At the Northampton Gent we are addicted to taking snaps of everything around us and are forever grabbing our iPhones in moments of creative inspiration. But what do we do with these pictures after we have shot them? Well now instead of admiring our handy work and deluding ourselves as to our photographic genius, Swedish company Foap has developed a unique app that allows the multitude of iPhone-graphers out there to put their pictures to good use. Foap is a smartphone app that allows users to upload pictures snapped on their phones to the app’s stock photo marketplace. These photographs then become available for brands, designers, businesses and anyone else to purchase license-free for $10. Foap keeps $5 and the other $5 is deposited into your PayPal account.

foap

The Swedish start up began in 2012 and the concept seems to be gaining traction, with the app now being downloaded more than 320,000 times and more than 2.4 million pictures uploaded to the photo marketplace. To ensure that images that are being uploaded meet some standard of quality, the community act as a filter. Users upload their images onto the app and then the community of other users rate the uploaded picture out of 5. Only photos that manage to get an average of 3 stars are then published, whilst images falling below that standard are discarded.

Foap rating process

The app has also launched ‘Foap Missions’, a new initiative which allows brands to post up photographic briefs (for example: beers with buddies) which users can respond to, posting whatever photos they feel best meet the brief. The brand at the end of the mission then chooses a winning picture which awards the user a cash prize. The brand also has the opportunity to purchase any of the submitted pictures at the standard price of $10 with users receiving the normal 50%. The ‘Foap Missions’ initiative is a creative new form of engagement marketing, rewarding both brands and users and is being used by Heineken, Mastercard, Garnier and a host of other businesses to engage with audiences.

Foap brand missions

Foap may be the ideal app for iPhone-graphers out there with an artistic eye who may simply be interested to see how their photos fare against the community’s rating system or looking for inspiration by checking out other users photos. The app is free to download and users can upload as many photographs as they wish, however we did find that the app can be slightly buggy. Uploading images is not a difficult process but can be quite lengthy, with users only able to have their pictures reviewed by the community once they have rated 5 pictures from other users. Despite this slightly tedious process, it is an interesting and original app that is worth experimenting with.

Foap user Interface

“How much can we make from it” we hear you say? Well, technically there are no limits and it depends on the amount of people out there that wish to purchase your photos. Whilst this sounds great in theory, the problem arises when considering the amount of competition from stock photography websites filled to the brim with professionally photographed, high quality images which are available relatively cheaply. So, should you quite your day job, grab your iPhone and start snapping? Well, we really would not recommend it and we got the impression that there are more sellers than there are buyers using the app currently. Is it worth uploading some photos and seeing what comes of it however? Why not, what is the worst than can happen? And who knows, that picture of your dog asleep or that sunset from your holiday may just end up putting a few pounds in your pocket.

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