From commencing an illustration shop for Kodak to check waters of virtual pictures inside the year 2000 to his business enterprise posting revenue of $66 million (Rs 453 crore) for the ultimate fiscal, one man has proven that promoting photographs is a moneymaking business even in an age while everybody includes a cellular phone digicam of their wallet.
KS Ramakrishnan, the founder of Digiphoto Entertainment Imaging (DEI), recently sold a majority stake in his ‘memento photography organization’ to Thomas CookNSE -0.12 % India Group at an agency price of $forty.6 million, and he remains the managing director and CEO of the company.
Headquartered in Dubai, the organization has a presence in 14 nations with a group of 3,seven-hundred employees unfold across 250 subject matter parks, inns, skyscrapers, and amusement attractions, as consistent with its internet site. “Basically, we seize the maximum memorable moments of visitors – memento photography,” Ramakrishnan advised ET. The organization is betting on era to hold alive the enterprise of taking pictures of visitors to traveler sights. “You can not click on such images in your cellphone,” Ramakrishnan said, speak of his employer’s proprietary generation that uses inexperienced monitors, drones, ride cameras, underneath-water cameras, and extremely-zoom cameras. Getting photographs clicked is freed from the fee. Visitors can then buy handiest what they want in both print or virtual format, Ramakrishnan stated. Prices variety from $18 to $a hundred depending upon the price tag price of the attraction and the kind of photograph. “Close animal interactions are the biggest sights,” he stated, adding that a package deal of shooting an interplay with Dolphins costs as lots as $one hundred.
In India, DEI has a presence at places like Ramoji Film City, Imagica, and wonderland -0. Seventy-nine % amusement park. The rate of a photograph starts at Rs 199, while bundled programs fee between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500.
One DEI generation that Ramakrishnan is in particular keen on is a ‘Giga selfie.’ Available at famous points of interest like the Taj Mahal and the Atlantis hotel in Dubai, a brief video clip zooms out from a subject standing in the front of those locations to absorb a panoramic view of the area before zooming again in at the subject. “The digital camera is placed from 100 meters to up to a kilometer away,” he stated. “We spend money on technology that is monetizable.” During 2018, DEI posted a profit of $4 million (Rs 27.Five crores) on sales of $ sixty-six million. The agency captured over 250 million photographs for 12 months and controlled to sell about 8 million of these.
DEI’s adventure started with Kodak. While operating a marketing employer in Dubai, Ramakrishnan changed into the advisory board of Kodak for their advertising and marketing method for the Middle East. That led to him establishing several photo printing stores for Kodak. However, with the appearance of the digital era, Ramakrishnan noticed the call for classic photo prints going down. “The diktat changed into, ‘What will we do to hold this quantity up?’ or, ‘How are we able to promote one-hundredth of this quantity and not lose money?’ So, we had to sell the identical image for one hundred instances extra price. And that’s wherein the idea of taking memento photos came from,” he stated.
He pitched his concept to Kodak. However, they weren’t satisfied. “So, we began this enjoy with Kodak technology and after 9 years sold Kodak out.” DEI’s modern-day project, Klassact, will start commercial operation this 12 months. The business enterprise’s ambitions at presenting college images the use of similar technology have signed up numerous schools in India and Dubai. The enterprise is also planning to enter different avenues of pictures like childbirth, weddings, and sports events and archiving these photographs for their customers.
“We purpose to grow to be a one-stop pictures solution from beginning to demise,” Ramakrishnan said. “If you offer carrier and technology within the right combo and archive that, humans pay a fortune for it.”
