SmugMug

SmugMug, Inc.
Type of site
Image hosting service
Headquarters
Mountain View, California
,
U.S.
Owners
  • Don MacAskill [1]
  • Chris MacAskill [1]
Key people
  • Don MacAskill (CEO)
  • Ben MacAskill (COO)
Employees210[2]
SubsidiariesFlickr
URLsmugmug.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationNot required for viewing
LaunchedNovember 3, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-11-03)
Current statusActive

SmugMug is a paid image sharing, image hosting service, and online video platform on which users can upload photos and videos. The company also facilitates the sale of digital and print media for amateur and professional photographers.[3] In 2018, SmugMug purchased Flickr.[4]

History

SmugMug conference booth

SmugMug was founded by son and father team Don and Chris MacAskill and launched on November 3, 2002.[1]

The company was started without any venture capital funding, and for a time was run out of the MacAskill family home. In a 2007 article, the Los Angeles Times wrote:

They started on a shoestring budget in 2002, not moving into real offices in Mountain View, Calif., until April. Before that, the MacAskills and their employees set up shop in the five-bedroom home of Chris and his wife, Toni. Engineers bunked two to a bedroom. Blow dryers and vacuums routinely blew circuit breakers. Barking yellow Labrador retrievers chased tennis balls up and down the stairs.[1]

In 2010, two petabytes of photos were stored on the Amazon S3 service.[5]

On April 20, 2018, SmugMug acquired Flickr from Yahoo (while it was briefly known as Oath.)[4] SmugMug and Flickr are certified benefit corporations committed to preserving photographic history.[6]

Features

SmugMug offers three different account levels, each with a different subset of features.[3]

Privacy and security

SmugMug has options to allow control over the privacy and security of published photos. It has support for both account-level and gallery-level passwords, as well as hidden galleries.

There is also a friends and family social networking service for members of the service to use, which allows for sharing of photos only to people known to the publisher.

Professional services

In conjunction with its print service, SmugMug has a service aimed at professional photographers. Professional accounts have the ability to add custom digital watermarkings to their photos. They can also sell prints and digital downloads of their photos through the SmugMug interface with their own pricing.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Guynn, Jessica (December 24, 2007). "A focused family business". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023.
  2. ^ "SmugMug". Forbes.
  3. ^ a b "SmugMug". SmugMug.com. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Guynn, Jessica (April 20, 2018). "Exclusive: Flickr Bought by SmugMug, Which Vows to Revitalize the Photo Service". USA Today. Gannett Company. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023.
  5. ^ MacAskill, Chris. "The Inspiring Story Of The Man Behind SmugMug And FatBrain – with Chris MacAskill".
  6. ^ Gardner, Chauncy (February 6, 2024). "Flickr Foundation: Planning for 100 Years". Tugboat Institute. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
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