Almost eight years after launching the first drone aerial image bank, the Marseille-based company HOsiHO (means High So High in French), has bought out Dronestagram, the famous drone image-sharing platform, which its creator, Eric Dupin, wanted to close.
Sami Sarkis, the company founder, explains the reason: “When in mid-December I heard the news of the imminent closure of this first social network dedicated to drone images, I could not accept it without doing anything. We quickly started talks with its founder because I immediately saw the positive synergies that the acquisition of this outstanding website dedicated to drone photography could generate with our two other platforms, which are also dedicated to aerial images”.
Thus, Dronestagram joins the list of websites owned by the company, which has been specializing in the production and distribution of aerial images by drone since 2014. The platform to share aerial images with the general public is complemented by an aerial image bank, Hosiho.com, and a network of professional drone pilots, Hosiho.net.
“Not only are we keeping the Dronestagram site alive, to the delight of the 10,000 aerial photographers and videographers who have registered there since 2013, but we are also giving the HOsiHO brand worldwide visibility, which will have a knock-on effect on the sales of our image bank and the requests for services from our network of drone telepilots”, Sami Sarkis explains, for whom the first priority is to remobilize the international drone community, by offering them a revamped, lively, optimized site with new features.
“We also plan to relaunch the famous drone photography contest, but first we need to regain the audience of the golden days and thus attract prestigious sponsors, whom we are already calling on to come forward! But first we will consult the current members of Dronestagram, to better understand their expectations and thus decide on the priority orientations, in phase with the community”, adds the founder of HOsiHO, who also specifies: “Our projects will adapt to the reaction of aerial artists, and we are already thinking of proposing to the artists of some of the fabulous photos present on Dronestagram to join our online aerial image sales platform, HOsiHO.com”.
Lastly, HOsiHO is committed to protecting the photographers’ work published on Dronestagram. For the moment, their copyright is not clearly mentioned on these images, explains Sami Sarkis, “but it is essential to avoid piracy or fraudulent use. One of the options will be to place this mention in a discreet watermark on all the images in the database”.
Other outlooks and projects are on the table, as there are many common points between the Telepilot Network, the aerial image bank and the Social Network of drone image sharing, which are now part of HOSIHO’s global offer.
See https://www.hosiho.com for more information.
Film, Video & Virtual reality 