About five months ago, we were contacted by Storyful, a company specializing in viral video management. Tempted (wrongly) by their promise of global visibility and their ability to sell videos to renowned media outlets, we agreed to let them handle one of our videos featuring Mana, posing for Chinese tourists at the beautiful Lake Bled. At that time, the video had already garnered over 100,000 views on TikTok.
@voilamana
The video quickly found buyers. Leading media outlets such as The New York Post, Yahoo News, Metro, Giphy, and even the prestigious CorriereTV purchased the rights to our video from Storyful. We were thrilled to see Mana gaining international popularity.
However, the situation quickly turned into a nightmare. While Storyful benefited from the visibility and sold our video around the world, we are still waiting for the promised payment. Despite several follow-ups, the company has outright refused to pay us for the commercial use of our content.
Five months later, we finally received a meager compensation, but without any transparency regarding the sales. No detailed reports were provided to us, and to this day, we have no idea how many platforms the video was sold to, nor how many copies were distributed.
If you are considering working with Storyful or similar companies, think twice. We deeply regret our decision and warn others about this company, which seems to have little interest in honoring agreements with creators.
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