Canva taps into Chinese market

A screenshot from Canva's official website. [Photo/canva.com]

Canva, the world's largest online design platform, officially launched its products in China on Wednesday as part of its accelerated effort to explore the potential of the lucrative Chinese market.

The company, which is based in Sydney, Australia, will allow both private and corporate users in China to design posters, pictures, PowerPoint and CVs through easy-to-operate procedures.

"We want to make the design process simple and affordable for users here in China," said Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva.

For non-designers, using professional software to create digital designs can be frustrating and the company aims to tackle this problem, Perkins said.

"China is a market full of possibilities. We believe that it will become one of our largest markets globally," she added.

Li Junhui, senior research fellow of the Center for IPR Studies at the China University of Political Science and Law, said the move shows that China is attractive to a large number of internet companies globally including Canva.

"China is home to the world's largest number of internet users. For any internet company or platform, China has great potential to be their largest market," Li said.

The move also rebuts rumors that foreign companies are retreating from China, Li said.

"Those who quit are those who didn't gain a lead in the competition, which was a result of the independent choice of the market mechanism as well as industry upgrading," he said.

Canva, which was founded in 2013, has become the latest global unicorn - a startup valued at more than $1 billion - after it had raised $40 million in its latest round of financing led by Sequoia Capital China.

The latest data from the company showed that the number of its users has hit 80 million, with more than 850 million designs created on its platform.

"Canva has put the Chinese market high on its agenda, which will enable the company to localize in the country," said Shen Nanpeng, founding and managing partner of Sequoia China.

To better tap into China, the company has also joined hands with China's largest image licensing company Visual China Group and Chinese font producing company Hanyi Fonts to offer more abundant resources.

"China has witnessed the rise of social media, e-commerce and online to offline platforms in recent years, which has spurred an increasing demand for designing from domestic companies and private users," said Zhang Yuan, CEO of Canva China.

"We will continue to develop products specialized for the Chinese market to meet the unique demands from Chinese customers," he added.