stock motion footage?

I'm cruising around some stock photo sites this morning while choking down some really bad coffee, and I discover a trend...Several of these sites offer stock motion footage

It raised some questions.

1. what the hell for?

2. who is using this stuff?

3. how much?

here's a couple examples...
gettyone images

photospin

anybody know what's going on here?:confused:

Wow, cool

That's helpful to me. I'm getting into motion graphics now, showreel finished!!!! Cant put it on the net, 260mb! I got it down to 29mb using Cleaner 5 but it still is too big. Thanks for that, that stuff can be used royalty free for anything at all, might look good as a background animation or something...