Canva bought Affinity (Serif) in March 2024. Canva is a $65 billion creative tech company and paid AU$582 (USD$480) million for Serif (Affinity’s parent company).
Canva and Affinity have two different target demographics. Affinity aimed at university education and professional commercial artists, photographer and pre-press, markets that Canva has never targeted. Canva has targets primary and high school, general business users and hobby illustrators. The recent changes to the Affinity product line help align Affinity to Canva’s target. There is no indication Canva is expanding its target to compete with Adobe.
It’s important for me to state that for twenty years I was a photographer, graphic designer and pre-press artist. From 1992, I spent 8 hours every day using the Adobe suite, Capture One and QuarkXPress. We produced logos, photographs, brochures, packaging, labels, advertising, and posters. Everything we did was printed and not just uploaded to the web. My small company evolved, launched its first website in 2005 and now designs and builds websites.
Serif was a great company. Its three products were of a sufficiently high standard to compete with Adobe for professional designers, photographers, and eventually pre-press layout. Their products were underpriced. I have no experience as a CEO of a high-tech company, and have no idea about its pricing strategy. But maybe this was a mistake and why they didn’t aggressively expand R&D and really threaten Adobe.
Canva has now shown its intentions for Affinity (Serif). Taking three great products, in true Canva style, they rolled them into one. Then, they made the new software free. This is truly disappointing.
Canva is a subscription company; that’s how it made its billions. Every step they take is to increase revenue. Even if we can’t see the complete strategy with Affinity, their focus will always be to increase subscriptions. Giving software away free is simply a tactic.
Why would any successful creative studio or advertising agency want free? When there is no transaction, there is no obligation from the supplier. Canva is not obliged to support or develop Affinity. Without a transaction, there is no obligation to listen to their customers. By definition, with transactions there are no customers, only users. I profit from my software tools; I don’t need or want it for free.
AI is used in photography in many subtle ways, and not only in generating entire compositions. Generating large proportions of an artwork may be appealing to some illustrators but not to most commercial artists. Repairing and removing distractions are two good examples of tools utilising AI for assistance. Currently, Canva has extremely poor AI while Adobe AI is advanced. Adobe includes AI with Photoshop at AUD$35/month. Canva charges AUD$15/month for AI access. As Canva develops its AI, will it be free or kept behind the paywall?
Canva has taken at least four commercial disciplines and combined them into one – photography, illustration, design, and layout (pre-press). As a commercial artist deeply familiar with the nuances of each skill, this is impossible without sacrifice. The combination reveals Canva’s direction for Affinity – non-professional users. Their CEO’s launch didn’t show any commercial applications when he demonstrated the new Affinity. What would he know about adjusting levels, gamma, sharpening, colour balance, dodging and burning?
Adobe Creative Suite suits professional photographers, illustrators, designers, artists, and pre-press users (not just business users). Adobe has a product called Adobe Express, and it is grossly underdeveloped. They appear to have left this market to Canva.
Canva buying Affinity could have been a threat to Adobe but from my perspective, they failed. Canva needed to spend their billions in developer a fourth product to computer with Lightroom (something photographers would appreciate). They needed to purchase companies who with specialist photography algorithms like Topaz Labs. And they needed to study and invest in AI that would be useful to professionals.
Before InDesign existed, QuarkXPress was the only pre-press layout software to consider. It has USD$63 million in annual revenue. Capture One has a leading professional photography editor and their revenue is USD$31 million. If I were serious about competing with Adobe, these would be two companies I would consider. Maybe it’s also time to reexamine Corel Draw.
There is no doubt Canva is stretching its wings. The investment in Affinity will give them access to more serious creative users. Canava will also benefit from great technology (software) and intellectual property included within their purchase. But this is far from an immediate assault and the Adobe behemoth, which I expect will still dominate the production of commercial art worldwide.