If apps like Instagram have proven one thing, it’s that photos and mobile phones are an extremely popular (and powerful) combination. And photos on the web are obviously immensely popular as well.
A year ago NYC-based startup Aviary decided to capitalize on these trends by launching developer-facing APIs, which allow third-party apps to bake in image editing with a minimal amount of work required. Today, the company is announcing some stats that indicate that its strategy is working: it’s now powering image editing in some 300+ websites and mobile applications, and over one million photos are being edited per week on mobile alone.
For most of its history Aviary has offered a suite of web-based image editing tools — if you want to edit an image but don’t have Photoshop handy, for example, it’s a great free alternative. Then last year, it opened the doors to third-party developers with a new HTML5-based web API, and it followed that up with its iOS and Android SDKs this past September. Aviary says that on average, it takes a mobile developer only fifteen minutes to bake this functionality into their apps.
The company is also reporting some strong engagement stats. Users are working with the editor for an average of 90 seconds, and 80% of users that launch the editor wind up editing and saving a photo (in other words, they aren’t accidentally entering it and immediately leaving).
Among the applications that have recently integrated Aviary are Friendcaster for Facebook (a third-party Facebook app for iOS and Android), stock photography site Bigstock, Halftone, social browser RockMelt, and Alt12.
