Businessmodel of Canva

Customer Segments

Canva’s 9.6 million users comprise a variety of customers, ranging from casual individual users to business teams and professionals. The Company’s products cater to a broad audience of casual consumers, including individuals who want to create a banner for social media, freelancers that wish to design a business card, jobseekers who need to put together a resumé, and event organiser who need to design flyers.

The more advanced Canva for Work package provides greater functionality to business users, in particular including teams within media houses and online publications, and is reportedly used by 40% of all Fortune 500 companies. The Company’s business customers have reportedly included Huffington Post, Lonely Planet, TechCrunch, Yelp, Hubspot and Upworthy. The Company also offers free Canva for Work subscriptions to charities and non-profits such as Amnesty International, Stop Hunger Now, OPERA America and the Fistula Foundation.

Value Propositions

Canva provides a flexible design platform with a wide variety of customisation options. It provides a free service to casual user, charging only a small fee for the use of premium elements. These charges are only incurred once a graphic is published, allowing users to experiment with premium content before payment.

The Company’s software is easily accessible through mobile and web browsers, as well through its iOS and Google Chrome apps.

The Canva software is easy to use, requiring no technical expertise, allowing novice and casual users to create appealing graphics quickly and simply, and offers a range of useful tools, such as the Magic Resize button that automatically resizes graphics to fit across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

Channels

Users can register for, access and edit user accounts and purchase subscriptions from Canva’s homepage at www.canva.com. Canva is also accessible through specifically designed iPad app, which includes a drag and drop interface, and through a Google Chrome browser app.

Additionally, the Company has developed the Canva button which can be integrated into any website that hosts user-designed content and enables users to post directly using Canva functionality. A button of this kind has been designed specifically for use by Wordpress customers.

Customer Relationships

Canva subscriptions are available on a self-service basis and can be purchased directly from the Company’s website with no intervention from Canva representatives. Once registration is complete, users may access the full suite of Canva tools, with any additional premium fees also paid on a self-service basis. The Company’s design platform also allows for community involvement, with users able to submit content to the Canva marketplace.

Canva also operates a free Design School section on its website which, in addition to providing support resources such as tutorials and user guides, includes free teaching materials such as workshops where users can receive live instruction and lesson plans for teachers. Canva also maintains a blog that covers a range of topics associated with design and social media accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and Dribble.

Key Activities

Canva is a graphic design company. It develops, markets and sells subscriptions to its graphic design software product, catering to both individual and business users across the world. The Company’s flagship Canva product is an online graphic design platform that enables users to design presentations, social media graphics, business cards, banners and more using a variety of layouts, text options and stock images.

The Company operates under a freemium business model, allowing users to access Canva functionality free of charge, with additional premium extras and advanced, paid-for subscriptions.

The Company has also produced an API allowing third-parties to integrate Canva functionality into their own websites that allows users to submit Canva graphics directly.

Key Partners

Canva’s key partners are its graphics contributors, integration partners and its marketing partners. The Company has collaborated with a number of third-party applications and websites through its Canva Button integration service that allows users to create Canva graphics without visiting the Canva website directly.

These partners include GoDaddy, Tailwind, Wordpress, Agora Pulse, Post Planner and TabSite. While Canva does not have a formal affiliate program, it does seek partnerships with bloggers and designers with a view to expanding its marketing network.

Key Resources

Canva’s key resources are its technology and software platform, its IT infrastructure, its personnel and its contributor partners.

The popularity of the Company’s platform depends on the reliability and quality of the Canva design product and the breadth of the Canva marketplace.

Canva has one patent application filed with IP Australia under the title ‘System for single-use stock image design’.

Cost Structure

Canva’s principal costs relate to the development of its software, the maintenance of its IT infrastructure network and the retention of its personnel.

The Company employs a workforce of more than 100 all of whom incur costs relating to salaries and benefits, and operates offices in Sydney, San Francisco and Manila.

Revenue Streams

Canva generates revenue through the sale of user subscriptions to its Canva for Work platform and through the single-use licensing of stock images and graphics. Its annual revenue figures are not publicly disclosed.

Canva’s basic subscription package is available for free; however, in order to access premium elements, primarily premium images, free users must pay a licensing fee of $1 per image. Users only pay if they publish a design using a stock image, and are billed either once they have accumulated at least $10 in fee or one month after an initial purchase, whichever is sooner.

Canva’s more advanced Canva for Work subscription, aimed at power users and business teams, is priced depending on how many team members are to be included and whether billing will be made on a monthly or annual basis. The monthly billing rate is $12.95 per month for each user, while the annual billing rate is set at $9.95 a month per month, per user.