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Canva eyes becoming ‘essential’ for MSMEs, educators in PH

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April Benjamin, ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA - When Canva established its local office in the Philippines in 2014, the branch had just eight people focused on customer support. Nearly nine years later, the Philippine office has evolved into its largest office outside Australia, catering to one of Canva’s fastest-growing markets. </p><p>Growth quickened during the pandemic as Canva proved its value by catering to the needs of various sectors including small businesses, freelancers, and educators in the country. </p><p>Maisie Littaua, head of growth for Canva Philippines, said the pandemic brought about challenges for industries which had to transition to digital for the first time. </p><p>“When schools were shutting down, businesses were closing because there were virtually no preparations for people to take things online. Virtual learning was a concept that not everybody was exploring at the time. Teachers are really finding it difficult to shift from physical materials, like printed things, to things that they are now taking online,” she said. </p><p>Owners of small businesses “were not equipped outside of their physical stores and kiosks to support or cater to their audiences or to sell their products and services,” she added. </p><p>Canva, a free and user-friendly visual communication platform, proved to be a valuable tool that offered resources and solutions to address these challenges. In addition to its free design tools and library of over 250,000 free templates and 1 million+ free photos and graphics, Canva launched programs tailored to the needs of educators and small businesses such as Canva Eskwela and Canva for Negosyo. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/05/03/23/beat-creative-block-with-canvas-ai-powered-features">Suffering from creative block? You can now tap Canva to help you snap out of it</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/life/03/27/23/canva-brings-magic-to-design-with-ai-powered-tools">Canva opens era of design ‘magic&#x27; with new AI-powered tools</a></li></ul><p><a href="https://www.canva.com/education/canva-eskwela/">Canva Eskwela</a> was designed to support teachers as they adapted to the online classroom set-up. It featured resources that let educators create presentations, workbooks, tutorials, and other engaging learning materials. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.canva.com/canva-for-negosyo/">Canva for Negosyo</a> is a curated content hub for resources small businesses may need to design, market, and manage their ventures online. </p><p>Littaua said Canva was able to quickly put up these initiatives because even before the pandemic, the company recognized the Philippines as a potential priority market, seeing its local user base grow quietly. </p><p>“The Philippines is a fairly English-speaking market, so while we were working on all things catering to the US, and other English-speaking nations, the effort that we are putting out there is also impacting the Philippines but like quietly under the radar. People were searching for the things that we are actually creating stuff for,” she added. </p><p>“So when realized that there was need for it and we already have that content, it was just a matter of introducing it to the right audiences and introducing it to the right communities,” Littaua added. </p><p>Apart from the content hub, Canva also created Facebook groups for educators, small businesses, and Filipino freelancers. Across 3 groups, Canva has a community of over 260,000 users—116,000 teachers, 65,000 entrepreneurs, and 87,000 freelancers. </p><p>“A really big chunk of our users are freelancers, creatives, and virtual assistants. They needed assets. They needed to support their clients all over the world with materials, graphic design, digital design. promotional materials, not just to promote their services but to actually get things done for other people,” Littaua said. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/06/23/house-oks-freelance-workers-protection-act">House approves bill to protect PH freelancers, gig economy workers</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/04/27/23/ph-digital-economy-at-p21-t-in-2022-is-94-pct-of-gdp">PH digital economy at P2.1-T in 2022, is 9.4 pct of GDP</a></li></ul><p>But Littaua said the company recognized that they must go beyond offering a content hub to support the evolving needs of its Filipino audiences. </p><p>“True to our mission, we need to make design more accessible to everybody to truly empower them. What that means is not just a matter of making our resources and tools free and accessible to use for a start, it also means enabling them with learning opportunities and resources that can help continue their growth and development of those skills,” she added. </p><p>To enable learning, Canva started incorporating bite-sized videos into its content hub and complemented them with webinars. The company organized workshops and webinars to teach people how to design and how to navigate the platform, create something for online stores, or impactful presentations for online learning. </p><p>Canva also actively sought partnerships with people and institutions who had more knowledge and experience, especially in running small businesses. </p><p>“Canva is not a small business, so there might be challenges that they are experiencing that might not be addressed in one workshop or webinar from us. Which is why we connect them with people who might be experiencing the same or have learned to overcome some of these challenges,” Littaua explained. </p><p>All these efforts eventually led to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/123675055699640/1278865139526017">Negosyantrends</a> in July-August 2022. Negosyantrends is a multi-series event that featured talks from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Design Center of the Philippines and other industry experts from local crafters, artisans, small businesses. </p><p>Canva touted that through the summit, they were able to offer “brand-mentoring sessions, technical expertise, and peer mentorship from like-minded individuals who have experienced what they are now experiencing.” </p><p>Littaua said Canva will continue Negosyantrends, recognizing the campaign’s significance and positive response it received from the community. </p><p>“There are new businesses all the time. It’s one thing to set up the learning situation the first time, but you also know that there has to be like a recurring thing for people to understand what they can do or to be introduced to newer people who might benefit from the same information,” she also added. </p><div><script src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v2.5" async="" type="text/javascript"></script></div><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/CanvaPhilippines/videos/251173467559658" data-width="auto"> </div><p>Canva’s growing market also led to growth in its workforce, according to Littaua. Starting with 8 customer support employees, Canva now employs over 800 people in multiple departments or ‘specialties,’ such as design, marketing, social media, growth, operations, and customer support among others. </p><p>“In a span of 8-9 years, we have grown significantly. There is representation across different parts of the business... which means there are more opportunities for people to have different expertise here in Canva Philippines,” she said. </p><p>But beyond numbers, Littaua said the company’s intention is not to simply increase its figures but to deliver value that resonates with its customers. </p><p>“What is more important to us is that people find value in the content that we are providing. Since it’s really more about asking what it is that the community needs or what it is that they might be challenged by and being able to address that in our own ways,” she said. </p><p>Littaua said she has witnessed Canva evolve to “more of an essential.” </p><p>“It’s not just a matter of being extra – you create a birthday card for your friend or family member, something like that. It can also be truly valuable or really useful for your day-to-day life,” she said. </p><p>Elaborating on Canva’s mission, Littaua added that she believes their product can “empower people to realize that you can create beautiful things without having to go through all the complexities and expenses that come with [design] tools and resources. What we want is for people to feel confident that this is something they might be capable of achieving.” </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/03/25/23/canva-boosts-design-suite-with-new-features-ai-tools">Canva boosts design suite with new features, AI tools</a></li></ul><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2696977" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Canva Philippines significantly grew during the pandemic as it proved its value by catering to the digital needs of various sectors in the country.

Canva eyes becoming ‘essential’ for MSMEs, educators in PH

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Canva eyes becoming ‘essential’ for MSMEs, educators in PH

April Benjamin,

ABS-CBN News

Published June 27, 2023 02:39 PM PHT

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Updated June 29, 2023 11:01 AM PHT

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Canva Philippines

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Maisie Littaua

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