GSPhotoCo – TAM/SAM/SOM

Overview

Industry: Stock Photography & AI Image Generation

We have found two intersections:

1. Licensed stock imagery (human-created content)
2. AI image generation (enterprise/brand use)

In terms of looking at market data, we have found these segments:

1. Stock photography market (global)
   • 5.1B – 7.2B (2025)
2. Narrow AI image generator market
   • 0.35B (2023) — projected 1.08B (2025)
3. Broad AI image + video generator platforms
   • 8.7B (2023) — projected 60.8B (2025)
4. Generative AI overall (macro baseline)
   • 16B (2024) — projected 85B (2029)
5. Public competitor benchmarks
   • Shutterstock and Getty 
     1. Revenue around 1B

TAM

The global stock photography is projected at USD 5.1 to 7.2 billion in the next few years. The AI generation of image tools is estimated at USD 0.35 billion in 2023, reaching USD 1.08 billion by 2025. Looking at the perspective of image and video tools, the market is USD 8.7 billion in 2024 and expanding more. We are estimating our TAM around USD 12 billion, taking a broader view that captures both stock and AI image markets.

SAM 

Realistically, we are targeting enterprise and buyers who care about copyright compliance, verified authenticity, and brand safety. This group includes marketing agencies, media organizations, advertising firms, design teams, and large enterprises that depend on verified images or AI tools with copyright protection. As we’ve talked about this in our studio, we concluded that this is a more stable portion of the market. These enterprise and brand safe segments make up about 25-35% of the TAM. We are estimating SAM should be around USD 3.0 billion and USD 4.2 billion. These estimates reflect what GettyImages and Shutterstock generate through subscriptions and licensing. 

SOM

GSPhotoCo’s focus should be on its value proposition in a market split between AI tools + copyright free human content. 

1. Enterprise AI Image Generation
   • Unlike open models like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, GSPhotoCo could position itself as the trusted AI generator
   • We could integrate pricing tiers. For smaller teams and design firms, the platform could provide a basic plan that includes access to the AI image generator with standard usage rights. For larger companies and agencies, GSPhotoCo could offer a premium plan that includes extra legal protection, detailed usage tracking, and brand safety features
   • We are looking around USD 0.8 billion to USD 1.5 billion within the enterprise AI imaging space.The goal is to capture around 5 to 10 percent of this segment
2. Verified Human and Premium Curated Content Marketplace
   • Our main advantage is our network of 400,000 photographers and contributors. We could turn this into a curated marketplace for verified human creativity. Photographers could earn income not only through downloads but also through prompt licensing or AI training partnerships. We are estimating this opportunity at around USD 0.5 billion to USD 0.8 billion of the overall serviceable market.
3. AI and Human Collaboration
   • Contributors can license their work as training data, sell AI prompt templates, or offer co-created AI-human assets through our compliance system
   • Photographers and designers could review AI outputs, upvote quality, and provide feedback, creating a living loop of improvement and artistic collaboration
   • This could be our pricing structure
     1. Free Tier: AI-assisted search
     2. Creator Tier: Access to contributor dashboards and revenue-sharing tools
     3. Pro Tier: Enterprise-level compliance, dataset customization, and advanced AI co-creation features
   • We’ve been heavily considering content search where we could replace our outdated keyword search with semantic and visual search. This layer would help both AI and human content surface faster, increasing user retention and conversion rates
   • We estimate the total market for a combined human and AI content platform to be around USD 2.0 to 2.3 billion. If GSPhotoCo captures 5 to 10 percent, that would translate to USD 100 to 230 million in annual recurring revenue.

References

• Mordor Intelligence, Stock Photography Market – Growth, Trends, Forecast (2024–2029).
• Coherent Market Insights, Global Stock Photography Market Report, 2025.
• Grand View Research, AI Image Generator Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, 2023–2030.
• MarketsandMarkets, AI Image and Video Generator Market by Component, Application, and Region – Global Forecast to 2030, 2024.
• S&P Global, The Economic Impact of Generative AI: Market Growth Outlook, 2024. Getty Images, Investor Relations: FY2024 Earnings Report and Annual Results.
• Shutterstock, Full Year 2024 Financial Highlights and Press Releases.
• Adobe Inc., Firefly Enterprise Case Studies and Creative Cloud AI Integration Reports, 2024.