What it is, however, is a leader in the new era of social media, in which users demand more transparent, equitable relationships with social platforms. With 40 million monthly active users - Facebook had 2.45 billion monthly active users as of September, for context - VSCO is by no means a competitor to Facebook, Facebook-owned Instagram, Snap or Twitter. On top of that, the hashtag #VSCO has been viewed 4 billion times on the immensely popular video sharing app Tik Tok, again according to the company’s own statistics, and another 450 million times on Instagram. But he was ready and willing to speak to the company’s untraditional path and the unique connection it has fostered with its users.įlory tells me 75% of VSCO’s registered users and 55% of its paying subscribers are younger than 25, giving the company a small foothold into the most coveted demographic. Flory, naturally, remained mum on any plans to sell the company or raise additional capital. Hot off the heels of a rare moment in the spotlight, VSCO, reportedly valued at $550 million, is ripe for a new round of funding. Photographer: Martina Albertazzi/Bloomberg via Getty Images A sense of belonging VSCO CEO Joel Flory speaks to attendees while teaching phone photography class during The Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. “It’s a sense of caring about the environment and kind of caring about causes that have a meaning and impact,” Flory said of “VSCO girls,” who have more-oft been described as 21st century valley girls or “annoying, white hopeless romantics.”
He doesn’t look like the Gen Z whisperer I expected to meet, and his responses to my questions about the “VSCO girl” meme paint a picture of a CEO who’s inadvertently connected with a generation 20 years his junior. And does it move you? Does it speak to you? Are you able to learn something from it? Does it inspire you to go do something? How can we create a space in which you could do that online? That was our initial insight.”įlory, a 40-year-old former wedding photographer, wears a grey Oakland Roots sweatshirt and a black Oakland Athletics hat when I meet him at VSCO’s offices on Oakland’s Broadway Avenue in November. You get to sit in front of a piece of work, a piece of art. There’s not a space for people to write comments and leave stickers. “You don’t see how many people have walked through the museum.
“When you walk into a museum, you don’t see the net worth of the artist,” Flory tells TechCrunch. Needless to say, VSCO co-founder and chief executive officer Joel Flory is feeling pretty optimistic ahead of his company’s eighth birthday. Together, they’ve launched Analog, VSCO’s first-ever Snapchat lens, in a deal that hints at a future acquisition. The company, which counts 100 million registered users to date, has also recently inked a partnership with Snap. In recent months, the company’s Oakland headquarters has swelled to 150 employees, an increase of 50% from 2018, with a new office in Chicago expected to fit several dozen more. For no cost, users can access a handful of basic VSCO filters, standard editing tools and loads of content published by other users in VSCO’s photo feed. Approaching $80 million in annual revenue, VSCO charges an annual subscription fee of $19.99 for access to a full-suite of mobile photo-editing tools, exclusive photo filters, tutorials and more. VSCO is on pace to surpass 4 million paying users in 2020, up from 2 million paying users in late 2018, the company said. Turns out, if you can provide the disillusioned teens of Gen Z respite from the horrors of social media - they’ll pay for it.
Perhaps known to many only because of this year’s “VSCO girl” meme explosion, the company has long been coaxing the creative community to its freemium platform. Long before Instagram toyed with removing “likes,” VSCO, an Oakland-based photo-sharing and editing app, built a community devoid of likes, comments and follower counts.