Last Friday, one of the most significant pieces of news in the world of festival submissions broke: IMDb and Amazon announced the closure of Withoutabox, the world’s pioneer submission platform.
It began operating 18 years ago, in 2000, and was acquired by IMDb for $3 million in 2008, when it was already owned by Amazon.
This platform was the first to propose the concept of submitting to multiple festivals from a single tool. Later came the rest of the platforms that have followed the same path.
It is important to note the closure of a platform that manages, no less, the submissions for the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto.
The reasons for the closure have not been clearly explained; the website only outlines the process starting from now. It will remain operational throughout 2019 to keep active submissions running.
The final shutdown is scheduled for October 2019.
It seems that after a few years of growth, the platform sector is readjusting, first with the closure of Uptofest and now with Withoutabox.
There are several factors that could explain this closure.
Poor brand image
This has been one of Withoutabox’s biggest problems. Following the Amazon acquisition, they took advantage of their market position to double the percentage charged on festival fees, in addition to charging a fixed fee ranging between $500 and $1,500.
This has sparked a movement of filmmakers and festivals against the platform, who even have their own Facebook page. Furthermore, many users were dissatisfied with the website’s actual performance.
Changes in design and usability to adapt to new competition, following the growth of FilmFreeway, have not been enough, and this poor image has hindered Withoutabox all this time.
Monopoly
Related to the above is its monopoly position in the American market through patent US6829612B2: Internet-based film festival digital entry and back office services suite model. This patent has prevented the development of other similar proposals due to the legal pressure exerted by Amazon, as was the case with the Submissions 2.0 project, which eventually had to close.
The rest of the platforms have developed outside the United States; FilmFreeway is in Canada and the others are in Europe.
This monopoly has also meant that the website has seen no technological or usability improvements, resulting in many persistent issues that remain unresolved.
Lack of profitability and growth
This is a problem that may also affect other platforms, not just Withoutabox, as it is a sector with very limited growth that seems to have reached its ceiling. The Withoutabox model could no longer grow. It was clear it would not recover, and attempts to create new services have not worked.
Considering that Amazon closed the Spanish company BuyVip in 2017 due to a lack of profitability—which was purchased for $70 million—it is not surprising that this is one of the reasons for the closure of Withoutabox, which “only” cost Amazon $3 million.
The future of submission platforms
The story of Withoutabox leaves us with several lessons; we cannot forget that the user is the most important thing, and it seems they forgot that.
Innovation and continuous improvement, as well as customer centricity and customer experience, are fundamental to growing and surviving in today’s market.
Placing the customer at the center of the business model is essential; in fact, one of FilmFreeway’s great advantages has been developing a very good customer experience and usability. Additionally, they have not stopped creating new services for both filmmakers and festivals.
European platforms should take note; some have improved very little. Reelport, for example, took 10 years to change its website, and it does not seem to have helped them gain market share; festivals like Tampere have recently stopped working with this platform.
If we were to apply the same profitability criteria that Amazon applied to Withoutabox, many other platforms would likely close as well.
Following the closure of Withoutabox, FilmFreeway could become a new monopoly. In this regard, we will also see the moves made by Festhome to counter this growth; it is the best-positioned platform to do so. It is set to become the second most important worldwide, after FilmFreeway.
Now that there is no local competition, it is possible that new platform projects will emerge in the United States, provided Amazon does not leverage its patent, which it still holds.
Will we see new festival submission services on IMDbPro? Or will we return to online submissions? It may be that more and more festivals create their own systems or use forms through tools like Google Forms or Submittable.
For several years we have wondered what the next submission platform would be; now the question is which one will be the next to close?