EyeEm
Defunct3 known investors
EyeEm was a Berlin photo-sharing community and stock image marketplace that used AI tagging; it shut down in January 2026.
Also known as Eye'em · EYE'EM
Investors · 3
Also in the syndicate · 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026EyeEm (originally styled EYE'EM, pronounced "I am") was a German technology company headquartered at Kohlfurter Str 41/43 in Berlin that provided photography-related services. Its website and mobile apps let photographers share and discuss photographs, and the company operated a marketplace through which members licensed their images to brands, agencies and individuals. As of August 2016 it reported a community of more than 18 million users and 70 million photos.
The business combined a social photo-sharing network with stock licensing. Images were distributed both directly and through partner agencies, including Getty Images (from March 2014) and Alamy (from January 2016). Products included Market, the user-selling marketplace launched in March 2015; the curated Discover Feed (June 2015); EyeEm Vision, a computer-vision framework (September 2015); and The Roll, an iOS camera-roll ranking app (May 2016) that was announced at Apple's WWDC 2016 as one of the first apps to integrate with Siri.
After being acquired by Talenthouse (New Value AG) in June 2021, the German company filed for bankruptcy in early 2023 and was acquired by Freepik in October 2023. In December 2025 EyeEm announced a permanent shutdown, with the contractual relationship with contributors ending on January 13, 2026.
Founding story
In early 2010, photographers Florian Meissner, Ramzi Rizk, Gen Sadakane and Lorenz Aschoff organized a mobile photography competition, with winners and runners-up shown at a Berlin exhibition on June 22, 2010. During the beta period the product was an iPhone-only app called EYE'EM with around 5,000 users across 79 countries. The founders began working on the idea full-time in early 2011 and launched the first EyeEm app for Android and iOS in August 2011.
Business model
EyeEm operated a photo-sharing community alongside a marketplace in which photographers uploaded images that were licensed to brands, agencies and individuals, with distribution extended through partner stock agencies such as Getty Images/iStock and Alamy. Buyers could also subscribe to plans; contributors received income from image sales.
Revenue came from licensing user-contributed images to brands, agencies and individuals, including through partner agencies, and from customer subscriptions to the platform.
Traction
The company reported more than 10 million users by mid-2014, 13 million in March 2015 and over 18 million users with 70 million photos as of August 2016. Reporting cited photographers earning more than $1,000 over four months from stock sales on the platform in 2017. Wikipedia lists over 70 employees.
Latest developments
In December 2025 EyeEm published an announcement of its closure and emailed contributors that the contractual relationship would end on January 13, 2026, after which content would no longer be accessible, downloadable or licensed through EyeEm. Contributors were offered the option to opt in and migrate their content to Freepik; content not migrated would be removed from EyeEm and from partner agencies such as Getty Images/iStock, though licenses sold before removal remain valid. Pending income from image sales is to be calculated and paid under current terms, subscriptions will not auto-renew, new subscriptions are not being accepted, and annual subscribers are to receive refunds for the unused portion of their plans. Some coverage cited a final closure date of January 16, 2026.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
EyeEm was described in press coverage as an international stock photography community and marketplace and, at its peak, as a European challenger to Instagram, founded a year after Instagram and frequently discussed in the same context.
The company paired a user photo-sharing community with a stock licensing marketplace and applied its own AI-based image recognition to auto-tag photos and score them for aesthetic quality, feeding curation, keywording and ranking across its products.
Technology
EyeEm used artificial intelligence and image recognition to tag images and rank them by an aesthetic score assigned to each photo. The technology suggested keywords for photos uploaded through the Web Upload tool and powered EyeEm Vision, a deep learning computer vision framework that identified and ranked images by aesthetics and concept, as well as The Roll iOS app, which organized and ranked images in a user's camera roll.
Go-to-market
Growth was driven by a free mobile photo-sharing app on iOS and Android and an accompanying website, with contributor supply converted into licensable stock inventory; distribution partnerships with Getty Images and Alamy extended reach to established stock buyers, and photography competitions and exhibitions were used in the company's early days.
Mobile and stock photographers who wanted to share and sell their images, and brands, agencies and individuals seeking to license photography.
Geography
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with a worldwide user base and service area.
History
EyeEm was incorporated in Berlin in February 2011 and launched its apps that August. It partnered with Getty Images in March 2014 and passed 10 million users three months later, reaching 13 million users and launching its Market marketplace in March 2015 and 18 million users by mid-2016. Product launches over 2015-2016 included the Discover Feed, the EyeEm Vision computer-vision framework and The Roll iOS app. In February 2019 the company disclosed a breach in which a database of roughly 22 million records was offered for sale. Talenthouse (New Value AG) acquired the company in June 2021; the German entity filed for bankruptcy in early 2023 and Freepik acquired EyeEm in October 2023. In April 2024 the terms of use were changed to require users to grant sublicensable rights for machine-learning training. The platform's closure was announced in December 2025, ending contributor relationships on January 13, 2026.
Risks & controversies
In February 2019 EyeEm disclosed a hack in which a database of roughly 22 million records containing email addresses and SHA-1 hashed and salted passwords was put up for sale on Dream Market. In 2022 the company was accused of not paying royalties to photographers, which it attributed to "global events," prompting speculation it would close. The German company filed for bankruptcy in early 2023. In April 2024 it revised its terms of use to require users to grant sublicensable rights to their content for training machine-learning models. The platform then shut down permanently, ending contributor contracts on January 13, 2026.
Compiled by commissioned research from 4 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 14
launches, deals, and filingsEyeEm announced on its website that the platform would close permanently, ending contractual relationships with contributors on January 13, 2026; content would no longer be accessible or licensed, and images distributed to partner agencies such as Getty Images/iStock would be removed unless contributors opted to migrate to Freepik.
EyeEm amended its terms of use to require users to grant a sublicensable right to their content for training and improving software, algorithms and machine-learning models.
Six months after the bankruptcy filing, it was announced that EyeEm had been acquired by Freepik.
New Value AG, also known as Talenthouse, acquired EyeEm for close to $40 million.
$40M source ↗
EyeEm announced it had been hacked and that its database, roughly 22 million records including email addresses and SHA-1 hashed and salted passwords, was offered for sale on Dream Market.
EyeEm opened its Web Upload tool to all users, at which point it reported 18 million users.
The Roll, an iOS app that analyzes and ranks camera-roll images by quality, was launched; at Apple's WWDC 2016 it was announced as one of the first apps to integrate with Siri.
EyeEm added Alamy as a distribution partner alongside Getty Images.
EyeEm launched EyeEm Vision (previously EyeVision), a deep learning computer vision framework that identifies and ranks images by aesthetics and concept.
EyeEm launched Market, an online marketplace where users can sell their own images, at which point it reported 13 million users.
EyeEm partnered with Getty Images to distribute photographs taken by EyeEm users.
After a beta period as an iPhone-only app called EYE'EM, the founders released the first version of the EyeEm app on Android and iOS.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 4
primary sources listed
- EyeEm - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org · web
4 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does EyeEm do?
- EyeEm was a Berlin photo-sharing community and stock image marketplace that used AI tagging; it shut down in January 2026.
- Who are EyeEm's investors?
- EyeEm's investors include OpenOcean.