Software is one of the great enablers of this vast information economy we now live in. I use Microsoft Word to write a column, Excel to run my small business, and a host of other now-essential services for email hosting (Gmail), security (Kaspersky), and presentations (Keynote). Not to mention the new growth area of cloud storage (Google wants to upgrade me from 200GB a year to 2TB a month if I want it), proving just how much of our work lives are now thoroughly online.
There are some jobs, even industries, that would not exist without the enabling software – especially in the design industry. But what software gives, software can also take away – to upgrade that adage.
There was an entire adjacent (to use the current popular word) sub-section of the print industry that made the physical positives for the four-colour plates used to apply ink, which amounted to a 16% surcharge on any printed product. Adobe’s portable document format (PDF) destroyed that industry in the early 2000s and disappeared almost overnight, as did the innumerable repro houses (short for reproduction).
No dominant software maker will have reached that position without making a few enemies and angry customers – who never, never, never forgive you for moving the thingamabob in version 7. And they know how to hold a faribel (Yiddish for grudge).
But some monopolies are worse than others, while some monopolists can reform themselves. Yes, Microsoft is a rather unique and unexpected case study on becoming a benevolent monopolist – and one with solid corporate governance. This is the reason I trust Microsoft most of the service providers I use. Similarly, I have always known that giving Apple my credit card details is one of the safest things you can do. There’s no way Apple will let someone steal my details to run up a massive bill. That’s Apple’s job.
And then there is Adobe. Of all the market-dominating behemoths I have encountered in my career, I like the makers of the essential software for the design industry least. Why, when Photoshop and InDesign are what my small media business uses for our print publication, which now accounts for only 10% of our annual turnover? Why should I take offence that people who earn in Rands are forced to pay the same as those in dollars or pounds? Why should I take offence that people in Joburg, Nairobi, or Lagos must pay New York prices?
Why, indeed, should you object to the one-size-fits-all pricing model that is frankly outrageously expensive and that Adobe has profiteered from for a decade?
Even though it’s only 10% of what we do, we still have to pay Adobe 100% of the licence fee. A single app (Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign) costs $34 (R584) per month or $23 (R395) if you pay annually. Its Creative Cloud
Microsoft, by way of comparison, offers you five extra users for its main productivity apps, each of whom gets 1TB of Azure storage for R1,500 a year (or R250 a person). This truly is the best value-for-money for an SME from a company once sued by the US government for its anticompetitive behaviour. (Given its stake in OpenAI and the controversies around the rampant copyright theft in the training of large-language models, this rosy corporate citizen image may change in the future. Also, Teams sucks. I dread using it.)
Meanwhile, Adobe’s attempts to reinvent itself for the changing mobile age haven’t been going well. Its attempted $20 billion takeover of its major competitor Figma in 2022 was halted by EU and UK watchdogs in 2023. Adobe attempted to buy its way out of its failed strategies with a $20 billion purchase – more than its $17 billion revenue in 2022 – that’s how desperate it was. And, it still had to pay Figma a $1 billion termination fee to add insult to injury.
Anyone who has used Photoshop or InDesign will also tell you how complicated they are – and why long-time users are still faribeled years later for the many inexplicable changes that made Adobe’s software more complicated.
There is no doubt it’s the must-use app for hardcore professionals. “Canva is the Comic Sans of software for (real) designers,” one prominent professional told me, referring to the font hated by, well, everyone. That adage that “rarely are the kings of one era the kings of the next” is especially true for Adobe when you look at its latest competitor, the made-for-mobile Canva.
It’s not made for high-end designers, but for the rest of the world’s software users.
Canva held a launch event in Rosebank last week to announce that it had opened an office in South Africa and showed off its many features and projects. Everyone from Harambee to Rhodes University uses Canva, from academics to social media managers, to people looking for a job.
It’s an easy product to sell, given that it is not only easy to use but has a very generous free tier.
“We are living in a visual world, only getting more visual every year,” says Duncan Clark, Canva’s head for EMEA. This is a trend also being seen in journalism and data journalism. “Everything works better in terms of engagement and communication when it’s more visual.”
Canva has 260 million active monthly users, 29 million of whom are paying customers, for its $3.5 billion annual revenue. It gives free access to 100 million students and teachers, as well as millions of non-profits, and has 40 billion creations since it started in 2013.
Adobe’s revenue in 2024 was $21.5 billion, so perhaps obituaries are being written too soon. But they ultimately will. We’ve all seen this movie before. The dominant player has already captured all the market share it’s going to, while nimbler competitors are eating its lunch in terms of functionality and cost. Once, there was really only one design suite of essential apps, from Adobe, and now there are many more players.
Ultimately, when the Adobe case study is written, there will be many reasons for its loss of status and market dominance. It won’t die off completely – whole swathes of the design industry totally rely on its apps, while too many high-end designers are trained in it. It is also very good software. But it will continue to be the preserve of a smaller and smaller elite pool of users.
Meanwhile, Canva et al. are forging ahead with newer things, a simpler interface, and more apps integrated into a single user interface. Competition is a good thing, and the design industry has been overly reliant on one dominant and domineering company for too long. Could I write a column without Microsoft Word? Yes, there are many options, but I am more than happy to pay for software and services when they are good and worth it.
Welcome to South Africa, Canva. Try not to hit the potholes.
- This column first appeared in Business Day
