Visual China, a leading image provider in China, has once again become the center of public attention for its rights protection practices. On August 15, photographer Dai Jianfeng posted a message saying: “Today I received a phone call from Visual China, saying that I infringed their rights by using 173 of their photos on my public account, and they want me to pay them more than 80,000 yuan! But when I opened the content and looked, these so-called ‘infringing photos’ turned out to be my own works.”

On the evening of August 15, Visual China responded to the incident on its official Weibo account, saying: “We immediately learned about the situation and have already contacted the photographer. After preliminary verification, the photos involved were authorized by the photographer to Stocktrek Images for sale, and Stocktrek Images then authorized Getty Images to sell the relevant photos. Visual China, as Getty Images’ exclusive partner in mainland China, has the full right to sell the photos involved, including the relevant photos. The sales authorization chain for the photos involved is clear and complete. We will continue to communicate with the photographer and properly handle the misunderstanding.”

As of press time, the online reading and interaction volume of this event has reached 64.352 million, and the public opinion influence has reached 940 million. Affected by this event, Visual China’s share price fell by more than 9% at one point this week. Data shows that as of August 15, Visual China’s total market value was 12.099 billion yuan, which means that after two trading days on August 16 and 17, the company’s total market value shrank by 1.037 billion yuan.

This is not the first time that Visual China has encountered disputes over copyright issues. However, despite the constant copyright controversies, Visual China’s gross profit margin for its copyright business has been above 50% for many years. During this week’s turmoil, Visual China released its semi-annual report for 2023.

The report shows that the company achieved operating income of 371 million yuan in the first half of this year, an increase of 5.75% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 90.8717 million yuan, an increase of 65.72% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 43.9492 million yuan, a decrease of 19.46% year-on-year; basic earnings per share was 0.13 yuan. Visual China’s core business is Internet media (mainly engaged in image (including copyright) and advertising creative planning business), which accounted for 99.83% of the total revenue during the reporting period. In addition, it is worth noting that during the reporting period, the company’s revenue from copyright protection accounted for only 1.26%.

As of now, the copyright dispute with photographer Dai Jianfeng has not been completely resolved. Although Visual China has repeatedly emphasized the importance of copyright protection work in its annual report, judging from the declining stock price this week, the market does not buy it.