Open the app and it won’t take more than two swipes for your social network to display a video post. This is because there is increasingly more content in this format, and because the viewership and interaction rates for short videos are rising in equal proportion. Engagement is an effect that Foco Radical, the largest platform for sports photos and videos, feels directly. Through it, photographers’ revenue solely from selling videos of athletes participating in events or even in training has increased 13-fold from one year to the next.
The demand for video content has impacted the platform’s routine since 2023, when this type of content began being offered by photographers to the current over 1 million athletes registered on Foco Radical. Before that, some tests were conducted at events and, most importantly, the facial recognition system was improved—essential for video sales and with positive effects also on photo sales, the platform’s main product—at least for now.
This is because from the first year of offering to 2024, the revenue generated by imaging professionals was 13 times higher just from videos. Comparing the first quarter of last year, with platform clients familiar with the product, to the first three months of this year, the increase reached 1,462%.
Video posts became popular at least five years ago. With the TikTok boom, Meta promoted reels on Instagram and created a domino effect. Content producers and digital influencers began exploring video posts more, and consequently, so did the average user. The shift in social media behavior impacts those working in image capture. Thus, Foco Radical increased the number of professionals registered on the platform by 25% in one year—the same period as the revenue increase from videos.
“The revenue photographers have been earning from video sales has seen steady growth. The demand for photos will continue among athletes—I have no doubt—but videos will reach a similar proportion at some point in the future. After all, social media users are becoming increasingly familiar with them, not just as consumers but also as producers, given the ease of editing today, driven even by the platforms themselves,” explains Christian Mendes, CEO of Foco Radical.
In terms of volume, for comparison, videos currently account for less than 5% of the total images in the coverage of a sports event by Foco Radical, for example. However, it’s a percentage that has been gradually increasing. Moreover, a single video can serve more than one athlete. A change that also transforms professionals’ routines. Photographers are now also producing videos. And they’ve gained new colleagues: videographers.
“Even if they are amateurs or just sports enthusiasts, athletes want not only good photos but also videos to post on their social media. This is an irreversible trend that brings positive changes to the imaging market as a whole. It pushes photographers beyond photography, for example, and also opens space for professionals dedicated to video to gain more ground in the market,” Mendes contextualizes.
