In 2016 when I founded Clickasnap, the idea for the platform was to be a platform that was free of all the rubbish that instagram and associated photo sharing platforms offered (and still offer today). Every platform you use tracks you, controls what you see, controls who sees your content and dictates and directs how you should craft, compose and edit your art. This isn’t what a photo sharing platform should do, a photo sharing platform shouldn’t dictate what, when and how you post, it should embrace what you post and if those that choose to follow you, follow you for your content then algorithms shouldn’t dictate to those followers wether they should view your content or not. Further to that, all of these photo sharing platforms, as we all know, take the rights to use your photos once they’ve been placed onto the platform in perpetuity. Upload your photos and instagram can use them where, when and how they like without compensation to you.
Clickasnap was built to take all of that away, the vision of the platform was to be a platform that had no algorithms, it didn’t dictate who saw your content and it never claimed rights to use your content in perpetuity.
Clickasnap was also built to embrace and utilise the latest technologies, with myself at the helm we developed automated sharing technologies, cost efficient automated moderation systems, we even developed ’WIPT’ otherwise know as the ‘Watermarkless image protection system’ that substantially reduced theft of imagery via screenshots.
In January of 2024, I caught my two co-directors stealing tens of thousands of pounds via payroll and moved to remove them. I wasn’t quick enough, and neither was I aware that one of the directors (Jason Hill) had acquired unlawful access to my emails and had discovered the legal conversations we were having with Trethowans solicitors to remove him and his co-thief. Whilst away on a business trip they unlawfully and unfairly removed me from the company and took it over. Under me the company never had a year where its revenue dropped, never had any userbase drops and by 2020 its revenue, well into the millions, doubled annually. In the year ending 2023 it turned over £2.4m, 2024 we were on track to do almost £4m and float at a valuation of £30m. But, within just 12 months of my removal, by February 2025, the company had collapsed into insolvency in £1m of debt, the userbase had collapsed by 95% because the management team had no experience with this type of business (or any business in some of their cases). With the courts and justice system so slow in the UK, our court hearings for the breach of fiduciary duties and unfair dismissal cases weren’t scheduled until late September 2025, so all we could do is watch as in June 2025 it was sold in a prepack deal, on the same day it went into administration, to a shareholder that had been working with Hill to steal it from underneath the other shareholders. It was sold for just £90k, with the last communication the shareholders receiving in November of 2024 and the previous 3 notifications all promising an up and coming IPO, the shareholders didn’t even know of the financial troubles of the company, they found out the company had gone bust and been sold after it had all happened, which most of us still cannot believe is even remotely legal. The shareholders who had invested in that company for 10 years lost everything, whereas just 12 months previous, the returns on their investment were 100x plus. These were just friends and family shareholders, these sums would have been life changing for all of them (and that really is sad)
Looking at what the site has become today; algorithms controlling who sees what and dictating how your content should or should not be shown to. The feature list is barren (two of the 3 tiers are basically to remove ads, which you can do by simply clicking the right button on the cookie notice for free). The cutting edge technology the company used to have long gone, grants I gained wasted on technologies that already exist as there is no innovation within the platform management team anymore. An image licensing market place in a barren and deserted industry because of the growth of AI and, this, coupled with excessive commission fees on top of having to pay to use the platform make any sales unviable and profits non existent. I have even heard, and seen the lawsuit the management attempted to file against one of the longstanding users for simply asking to have their photos removed from the platform and its socials. They’ve even now gone as far as removing the ‘delete account’ button to try and stem the haemorrhaging of the platforms users, so now, you have to jump through endless customer service hoops just to get your account removed and your payments ended. The current management team defrauded and stole the company off of the founder and the shareholders that built it, leaving those shareholders with nothing. They also were involved in leaving creditors with over a £1m of losses, what makes you think they won’t do the same to your money and your content when they choose to do so? That is the type of management team you are trusting your content to in 2025, and this type of management team and leadership cannot lead a platform like ClickASnap with the ethics that the platform stood for, which are the ethics that made it so successful amongst photographers.
ClickASnap, for the first time since photo sharing on the internet begun, allowed true freedom of expression for its creators, and that, was what made it successful. Now, in 2025, it’s just an Instagram, that you have to pay for, and doesn’t even have the advantage of an audience.
The management team have no clue how to market the platform, long gone are the days of our film, darkroom and out and about content. The world’s first mobile telescope (a project that was so successful its social account even today still receives 30,000 views a month with no content having been produced for it since January 2024) sold for a mere £8.5k by the previous management team. Desperate to bring in a few pounds to keep their pockets lined for one more month. Socials that once got tens of thousands and even millions of views now get a mere handful of views and even less interaction. The content and technologies we explored from cameras that could photograph bullets in slow motion, to the film lab we created and ultimately, the massive 16 inch telescope we aimed to take around the country in our lorry. Content that that business cannot recreate again. The community that was there, decimated via North Korea style censorship, with any mention of the founder and you’re blocked and deleted. It’s a sad skeleton of a platform of what it once was.
Whilst I’m writing this, I must admit it does make me sad, those I gave good jobs too, and well paid salaries, stabbed me in the back and destroyed the community and platform I had spent ten years building. Destroyed my investors future, and will ultimately destroy the platform and what’s left of its userbase. I do get approached almost daily about building another one, and maybe, once all this administration investigation is over, I will do. We’ve learnt a lot building ClickAsnap, there probably isn’t any reason why we can’t build a bigger and better platform in a fraction of the time, and I have no doubt, given our market experience and expertise we would rapidly overtake the Clickasnap platform (assuming it is still there of course) with a far superior product and skill set than that which exists in the current Clickasnap team.
Till next time.
Tom Oswald CEO and Founder of (Videscape ltd) TA ClickASnap (2014-2024)
If you’re interested in reading the evidence behind how these directors carried out their actions then you can download our evidence pack here https://we.tl/t-WkJgGQSi5W