Adobe has been the market leader in the design industry for years now. Somewhere many companies have tried to beat Adobe. But no one was able to defeat him. Even trillion-dollar giants Microsoft and Apple—those who didn't have only the best talent and resources—but they also had a massive distribution of Windows and Macs. They have also tried to compete with Adobe at some point. But breaking Adobe's monopoly was not anyone's cup of tea.
Explore more stories where AI or startups challenge giants
But then there's a 19-year-old girl, Melanie Perkins. Who has studied Communication and Psychology. Who had zero technical knowledge. She decides to beat the creative giant Adobe. And she launches her product.
Learn more about Melanie Perkins on Canva's official site
Whose name is Canva.
See how Canva compares with AI design tools
More than 2.2 billion dollars in annual revenue. That came to more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies. And over 185 million people use their platform every month.
As a team, the Australian entrepreneur and her boyfriend Cliff Abrecht dreamed of taking on the Microsofts and Adobes of the world. “I guess our goal was to take the entire design ecosystem, integrate it into one page, and then make it accessible to the whole world.” The concept of Canva was a big symbol: design for everyone.
But bringing Canva into reality was just as difficult. It was a really challenging time, I guess. Because we are a product company and we weren't shipping products. All the investors whipped up their fun. So Cliff took over and tried to make it happen.
So much more than the VC rejected the idea. Really hard and we pitched hundreds of investors getting rejected time and time again. Which was really annoying at the time. It has taken three years just to find the technology. Three years of trying to pitch investors, trying to find a tech team. We got that together finally in 2012 and then it was a year of development.
And the giant Adobe made multiple attempts to kill Canva at some point. Somewhere he copied all the features. But Melanie did something like that. Today, Canva has 180 million users. Its valuation is 40 billion dollars. And today, Melanie Perkins is one of the youngest female billionaires.
"I think you are the youngest female founder to ever become a unicorn."
“Oh yes, fantastic. Worth billions of dollars.”
Five years after starting the company in 2013, it was valued at a billion dollars, making her one of the world's youngest female tech unicorn founders at just 30.
But How Did All This Happen?
What did a 19-year-old look like in designing? Which was the burden of everyone's understanding at that time. Melanie and her boyfriend did not have any tech knowledge.
How Tech Giants, Microsoft and Adobe were beaten in their game? When all the copycats including Adobe copied Canva's features, still, what did Canva do that no one could finish it?
In this video, we will not decode Canva's journey but their secrets and winning strategies step by step. Well then, let's get started.
Before Canva's Strategy: The Origin
We need to know how Canva started.
Melanie Perkins was born in Perth, Western Australia. Her father was an electrical engineer and her mother was a teacher. Because of Melanie's mother, she was also very fond of teaching. And so when she was studying at university, to earn extra income in the evening, she taught Adobe InDesign and Photoshop to these students.
While she was taking these classes, she noticed a very strange thing. Many students leave this course after a few days. And then they never come back. Melanie tried to change her teaching techniques at times. But even then the students were leaving the classes in the middle.
Then Melanie talked to some of these students. Then those students told her that these softwares are very confusing and complex. And our system can't support them either.
Only then does Melanie realize that the problem is not in the teaching style—these softwares are very complex.
After this, Melanie explored many more softwares. In all those softwares, they found four major problems:
- All softwares are quite complex
- There is no pre-separate library of assets
- These softwares require a very powerful PC to run
- These softwares are very expensive—from which only professionals can afford
Due to these four problems, normal users are not able to create designs. And that's what Melanie had to change: Designing becomes democratized.
Fusion Books: The First Step
Melanie shares these problems with her boyfriend Cliff Obrecht, and then both of them together start solving this problem. Designing is a vast field, and they didn't even have the resources. But that's why, they first focused on a specific domain.
Melanie's mother was already a teacher. And so they knew that teachers and students were with them. It takes a lot of effort to create yearbooks. And that's why both of them started solving this problem first.
They launched Fusion Books in 2007. Fusion Books was a simple designing software, with templates for making yearbooks. Teachers and students liked this simple user interface very much. And then in a few years, Fusion Books becomes the largest yearbook publisher company in Australia.
Visit Fusion Books (now part of Canva)
Looking at this success of Fusion Books, Melanie gets a proof of concept. That this idea is actually working. And then what was it? They didn't want to stop at university yearbooks anymore. They wanted to revolutionize the entire design industry.
With this vision, she founded the company in 2012—Canva.
Canva’s Core Innovation: Browser First Design
To simplify designing, they had to replicate the features of existing software. First replicate, then simplify.
But the next question: what Microsoft and Apple couldn't do, and even Adobe failed to solve—how did this young couple solve it?
One-line answer: They changed the entire process of designing software.
Instead of creating desktop-based software, they followed a browser-first approach. All other designing software were native apps you purchase and install. Canva, instead, was a web app.
Advantages of Canva’s Browser-first Model:
- No need for powerful computers (processing in the cloud)
- Crack version not possible (directly connected to the internet)
- Real-time bug fixes and updates
- Seamless mobile support
Discover other innovative mobile apps like Canva
Even Photoshop launched its app for iPhone in 2025 (still limited features), while Canva launched its mobile app back in 2016.
Why This Was a Genius Move
At that time, most websites had only text, links, and few images. Adobe Flash was required for even basic animations. There was less than a 1% chance Canva could succeed.
But in 2012, HTML5 arrived. It supported all browsers and allowed drawing directly in browsers. Canva wrote their first line of code in HTML5.
Also, the rise of social media marketing increased the demand for simple design tools. Canva became the go-to tool.
Thanks to cloud services like AWS and Azure, Canva was able to scale in 190 countries rapidly. And finally, its mobile app gave it even more reach—today 50% of Canva users are on mobile.
Why Adobe Failed to Kill Canva
Even though Canva’s browser-first model was a hit, Adobe didn’t just sit quietly. They launched Adobe Spark, later rebranded to Adobe Express. But they failed. Why?
Four Key Reasons Canva Beat Adobe:
- Massive Template Library
Anyone can contribute templates/assets on Canva. In Adobe Spark, only Adobe’s team could. - Smart SEO Strategy
Canva’s template pages rank high on Google, reducing customer acquisition costs. - Pay-After-Design Model
Adobe asks for payment before use. Canva lets you use premium elements and pay only on export. - Third-party App Integration
Canva integrated tools like mockups, upscalers, QR generators—even remove.bg. Adobe tried building everything themselves, taking more time.
Check out other design tools like PicsArt for mobile users
Gen AI Enters the Game
Canva is using Gen AI to become more powerful. Adobe is using Gen AI to become easier to use. The two are now trying to steal each other’s superpowers.
Canva = Simple but less powerful
Photoshop = Powerful but complex
Now both are evolving. But…
Do you think these two will be able to disrupt each other's market?
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Let me know in the comments.
