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Canva says 1 in 5 Filipino internet users now on its platform

Article (news)

Benise Balaoing

ABS-CBN News

<div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>MANILA -- One in 5 Filipino internet users now uses Canva, the online design platform said Friday.</p><p>In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Canva country manager for the Philippines Yani Hornilla-Donato said the country is the first market worldwide to achieve the company goal of having one in every 5 internet users use the online design platform.</p><p>&quot;To contextualize...in 2019, we had around one in 11 internet users. And it has grown rapidly, even with the pandemic happening and all the other changes,&quot; she said.</p><p>Donato said the firm&#x27;s &quot;Truly Local&quot; strategy seems to have paid off in the Philippines.</p><p>&quot;In the early days when we were localizing the product for the Philippines, we did a lot of research and one of the key statistics we found at the time 2019, is that Filipinos are the spend the most time on the internet globally --nine hours a day online, five hours of those nine hours spent on social media,&quot; she said.</p><p>Donato said this pushed them to create Facebook groups--or communities--where Canva users can interact.</p><p>&quot;All of this interaction with our users allows us to get to know them better, understand what the nuances of the local market is and then shape and develop the product to tie with that,&quot; the executive said.</p><p>For example, she noted that users have helped them more affordable Canva products for Filipinos.</p><p>&quot;So what we did last year was create shorter duration plans. So rather than purchasing Canva Pro for just monthly or annually, you can purchase it [for] seven days or a one-day plan, which is also more suited to a lot of the behaviors and preferences of our Filipino users,&quot; she noted.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/9/18/canva-says-it-wants-to-be-in-every-classroom-in-ph-1617" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canva says it wants to be in &#x27;every classroom&#x27; in PH</a></div><p>She also noted that Canva partnered with GCash when the company learned that not many Filipinos have access to credit cards.</p><p>&quot;Unlocking a partnership with GCash for them to be able to use GCash as a mode of payment has created a lot of traction for us in this space,&quot; she added.</p><p>Donato said the Facebook group for business owners has more than 100,000 members, and so does the group for freelancers and creatives.</p><p>The Facebook group for teachers, meanwhile, has grown to about 150,000 members.</p><p>Donato said Canva poured out a lot of resources into making its platform helpful for teachers.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/9/18/canva-s-filipino-employees-known-for-creativity-ph-boss-1852" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canva&#x27;s Filipino employees known for creativity: PH boss</a></div><p>&quot;Really, there&#x27;s so much organic love coming from that space. And so to this day, we have social media and all these things, but word of mouth continues to be a great source of user growth for the Philippines,&quot; she said.</p><p>Canva said it now has 225 million monthly active users globally.</p><p>RELATED STORY:</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UY6StwsTPn0?&amp;ab_channel=ANC24%2F7autoplay=1&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>The country is the first market worldwide to achieve the company's goal of having one in five internet users use the online design platform.</p>

The country is the first market worldwide to achieve the company's goal of having one in five internet users use the online design platform.