Fotolia Now Selling Microstock Video

Microstock photo site Fotolia has just launched its video offering. Back in February, when the service reached one million registered users, the company indicated that the launch of its

video service would come soon, and now it is here.

Fotolia is launching with 10,000 royalty free video clips that can be used in video ads, on Websites, mobile animations, and more. These are generic 5 to 60 second clips which can be used as

filler, background or for transitional moments. The costs vary but they start at around $10. Competitor iStockPhoto has offered stock video for years and recently expanded to audio.

Fotolia’s selection still seems pretty spare when you search on a specific keyword like “flu” or “despair.” Fotolia turns up one video result for each of those terms, whereas iStockPhoto

turns up 117 and 718 video results, respectively. But Fotolia’s collection should fill out over time. A generic video clip really shouldn’t cost more than $10. What would be nice, however,

would be a system where you could request the kind of video imagery you want, and then have it produced by a videographer, who would then maintain the rights to resell it on Fotolia.

Erick has been discovering and working with startups his entire professional career as a technology journalist, startup event producer, and founder. Erick is President & Founding Partner at

Traction Technology Partners. He is also a co-founder of TouchCast, the leading interactive video platform, and a partner at bMuse, a startup studio in New York City. He is the former

Executive Producer of the DEMO conferences and former Editor-in-Chief of TechCrunch (where he helped conceive, lead and select startups for the Disrupt conferences, among other duties).

Prior to TechCrunch, which he joined as Co-Editor in 2007, Erick was Editor-at-Large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior writer at Fortune magazine covering technology.

At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial content of the site, helped to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily for the blog. He joined TechCrunch

as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular blog to a thriving media property. After founder Michael Arrington left in 2011, Schonfeld became Editor in Chief.

Prior to TechCrunch, he was Editor-at-Large for Business 2.0 magazine, where he wrote feature stories and ran their main blog, The Next Net. He also launched the online video series “The

Disruptors” with CNN/Money and hosted regular panels and conferences of industry luminaries. Schonfeld started his career at Fortune magazine in 1993, where he was recognized with numerous

journalism awards.