FINAL UPDATE: We’ve been working around the clock to address our community’s concerns and relaunch the 500px.me beta in a way that will have you as excited as we are. Today, we’re sharing our plan with the world ! Please click that link for a very important update about 500px.me.

UPDATE: We’ve heard your concerns and addressed them with our Chinese partner. The 500px.me beta has been taken offline and is no longer publicly accessible by anyone, anywhere. 500px.me will not go live until we are confident that we have the right usability and controls in place for you to manage your work and personally decide if you want to participate in 500px.me. We expect this to take several weeks and we will update you before 500px.me goes live.

We wholeheartedly agree that our communication around the launch of the Chinese beta site should have been much better, and that effective controls need to be in place before the site goes live. We are truly sorry and are doing everything we can to make this right.

In July of this year, we were excited to raise our Series B round of investment lead by Visual China Group—the premier content provider in China. But this partnership isn’t just about funding, as we mentioned in our Series B press release. We also set up a joint venture with VCG in order to help expand 500px into China in a way that no other photo community has been able to make happen.

Today, we are excited to share with you more around what this means for the 500px community.

From the beginning, 500px has been committed to being the foremost place for you to share your photos online and gain exposure for your best work. One of the biggest opportunities for this comes directly from our joint venture with VCG: 500px.me.

500px.me is a Chinese localized version of 500px.com, not a separate entity. Through it, current 500px.com users will gain access to a massive new audience, while people living in China will be able to join the 500px community, share their photos, and interact with yours.

This means more people to view, like, favorite, comment, and spread your beautiful photos online—a potential reach of 1.3 billion more people! Where it has traditionally been very difficult for any Internet company to bridge the gap between online communities inside and outside of China, 500px.me will allow us to do just this.

The site experience will for the most part mirror the experience you have on 500px.com, with a few changes to optimize 500px for the desktop experience people are accustomed to in China. However, it’s important to note that 500px.me is currently still in beta, and we are working around the clock with our partners at VCG to ensure your work is being shared in the best possible context and quality. The full launch will happen later this year, at which point you will have the opportunity to opt out, and anything you do not share on 500px.com will not appear on 500px.me.

As noted in our newly revamped Community Guidelines, it’s important to us that your work is protected. All of your work is still owned 100% by you—once the official 500px.me launches later this year, deleting one of your photos on 500px.com will delete it on 500px.me, easy as that.

Just as with 500px.com, 500px.me is simply a platform where you can showcase your photography, gain exposure for your best work, and build up the recognition you deserve as a photographer or photo enthusiast. Stay tuned, and we will keep you updated every step of the way as 500px.me goes from beta to fully-formed website.

TL;DR

500px.me is a Chinese-localized version of 500px.com established as part of a joint venture with Visual China Group—the premier content provider in China and lead investor in our company’s Series B—and will act largely as a mirror to the main 500px website with a few exceptions.

500px.me will offer current 500px users exposure to a massive new audience of Chinese users (potentially over 1 billion), while allowing those living in China to engage with and become a part of our awesome community. We’re bridging the gap between China and the rest of the world in a way no other photo sharing site has yet managed to do.

You are still 100% in control of your own photos. Once 500px.me is fully launched, you will be able to opt out of having your photos displayed there, and deleting a photo on 500px.com will delete it on 500px.me—easy as that.

500px.me is currently in beta, and we are still working out the kinks as we establish the website. Stay tuned for the full launch later this year.

UPDATE: If you have more questions about 500px.me, including further details about what the site is, how it works, and how you can opt out, please read this FAQ on our Support site.