Creatives, You Can Now Build Websites and Documents on Canva
Canva, everyone’s favorite (and free) design platform, is now expanding into websites, documents, data visualization, and more. At Canva Create, the platform’s biggest event to date, founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams announced the company’s new ventures, all of which are hinged on Canva’s new vision that “the future is visual.”
Launched in 2013 as a drag-and-drop design platform, Canva has evolved from being a publishing medium to visual communication and collaboration platform. The company's new era introducesa collection of new services called Visual Worksuite.
Canva Worksuite includes Canva Docs, Canva Websites, Canva Whiteboards, Video Background Remover, Canva Print Expansion, Data Visualization, and Remote Control for Presentations.
With Docs, users can layout visually appealing documents, doing away with text-heavy files. Users will also be able to seamlessly transition documents into presentations on Canva.
Meanwhile, Canva Websites will allow users to build and publish interactive websites without the need to code. Websites, which is already available on Canva’s dashboard, already comes with templates and lets users publish websites for free with a special Canva domain. Users can also opt to buy their own domain in-site, adopt secure password protection, measure website analytics, and publish a website within minutes. Shopify integration for MSMEs is not yet available, but could possibly be in the pipeline.
Canva Websites
Another new release is Whiteboards, a collaborative feature that lets teams brainstorm online via a virtual whiteboard with sticky notes, diagrams, timers, trackers, and more. Designed to serve the hybrid work economy, Whiteboards was developed as a canvas for ideation meetings.
Before it was officially announced, the beta version of the Video Background Remover feature went viral in the Canva community. As its name suggests, the feature lets you remove backgrounds seamlessly for video editing without the need for expensive software.
Meanwhile, Canva Print’s expansion pack lets the users print large and custom designs and have them delivered to their homes. The print-to-doorstep feature can ship internationally for Philippine users, and the carbon footprint is offset by Canva pledging to plant one tree in Brazil, Kenya, Philippines, and other countries for every design printed via Canva Print. The One Print, One Tree reforestation program is designed to keep Canva’s carbon footprint at zero as the company has already planted more than 2.4 million trees.
With Canva’s recent acquisition of Flourish, the platform is also venturing into data and statistics visualization. The Data Visualization feature will let users tell a story with data templates that translate numbers into understandable (and aesthetic) visuals.
The last product launched in the Worksuite is Remote Control for Presentations, which finally lets users control the flow of their presentation using a virtual clicker without having to say “next slide, please.”
Canva is also engaging with AI to launch its text-to-image feature which allows users to simply input the image they want, like “cat riding balloon,” which the AI will then generate.
Canva Docs
“Visual communication is becoming an increasingly critical skill for teams of every size across almost every industry," said Canva co-founder and CEO, Melanie Perkins. "It has been incredible to see the continued growth of Canva over the last few years, as more and more people embrace the power of visual communication to unlock their creativity and achieve their goals. With the launch of our new Visual Worksuite, we’re bringing simple design products to the workplace to empower every employee, at every organization and on every device.”
Since its launch in 2013, Canva has been steadily releasing new programs and features designed for seamless creative collaboration. The platform, which is highly popular in the Philippines, has allowed its community to create over 13 billion designs, with 180 new designs being made every second. Over 88 million people around the world design each month on Canva, with 4.7 million paying for seats on teams using Canva’s paid features. Over 90,000 schools and 250,000 nonprofit programs have access to Canva Pro for free, while 1,800 paid teams come from Fortune 500 companies. Some of these include American Express, Amazon, and Google.
Despite the fact that Canva remains predominantly free for its millions of users, the company is profitable, boasts a strong cash balance of AUD700 million, and is not seeking a raise. According to Cliff Obrecht, the platform is in a fortunate position as people are likelier to turn toward Canva in an economic downturn due to its free and affordable offers.
Canva claims it is only one percent toward its end goal, which is to empower the world with design. In under 10 years, the company has acquired a number of businesses, such Flourish in 2022, Smartmockups in 2021, Kaleido in 2021, Pixabay in 2019, and Meetings in 2018. All of which have integrated their features not the Canva master suite of products.
The Philippines is one of Canva’s top markets, courtesy of the country’s large community of freelancers and creatives. A number of Facebook groups in the country are dedicated to Canva hacks, insights, and tips as many freelancers use the platform in their social media management gigs. Canva is also popular locally with teachers, students, MSMEs, and big corporations.
