shutterstock was founded in 2003 by american entrepreneur and computer programmer jon oringer. creating his own online marketplace, oringer initially uploaded 30,000 of his own stock photos and made them available via subscription, with unlimited downloads and a monthly starting fee of us$49. when demand exceeded his photo supply, he began hiring additional contributors. in 2006, the firm claimed that it was the "largest subscription-based stock photo agency in the world" with 570,000 images in its collection. the firm branched into film in 2006 with the launch of shutterstock footage. , by 2007, the company had 1.8 million photos. insight venture partners invested in the company that year. shutterstock expanded beyond subscriptions into a la carte pricing in august 2008, with its "on demand" service removing daily download limits.