. (European sales totaled $62.9 million in 2012, compared to $60 million in the U.S. and $46.7 million from the rest of the world), and the company is now translating its website into 20 languages.

    The case for Shutterstock's continued growth is fairly straightforward. As broadband Internet expands, more and more people (read: bloggers, companies, entrepreneurs) are making their way online across the world. With more people visiting websites on mobile devices like phones and tablets, the demand for pictures and videos has grown exponentially. Most marketers don't even send an email without a photo these days, analysts say, and companies have grown increasingly demanding about the appearance of their websites.

    "With the migration to mobile, digital content is getting increasingly visual," says Rebecca Lieb, a digital media analyst at the Altimeter Group. "Everything written we see diminishing and everything visual is absolutely booming. As long as that trend continues, and I see it continuing for at least five years, the prospects [for Shutterstock] are very, very good."    

    首席执行官抛售自己公司的股票，这可不是什么好兆头。但上个月，当Shutterstock公司的乔恩•奥林杰为了更大规模的二次发行而抛售自己创立的这家素材图片公司250万股时，这家公司的股价却开始猛涨，以17%的涨幅突破了70美元大关。

    这种情况表明，广大投资者对这家位于纽约的公司股票需求强劲。它一年前刚刚上市，受到数字图片和视频销售猛涨的推动，股价已经涨了240%。自IPO以来，它每个财季的表现都远超市场预期，目前市值已经逼近25亿美元。但它股票并不便宜。它的往绩市盈率达到了45【谷歌公司（Google）是28，苹果公司（Apple）是12】，分析师预计这个比率到2014年末将高达65。分析师表示，对Shutterstock股票的需求很大程度上是由于投资者希望在中型科技公司领域找到一个“好故事”。问题在于，这家公司是否能如市场所预期的那样实现营收的稳定增长。

    加拿大皇家银行（RBC CAPITAL MARKETS）股票分析师安德烈•瑟奎因说：“他们确实给自己定了很高的目标。投资者们普遍预期它的增长率将维持在高位。”

    Shutterstock的数字图书馆收集的图片已经达到3000万张，它每秒钟以每张平均2.33美元的价格卖出三张照片。经过审核的供稿人不断上传照片，如果他们的照片被人买走，就能分得售价的30%。

    2012年底，Shutterstock的销售总额达到1.69亿美元，毛利润高达1.05亿美元，利润比2011年猛增了40%。而今年，它的收入和利润也一直在稳步上升。最近，它还与Facebook公司签订了协议，允许广告主使用其照片，还扩大了素材视频目录。同时它还在积极拓展国际市场。2012年，它有72%的收入来自美国以外的市场（2012年它在欧洲的销售总额为6290万美元，美国为6000万美元，世界其他市场为4670万美元），现在更是将自己的网站翻译成了20种语言。

    Shutterstock的增长路径非常清晰直接。随着宽带的普及，越来越多的人（博客用户、公司、创业者）开始通过网络漫游世界。随着越来越多的人通过手机和平板这样的移动平台访问网站，对图片和视频的需求就开始激增。分析师称，现在很多营销人员连发个电邮都必须附上照片，而企业也对自己公司网站的形象要求日益提高。

    奥特米特集团（Altimeter Group）数字媒体分析师瑞贝卡•莉布说：“随着人们纷纷转向移动平台，数字内容也日益变得图文并茂。文字内容在减少，而视觉图像却大量涌现。只要这个趋势不变，而我觉得至少未来五年都会如此，Shutterstock公司的前景就非常非常好。”  

    Shutterstock gained market share by disrupting the business model of higher-priced Getty Images, and took off as the demand for digital photographs surged over the last few years. Oringer thinks the same will happen with videos, which sell at much higher prices than still photos. Shutterstock started building its video library in 2006 and has seen sales double in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2012.

    "I feel like we're just getting started in a lot of ways," Oringer says. "There's a long runway ahead of us."

    Oringer launched Shutterstock in 2003 because he knew first-hand how difficult it was to find quality stock images for marketing materials. He'd run into the issue as he tried to build a business selling pop-up blockers and privacy protection software in the early 2000s. Oringer built Shutterstock largely without outside funding and maintained control of the company after its IPO. Even after the recent stock sale, Oringer still owns nearly 16 million shares of the company, a stake that has made him a billionaire. To stay competitive, analysts say Shutterstock will need to continue to grow its library of stock video and photos. Shutterstock has risen ahead of rivals such as Corbis and Fotolia by building its archive. Fashion and tastes are constantly evolving, and the photos needed for advertisements and online marketing have to keep up with the trends. Operating in international markets is also demanding: When a Japanese company wants a photo of businessmen shaking hands, they often want to feature Japanese hands. And that photo won't necessarily work for a Belgian company.

    "You have to be regionally relevant," says RBC's Sequin. "They've grown their image base much more quickly than ... others; that's where they've managed to pull ahead of some of their competitors."

    The demand for digital images and video will continue to grow, particularly in emerging markets, and Shutterstock is in a position to capitalize on that growth. But it's a fast-moving marketplace. A new company, with a new idea for online stock images, could very well be on the verge of launching. Or maybe it already has. Shutterstock was born as a low-cost disruptor, but its continued growth may depend on how well it fends off challenges that will inevitably come from the low end of the market.

    Shutterstock打破了定价更高的华盖创意图片社（Getty Images）创造的商业模式；同时，近几年来，市场对数字照片的需求也在猛增，它的发展驶上了快车道，开始赢得市场份额。奥林杰认为，视频也将迎来类似的发展历程，而视频的售价要比静态图片高得多。2006年Shutterstock就开始创建自己的视频图书馆，还在2013年第二财季实现了与去年同期相比的销售翻番。奥林杰说：“我觉得我们还只是刚开始，还有很多很长的路等着我们去探索。”

    奥林杰2003年创建了Shutterstock，因为他深知当时要为营销材料找到高品质的素材图片是多么不易。2000年初，当他要制作一个用于销售的弹出窗口阻止程序和隐私保护软件时，就碰上了这个问题。他基本上没有靠外部投资就创建了Shutterstock，在公司IPO后也保持着控制权。就算近日卖掉了这部分股票，他仍然持有公司1600万股的股份，足以使他成为亿万富翁。分析师表示，Shutterstock要保持竞争力，就必须不断扩大自己的素材视频和图片库。通过创建自己的档案库，Shutterstock已经跑在了Corbis和Fotolia这样的对手前面。时尚和品味不断在变，广告和网上营销所需的照片也必须跟上潮流。而在国际市场上开展业务也要满足较高的要求：比如一家日本公司想要一张商人握手的照片时，他们往往希望照片上是日本人的手。而这对一家比利时公司来说又不一定管用了。

    瑟奎因说：“商家必须满足区域市场的需求。他们扩大自己图片库的速度远比其他人要快。他们正是靠这一点设法取得了对竞争对手的领先。”

    市场对数字图像和视频的需求将持续增长，新兴市场更是如此。而Shutterstock目前正好能很好地利用这种增长的势头。但这个市场发展速度极快。眼下，一家公司正蓄势待发，打算带着新的创意挺进网上素材图片业务，或许马上就会进入市场。Shutterstock是作为一家低成本供应商杀进这个市场的，但它的持续增长可能要看它能在多大程度上抵挡住不可避免的、来自低端市场的挑战。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远