Shutterstock

Background

Shutterstock, Inc. is an American company that provides stock photography, stock footage, stock music, and editing tools, and it is headquartered in New York. Its core business is the licensing of digital visual and audio content for use in publishing, media, advertising, and other commercial contexts. The company is significant in the global content market because it operates a large, searchable library of royalty-free media that is widely used by organizations and individuals who need ready-made visual materials. In the database context provided, Shutterstock also appears as a photo credit attached to an official statement image.

The company was founded in 2002 by programmer and photographer Jon Oringer and later became a publicly traded corporation on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012. It was originally built as a subscription-based service, but expanded in 2008 to include à la carte pricing, broadening the ways customers could license content. Shutterstock’s catalog is reported to include around 200 million royalty-free stock photos, vector graphics, and illustrations, along with roughly 10 million video clips and music tracks available for licensing. Its business model combines platform operations, content licensing, and editing tools, which together support a wide range of professional media workflows.

Over time, Shutterstock has evolved from a stock-photo subscription service into a broader digital media marketplace. The company’s growth reflects the increasing demand for licensed visual and audio assets across online publishing, corporate communications, and advertising. In January 2025, it was announced that Shutterstock would merge with Getty Images, indicating another major stage in the company’s corporate development. Its continued presence in licensing and content distribution has made it a prominent name in the stock media industry.