Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
Our first question today comes from Christa Quarles with Thomas Weisel Partners.
Christa Sober Quarles - Thomas Weisel Partners
Hi, a couple questions. First, I was wondering if you could highlight the impact of micropayments outside the U.S., particularly in the U.K., and what impact that may have had in some of your markets?
Then also, you kept mentioning very strong delegate growth, so I was wondering if you could get more specific in terms of which countries you have there.
The final’s just a quick housekeeping -- what currency expectation are you using in your outlook for Q1? Thanks.
Jonathan D. Klein
I thought it was one question. Okay, here we go with the three questions. I’m going to take the micropayment question and I think Tom will give a little bit of color around delegate growth, and will also give you some idea of delegates as an overall piece of our business. Just to remind people, delegates or agents operate in those areas where we do not have a company-owned office. The overwhelming majority of our business, of course, is in the company-owned space.
The impact of micropayment outside the U.S., I think the best thing I can say about that, and the most instructive thing, is that just like royalty-free 10 years ago, royalty-free began in the U.S. and slowly over time expanded internationally. As far as royalty-free today, about 75% of our volumes in the U.S. are royalty-free and 25% rights-managed. That split, 75-25, has remained largely unchanged for the last three years in the U.S.
The split outside of the U.S., or in Europe, rather, on RF/RM, is moving towards the same level, 75% or so. It’s less now but moving in that direction. Royalty-free hit a ceiling in terms of the mix between royalty-free and rights-managed. It is still way too early in the evolution of micropayment for us to be able to quantify the impact.
What I can tell you is that most of iStockphoto’s business remains in the U.S. and Canada. There has been obviously ability to access the site, if you speak English, for some time -- the ability to access the site for some time if you speak English, and we’re now rolling that site out internationally.
I think it’s fair to say that the growth potential of the micropayment model is extremely great, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. It’s at an earlier phase elsewhere, and we plan to significantly accelerate its growth internationally. We would hope that our micropayment business has a similar profile over time to our overall business in terms of U.S./non-U.S., but that requires localization of the sites, recruiting contributors, and marketing out there.
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