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Redbubble

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Redbubble Ltd
IndustryOnline, on demand marketplace for artists
Founded2006; 18 years ago (2006)
FoundersMartin Hosking,
Pete Styles,
Paul Vanzella
Headquarters
San Francisco & Melbourne
Key people
Martin Hosking (CEO)
ProductsCustomized products with original art work
RevenueA$290.7 million (FY23)[1]
ParentArticore (ASX: ATG)
Websiteredbubble.com

Redbubble is a global online marketplace for print-on-demand products based on user-submitted artwork. The company was founded in 2006 in Melbourne, Australia,[2] and also maintains offices in San Francisco and Berlin.

The company operates primarily on the Internet and allows its members to sell their artwork as decoration on a variety of products. Products include prints, T-shirts, phone cases, hoodies, cushions, duvet covers, leggings, stickers, skirts, and scarves.[2] The company offers free membership to artists who maintain the copyrights to their work, regulate their own prices, and decide which products may display their images.[3]

In fiscal year 2023 Redbubble had 5.0M customers, buying 4.8M different designs, from 650K artists.[4]

Redbubble is a part of Articore Group Limited, which is publicly traded as ASX: ATG.[5]

History

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The company was founded in 2006 by Martin Hosking, Peter Styles, and Paul Vanzella after raising $2 million in investor capital.[2][6] On 16 June 2011, Hosking left his position at Aconex to focus on his job as CEO of Redbubble.[3][7]

In March 2014, it was reported that 51,900 artists have successfully sold their creations on Redbubble, generating more than A$15 million in earnings. At the time it was estimated that eight million unique viewers visited the site every month.[8]

In 2015, Redbubble raised A$15.5 million in funding from various investors including Melbourne-based Acorn Capital and London based investor Piton Capital.[9]

Since February 2015, Redbubble has been running an artist residency program at their Melbourne office. The purpose of the program is to enable selected artists with the opportunity to produce artwork at Redbubble artist studio while collaborating with other artists.[10]

The company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in May 2016.[11]

In January 2017, Hosking reported 450,000 active artists and 10 million site visits per month.[12] In the last ten years, almost 7 million people have bought products from the site, generating $70 million earned by artists.[12]

In June 2018, it was announced that Hosking would be stepping down as CEO. COO Barry Newstead, who had been with the company since 2013, took over as CEO in August 2018.[13]

In October 2018, Redbubble acquired US-based TeePublic for A$57.7 million.[14][15] In February 2020, Newstead was ousted as CEO after the company's non-executive directors decided a change in leadership was necessary.[16] In January 2021, Michael Ilczynski joined the company as CEO.[17] He resigned in March 2023.[18]

In November 2023, Redbubble Group (owner of Redbubble and TeePublic) rebranded as Articore.[5]

Martin Hosking is Group CEO and Managing Director.[19]

Controversy

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Offensive materials

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In June 2011, The Register and The Age reported that artists on Redbubble were offering T-shirts images taken from the satirical online comic strip Hipster Hitler. Some Redbubble users perceived the comic and its products as antisemitic, pressuring PayPal to investigate whether it violated their policy. In May 2011 Arnold Bloch Leibler, a law firm with connections to the Australian Jewish community, severed their business relationship with Redbubble for "promoting Nazism".[20] Both Redbubble's CEO, Martin Hosking, and the head of B'nai B'rith's Anti Defamation Commission recognized Hipster Hitler as parody but noted that it was being misunderstood – this was due in part to the limited context of the merchandise and stories that some hate groups had allegedly praised Hipster Hitler – and discussed how best to deal with such work. Three weeks later on 5 June 2011, The Age reported that Hosking, who had originally defended the work as free speech,[21] removed the entire Hipster Hitler merchandise line and said the guidelines would be changed to "prohibit parodies of genocide and the Holocaust, as well as other material likely to cause deep offence". Such a statement does not appear literally or clearly semantically in Redbubble's community guidelines. At the same time he said it was hard to take a nuanced approach to removing Hipster Hitler merchandise due to the nature of the controversy.[22] Hosking's decision to pull Hipster Hitler's line was applauded by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as being responsive to both artists and the Jewish community.[23] On 12 and 15 June 2011 articles by digital media company Ninemsn and news web site Stuff.co.nz reported that artists on Redbubble were selling baby clothes featuring pictures of Hitler, Osama bin Laden and serial killers Ivan Milat, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.[24][25]

According to a 9 September 2011 article in the Herald Sun, more than 100 children's items remained on sale, some with "four-letter swear words" and drug images.[26] In 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported that due to outrage over the death of Trayvon Martin, artists on Redbubble were offering a hoodie with a version of a "Neighborhood Watch" sign, which warns, darkly, "We immediately murder all suspicious persons".[27]

As of February 25, 2024, users can tag designs as mature content. Artists should indicate that their work is Mature Content as a part of the upload process, however, this can also be done at any time using the Edit Work function. Marking their work as Mature Content ensures that it will only be seen by viewers who choose to include this content while browsing Redbubble, and it will not be indexed off-site. Failure to comply with this guideline may result in account restriction or closure. [28]

Trademark infringement

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In 2019, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club sued Redbubble in the Federal Court of Australia for infringing on its trademark, launching another suit in 2021 after providing evidence that Redbubble had continued to breach the trademark. The 2019 case concluded with the Hells Angels being awarded $5,000 in damages. In July 2022, in the second ruling against Redbubble, the company was ordered to pay the club more than $78,000.[29][30]

Awards

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Since 2008, Redbubble has been nominated and won a series of awards, including:

  • June 2008: BRW, 3rd-ranked Australian 2.0 Website[31][32]
  • August 2008: Interactive Media Association, two Best-in-Class awards[33]
  • May 2009: The Webby Awards, nominee – Community[34]
  • June 2009: Interactive Media Association, finalist Top 10 Sites of 2008[35]
  • July 2009: Telstra Business Awards, finalist MYOB Small Business[citation needed]
  • September 2009: Web Marketing Association, Outstanding Achievement in Web Development[36]
  • November 2009: Deloitte Technology Fast 50, Rising Star Runner-up[citation needed]
  • February 2010: Next Web, Runner-up, Most Likely to Change the World[37]
  • March 2010: AIMIA, Finalist Cultural or Lifestyle,[38] Social Media[39]
  • August 2010: Smart Company Award, Best Website Under 20 Employees[40]
  • September 2010: Web Marketing Association, Outstanding Achievement in Web Development[41]
  • October 2012: BRW, BRW FAST 100[42]
  • November 2012: Deloitte Technology, Fast 50, 2012 winner[43]
  • December 2012: Deloitte Technology, Fast 500, Asia Pacific 2012 winner[44]
  • November 2013: SmartCompany, Web Awards 2013 – Best company website (over 20 employees)[45]
  • December 2013: Pixel Awards, nominee – Art[46]
  • May 2015: Two Hermes Awards[47]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Redbubble Group FY23 Annual Report
  2. ^ a b c Redbubble profile. BusinessWeek (September 15, 2011). Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  3. ^ a b Ryan, Paul (October 1, 2007). Building Online Marketplaces, Anthill Magazine, retrieved April 4, 2012.
  4. ^ Redbubble Group FY23 Investor Presentation
  5. ^ a b "Change of Company Name and ASX ticker" (PDF).
  6. ^ "MBS entrepreneurs launch Australia's biggest online art gallery". Melbourne Business School. June 2007. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  7. ^ "Aconex appoints Simon Yencken as Chairman". aconex.com. 16 June 2011. Archived from the original on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
  8. ^ "'Street cred' art-sales site Redbubble eyes $80 million year". 7 March 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  9. ^ Hosking, Martin (22 May 2015). "$15.5 Million is A Lot of Money". Redbubble Blog. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  10. ^ Snow, Madeline (3 February 2015). "Introducing Redbubble's Artists-in-Residence". Redbubble Blog. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  11. ^ Sadler, Denham (17 May 2016). "Redbubble successfully completes $288 million IPO: Founder Martin Hosking on what comes next for the startup giant". SmartCompany. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  12. ^ a b Hosking, Martin (31 January 2017). "A Word From Our CEO as Redbubble Turns 10". Redbubble Blog. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  13. ^ Redrup, Yolanda (26 June 2018). "Redbubble CEO steps down". Financial Review. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  14. ^ Redrup, Yolanda (24 October 2018). "Redbubble buys US competitor TeePublic for $57 million". Financial Review. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  15. ^ Chowdhury, Reza. "TeePublic Acquired by RedBubble for $41M in Cash". AlleyWatch. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  16. ^ "Redbubble CEO Ejected from Role". Power Retail. 18 February 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  17. ^ Newell, Elisha (20 November 2020). "Michael Ilczynski takes the wheel as Redbubble (ASX:RBL) CEO". The Market Herald. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  18. ^ Pattabiraman, Rakshnna (27 March 2023). "Redbubble co-founder Martin Hosking named CEO". Inside Retail. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  19. ^ Catterson, Rosalea (26 April 2024). "Redbubble CEO: "There is More Work to be Done."". Power Retail. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  20. ^ Apostolou, Natalie (3 June 2011). "RedBubble’s Nazi trouble". The Register, retrieved April 23, 2012.
  21. ^ Milman, Oliver (8 December 2011). "Top 10 PR disasters of 2011". StartupSmart. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  22. ^ Munro, Peter (5 June 2011). "Don't mention the war: artists reminded that Hitler's no joke". The Age. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  23. ^ "Wiesenthal Center Praises Online Retailer for Dropping "Hipster Hitler" Products". Simon Wiesenthal Center. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  24. ^ Cairns, Lois (12 June 2011). "Serial killers feature on baby clothes". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  25. ^ "'Serial killer' baby clothes spark outrage". 9News. 11 June 2011. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  26. ^ O'Brien, Susie (9 September 2011) "Anger at Porn Images on Baby Clothes", Herald Sun. Retrieved April 23, 2012.[dead link‍]
  27. ^ Fausett, Richard (2 April 2012). "Trayvon Martin T-shirts: American outrage, size XXL". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
  28. ^ Community and Content Guidelines – Redbubble. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  29. ^ Aston, Joe (9 September 2021). "Redbubble's Hells Angels woes continue". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  30. ^ "Outlaw motorcycle club wins $78,000 court case for trademark breach". ABC News. 20 July 2022. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  31. ^ Dawson, Ross (18 June 2008). "Official launch of the Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications list – Ross Dawson". RossDawson.com.
  32. ^ "Awards and Media – Redbubble". Redbubble. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  33. ^ "Interactive Media Awards – Award Gallery". www.interactivemediaawards.com.
  34. ^ "2009 | The Webby Awards Gallery + Archive". winners.webbyawards.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2013.
  35. ^ "Interactive Media Awards – Honoring Outstanding Achievement in Website Design and Development". www.interactivemediaawards.com.
  36. ^ "RedBubble Pty Ltd wins 2009 WebAward for RedBubble". www.webaward.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  37. ^ Heras, Kim (12 February 2010). "The Next Web Australia Awards – Winners Announced!".
  38. ^ "Home - AIMIA". www.aimia.com.au. Archived from the original on 21 August 2011.
  39. ^ "Home - AIMIA". www.aimia.com.au. Archived from the original on 21 August 2011.
  40. ^ "Meet the winners of the Web Awards 2010". Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  41. ^ "RedBubble Pty Ltd wins 2010 WebAward for RedBubble". www.webaward.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  42. ^ "BRW Fast 100: the list". 26 October 2012. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  43. ^ "Deloitte | Technology Fast 50: 2012 Winners' Report". www.deloitte.com. Archived from the original on 9 March 2013.
  44. ^ "Deloitte | Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500".
  45. ^ Clark, Brady (11 December 2013). "SmartCompany Web Awards 2013 - The Winners Revealed - SmartCompany". SmartCompany.
  46. ^ "2013 Web Awards Nominees | The Pixel Awards". www.pixelawards.com. Archived from the original on 25 November 2013.
  47. ^ Durant, Jen (11 May 2015). "Redbubble Wins Two Hermes Awards". Redbubble Blog. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
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