Shutterstock Launches Reverse Image Search and Visually Similar Search and Discovery

NEW YORK, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), a leading global provider of imagery and music, today introduced innovative search and discovery features powered by its own custom-built convolutional neural network. Reverse image and advanced visually similar search capabilities for images fully launch today and Shutterstock will soon launch visually similar discovery for video.

The first application of this neural network manifests in Reverse Image Search, which provides an innovative alternative for customers as compared to using keywords to search for images in Shutterstock's collection. Today, users can simply upload a photo of their choosing from Shutterstock's collection or from another source, and the algorithm will detect and then, in an instant, provide images similar in look and feel to the original, overcoming the limitations of keyword search.

"We're continuing to build industry leading technology to improve our offering. With a collection as vast as Shutterstock's, the importance of being able to surface exactly what a customer needs with advanced search and discovery tools is essential to our continued success." said Shutterstock's founder and CEO Jon Oringer. "Doing this in video is a breakthrough and as the technology continues to learn and recognize what's inside an image or a clip, it promises more possibilities. We know we've only scratched the surface in how we use this deep machine learning to better understand and serve our customers."

Computer vision is the ability for a computer to break an image down into its primary characteristics, both visually and conceptually that can be represented numerically. The technology relies on pixel data within images - rather than metadata collected through keywords and tagging - to help identify and surface relevant content.  

Shutterstock's computer vision team, that built and tested this technology entirely in-house, was put together over a year ago to solve the challenges associated with visual search. Because Shutterstock is one of the industry leaders with more than 70 million creative assets, this computer-vision technology has been crafted, honed, and optimized for its collection unlike any other to reach the marketplace. All the data Shutterstock collects on each image, download and search has provided the necessary gas to fuel this super-charged engine.

About Shutterstock, Inc.
Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), is a leading global provider of high-quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations, videos and music to businesses, marketing agencies and media organizations around the world. Working with its growing community of over 100,000 contributors, Shutterstock adds hundreds of thousands of images each week, and currently has more than 70 million images and 4 million video clips available.

Headquartered in New York City, with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, Denver, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, Paris and San Francisco, Shutterstock has customers in more than 150 countries. The company also owns Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media provider; Offset, a high-end image collection; PremiumBeat, a curated royalty-free music library; Rex Features, a premier source of editorial images for the world's media; and WebDAM, a cloud-based digital asset management service for businesses.

For more information, please visit www.shutterstock.com and follow Shutterstock on Twitter and on Facebook.

Safe Harbor Provision
Statements in this press release regarding management's future expectations, predictions, beliefs, goals, intentions, plans, prospects or strategies, including statements regarding the transformative nature of Shutterstock's computer vision technology and the future launch of similar technology associated with Shutterstock's video offering, may constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws.  Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors including risks related to any unforeseen changes to or the effects on liabilities, financial condition, future capital expenditures, revenue, expenses, net income or loss, synergies and future prospects; our inability to continue to attract and retain customers and contributors to our online marketplace for commercial digital imagery and music; a decrease in repeat customer purchases or in content contributed to our online marketplace; our inability to successfully operate in a new and rapidly changing market and to evaluate our future prospects; competitive factors; assertions by third parties of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights by Shutterstock; our inability to increase market awareness of Shutterstock and our services; our inability to effectively manage our growth: failure to respond to technological changes or upgrade Shutterstock's website and technology systems; Shutterstock's inability to increase the percentage of its revenues that come from larger companies; our inability to continue expansion into international markets and the additional risks associated with operating internationally, including fluctuations in currency exchange rates; general economic conditions worldwide; our ability to successfully integrate acquisitions and the associated technology and achieve operational efficiencies; and other factors and risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in other documents that may be filed by Shutterstock from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  As a result of such risks, uncertainties and factors, Shutterstock's actual results may differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements discussed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. Shutterstock is providing the information in this press release as of this date and assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

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SOURCE Shutterstock, Inc.

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