Tralee-based stock photo company, Stockbyte, is priming itself to overtake the market leader, Photodisc, following a favourable forecast by independent magazine, Mac User. Since Stockbyte launched its first range of original photo shots on the international stock photo market 18 months ago, it has threatened the dominant position of Seattle company, Photodisc, founded in 1991. Now Mac User says Stockbyte is posing a serious challenge to the leader's position. "Photodisc is still the daddy of photo CDs, but its position is facing a serious challenge from Irish-based Stockbyte, which boasts a portfolio of 46 CDs, featuring high-quality, painstakingly constructed images."

Stockbyte, which employs 12 people in Tralee, says it plans to double its workforce under its current expansion scheme. It has managed to gain competitive advantage by moving away from the traditional photo stock agency policy of charging about £200 for the single use of an image. Instead Stockbyte allows infinite use of up to 150 images for the same price, delivering the images digitally on CD-ROM.