Corbis CEO Develops Vision for Expanded Digital Image Markets: From Cell Phones to Home Galleries

Business Wire, May 20, 2002

Business Editors, Technology Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2002

Incoming Chair of The Technology Alliance, Corbis(R) CEO Steve

Davis Addresses State of Technology;

Introduces Keynote Speaker Bill Gates at Annual Luncheon May 17

The state of technology and its importance for the state of Washington took center stage at the 2002 Technology Alliance Annual Luncheon on Friday, May 17.

The event was a gathering for significant technology leaders in the Northwest to discuss how to use research, education and entrepreneurship to advance technology in Washington State.

Incoming Technology Alliance Chair and Corbis CEO Steve Davis addressed attendees and introduced keynote speaker Bill Gates, Corbis owner and Microsoft chair. Davis is CEO of digital media provider Corbis (www.corbis.com), a company headquartered in Bellevue with 950 employees worldwide. Corbis possesses one of the world's largest collection of digital images and uses technology to deliver photography, fine art, footage, cartoons and other media to advertising, graphic design, magazine, publishing, and news audiences around the world.

As a visionary and strategist, Davis, working in conjunction with Corbis co-CEO Tony Rojas, has brought lofty goals into reality. These efforts include leading the digital media industry to find new and innovative markets for images, such as wireless phones and digital wall art, that benefit customers, photographers and partners.

Two recent advancements made specifically by Corbis clearly demonstrate the permeation of digital images into new channels and everyday lives:

IMAGE MESSAGING ON WIRELESS PHONES

With advances in wireless technology, mobile phones are now capable of displaying images as mobile greetings or mobile screensavers. In turn, mobile phones have become a new channel for using imagery to help people express their feelings and ideas.

In 2001, Corbis entered this new channel via a partnership with GignoSystem in Japan. Through this partnership, Corbis supplies digital photos, including news and entertainment images for mobile messaging. Within the first four months, Corbis' wireless web site in Japan experienced nearly 600,000 image downloads, with a subscriber base predominately made up of 18-35 year olds. Subscriber growth is at 15 percent each month and Corbis will see significant positive bottom line impact from this project alone.

The success in Japan was followed up in Germany and the Netherlands in March of this year when Corbis announced a deal to provide mobile phone users in that country the ability to download images to their phones. The deal was a result of a partnership with Dutch mobile telecom operator KPN Mobile and its German subsidiary, E-Plus. The wireless web site serving Germany was built by GignoSystem, the constructor of the Japanese site. The site, in German, has content presented to appeal to German style. Germany has the largest mobile user base of any country in Europe with 55 million users.

Corbis continues to explore new ways to include digital images in multimedia offerings to wireless customers in the United States.

DIGITAL WALL ART FOR THE HOME

As flat panel screens become a more pervasive high-tech gadget in homes, consumers are seeking visually appealing ways to use them as decor.

This year, Corbis introduced a new service called "Digital Display Gallery" in which customers receive images and personal curatorial services to help them build a digital art gallery in the home. Working with the Corbis personal curator, customers determine the number and styles of high-resolution photography or art images from the Corbis collection they want to display in their home. This offering truly opens up the vast Corbis collection of digital images in a new and innovative way, and brings to reality one of the companies original visions.

THEN AND NOW

In 1989, before the Internet truly commercially existed, Corbis owner Bill Gates had a vision: to build digital media resources that would provide leadership in the category when technology met up with opportunity. To guide the way, Gates put into action the dual Corbis CEO team of Davis and Rojas. Under Davis' influence, Corbis expanded from a research and development company into a producer of high quality CD products and, finally, into one of the world's leading providers of historical, commercial and editorial images and other digital media across multiple markets and channels.

"When Bill started Corbis in the late Eighties, he thought of it as a long-term start up that would provide a value to customers down the road," said Davis. "As is typical, Bill's ideas were right on, and I'm privileged to have had a hand in helping shape that vision with tangible goals that we're now seeing as reality. Customers, photographers and our partners are benefiting from the opportunities that digital media present."

Since 1997 when Davis and Rojas were appointed chief executives, Corbis has grown from a staff of 200 to more than 950 people today. Outside its Seattle headquarters, the company now has eight additional full-service offices around the world, with partnerships in additional markets globally.