[2] Initially conceived as a free speech platform to allow local journalists to report their own stories to a global audience, the company was launched in January 2009 by CEO Turi Munthe (Founder Parlia) and COO Jonathan Tepper and was based in London, UK.

[5] Since its foundation, Demotix has announced partnership agreements with a variety of other news organisations, including Global Voices Online,[6] the Press Association,[7] and Corbis Images.

[8] Demotix has also partnered with The Huffington Post,[9] The Daily Telegraph[10] and Le Monde[11] as well as Future TV[12] in Lebanon, the Himalayan Times[13] and elsewhere around the globe.

In August 2011, Demotix CEO Turi Munthe announced that it had accepted an undisclosed investment from Corbis, following on from the media distribution agreement the two companies had arrived at in March of the same year.

[16] Demotix has been particularly successful at covering news the mainstream media cannot reach, and came to prominence with its user-generated reporting from the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict,[17][18] and its in-depth coverage of the G20 protests in London including an image of Ian Tomlinson who died at the event.

[26] These images were licensed to a number of outlets, including US newspaper The New York Times, the UK's The Daily Telegraph and Spain's El País.

[34] Among the first on the scene of the bombs detonated in central Oslo in July 2011 were Demotix contributors, capturing some graphic images of the aftermath of the explosions.