Canva

[esto]

14 minutes ago, henryanthony said:

Canva will not kill Affinity because Affinity is not a competitor of Canva.

Maybe not kill, but if a VC or shareholder comes along some time in the next few years and says 'why are we still employing 90 staff in Britain to make and maintain a product that brings a tiny portion of our revenue, when we've already got all the code base we wanted?' then what reply could be given?

[Sam Neil]

52 minutes ago, bures said:

This is a pretty brutal discussion. And the company is silent. This is quite telling.

What can they do? Money talks!!!!

[tomonsight]

Reading through all the posts and identifying myself with the majority of users (coming from Adobe Photshop, CorelDraw, etc. switching to Affinity because I did not want to have a subscription and enjoying their products ever since) I am hugely disappointed and critical about the outlook too. It guess it all was too good to be true ...

It seems obvious that subscription based models have won the market, otherwise companies would not all go down that road. On the consumer side it is a "forced education" that you have to pay a monthly fee for everything, mobile apps, streaming, music, software and users adopt it. On the business side, seeing how gladly for example the company I work for goes into more and more subscription based services, we switch off our own servers to pay for cloud services, it all seems like the right thing to do for a software company. 

As much as the forums are filled with anger about subscriptions or microtransactions in games, "we all" have been feeding these models to make them successful.

Specifically for Affinity I also believe that it will be very hard to find a future market position with a subscription model when your user base is essentially recruited from users who decidedly came because they did not want that business model. It is like turning a vegan market into a butcher's store and hoping your loyal customers will stay loyal.

In that sense it is interesting what the strategy for Canva for that take-over was. We can strongly assume they know about the customer base and they will have an idea on that the conversion rate of Affinity users going subscription will be underwhelming. Now, when it is already a starting premise that a good portion of customers will be lost, why would you continue with the take-over? Presumably to take over technology/staff that is relevant and shut down the rest to "consolidate" the market. Is that worth the price? Shutting down a company again is just cost.

The difficult question will be where to move again. There are surprisingly few good options which is - in the end - part of the plan and probably the reason for that Canva deal: To restrict the market and force users into one of the few viable options.

[Pseudolus]

3 minutes ago, AffinityMakesMeSad said:

Hold in mind, they need us - we don't need them.

The unfortunate reality is that Affinity doesn't need us depending on what Canva's plans are. 🫥

1 minute ago, tomonsight said:

The difficult question will be where to move again.

To be honest, I think a lot of people who went to Affinity will just go back to Adobe, whether they opt to pay for it or if they just used the cracked version.

[tobkum]

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/

Good news?!

[Ash]

To followup on some of my comments yesterday, we are today enshrining our commitment to the Affinity community in 4 pledges made by the Affinity and Canva teams.

You can read about them here.

We do truly believe the coming together of Affinity and Canva is only going to be a good thing for our customers, staff and the development of our apps. We very much hope you will all continue to be with us on this journey.

All the best,

Ash

[Pseudolus]

Just now, tobkum said:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/

 

Good news?!

This is indeed fantastic news.

[Thomas_Photo]

That's indeed promising and a clear statement. Thank you!

[Chills]

2 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Ironically, Canva has some features which have been requested here several times. e.g. a QR code generator. 

It was in Serif products previously, but they did not put it in Affinity. They did add two stock libraries that Canva bought. 
I am highly suspicious that this deal was done in two months.   Or is that what the Affinity owners are having to tell their own staff?

[GenewalDesign]

It's okay @Ash, you don't have to precise and justify everything, you're already guilty for some folks here.

No matter what you say, they'll say the opposite.

[Bryan Rieger]

2 hours ago, Ash said:

To followup on some of my comments yesterday, we are today enshrining our commitment to the Affinity community in 4 pledges made by the Affinity and Canva teams.

You can read about them here.

We do truly believe the coming together of Affinity and Canva is only going to be a good thing for our customers, staff and the development of our apps. We very much hope you will all continue to be with us on this journey.

Thank you @Ash for this commitment, both from Affinity and Canva - although I do wish this was released yesterday along with the acquisition announcement as it could have stemmed 20 odd pages of discussion, speculation, and anger.

I'd 'thank you' in the reactions, but sadly I have no more to give today (the forum won't let me).

Very happy to read this, and really looking forward to ePub (hopefully both fixed and reflowable) export!

[esto]

9 minutes ago, Ash said:

To followup on some of my comments yesterday, we are today enshrining our commitment to the Affinity community in 4 pledges made by the Affinity and Canva teams.

You can read about them here.

We do truly believe the coming together of Affinity and Canva is only going to be a good thing for our customers, staff and the development of our apps. We very much hope you will all continue to be with us on this journey.

All the best,

Ash

As one of the doomsayers, I'll say: thanks for your clarity here, Ash.

[Bryce]

Quote

I hate Serif now!!

Someone forge to take their meds?

Seriously?

I woke up this morning and found that my Affinity software worked the same as it did Monday morning. What the heck? With the bridge collapsing, the dollar dropping and Serif's announcement yesterday I thought that the world came to an end. Yet, the garden is still growing and Affinity will still make me money as it did every other day (If I can stay off the stupid thread).

[esto]

13 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

I made a post yesterday about "good enough". The fact is, "good enough" really is good enough for a lot of content these days. Who really thinks Burt's Furniture Collection flyer needs the highest level work, when >99% of the flyers will go straight into the bin? Or Stacey's latest TikTok thumbnail?

Ironically, Canva has some features which have been requested here several times. e.g. a QR code generator. 

Yep. I've enough designer friends, and worked with enough clients, to know that a professional job (at the level many here are talking about) isn't what they want - I'm sure most people here have quoted a reasonable (from the professional's POV) price for a small job only to be scoffed at. Yes, there will unfortunately be a loss of work as AI and tools like Canva become more popular, but for a lot of this work, many people weren't going to (or able to) pay a professional anyway.

[Chills]

4 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

I don't think two months is particularly long. Serif was a small privately owned company. There wouldn't be too many "stakeholders" to argue with.

Due diligence, putting an offer together, etc It certainly started way longer than 2 months ago for Canva.
I have seen how these things work.  

[Bryce]

I bought Affinity because it can do more of what I need it to, faster and easier than Adobe. It's not because of price - I still pay Adobe because I still have to have Acrobat for the Quite imposition and Pitstop plugins - there is nothing out there that compares. If there was I would switch entirely from Adobe.

[Dee3D]

1 hour ago, Greengestalt said:

ANYONE been a user since they were Serif not Affinity?

Yes. I've used their software since Serif PagePlus back in the 1990s! That's why I'm so saddened at their demise.

[Bryce]

2 minutes ago, Dee3D said:

Yes. I've used their software since Serif PagePlus back in the 1990s! That's why I'm so saddened at their demise.

yes. I've been using Serif since PagePlus 2. It was my alternative to Aldus Pagemaker 4.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

3 hours ago, esto said:

Also, a notable lack of voices from other members of the staff, here or on socials. I wonder if they’re as ‘excited’ and ‘thrilled’ as Ash pretends to be.

NO. They are in shock - almost all of them, but a few golden members of the dev-team has been paid to keep the mouth shut...

[R.I.P. Affinity 26.03.2024]

 

16 minutes ago, Ash said:

To followup on some of my comments yesterday, we are today enshrining our commitment to the Affinity community in 4 pledges made by the Affinity and Canva teams.

You can read about them here.

We do truly believe the coming together of Affinity and Canva is only going to be a good thing for our customers, staff and the development of our apps. We very much hope you will all continue to be with us on this journey.

All the best,

Ash

But how can we know now, that you are not lying? Serif lied once about "Ain't no one acquiring us 😎". What stops you from lying once again? You are now just a regular Canva employee (if you still are). What can motivate us to invest our time in Affinity? We can't play this game and hope Affinity will stay. Its our real lives and jobs. We were betrayed.

[MikeTO]

The pledge to offer Affinity free to schools and non-profits is amazing. It will enable so many kids to learn with Affinity, and they will go on to use Affinity in their professional careers. This is something that would have been hard for a small company to offer but which the acquisition enabled. Bravo.

[Sephen]

The only reason that I use Affinity is the lack of a subscription model.
If (probably v3) there wil be a subscription model I will drop it like a brick.

[bures]

Let's remember well what it says on The Affinity and Canva Pledge page.

[DarkClown]

9 minutes ago, Ash said:

To followup on some of my comments yesterday, we are today enshrining our commitment to the Affinity community in 4 pledges made by the Affinity and Canva teams.

You can read about them here.

We do truly believe the coming together of Affinity and Canva is only going to be a good thing for our customers, staff and the development of our apps. We very much hope you will all continue to be with us on this journey.

All the best,

Ash

 

OK, Ash, that' a fair statement! I still don't trust company promises - but it's all I can ask for for now.

I was pretty upset about the humiliating marketing bullshit you send out yesterday. Seeing that this merger ends up in a pretty sprawling marketing desaster, you either completely misjudged the close relationship you(Affinity) build up with your customers during the many years of development and the effect of selling the company to a faceless nobody with enough money. Of course cutomers feel betrayed. The father just told his children that "familiy" is over and they all get sold to an orphanage home. Promising them that they still will get fed. Great news.

Yes I'm still scared I might loose the product I spend hundrets and hundrets of hours on to report bugs and participate in plenty discussion on improvement and ideas.I'm scared the supportive community might disappear. I'm scared canva will not keep their promises. (I do remember as well you saying that Affinity will not be sold!) But seeing there's not much I can do about it I'll wait and see.

Either way it will be hard for canva to (re-)gain trust of the customers. This merger marketingwise coud have been prepared a lot better!

Cheers, Timo

[D.VE]

Have you seen yourselves? 
I just saw the video...

Quote

Exciting day for us

Please tell it to your face...

Very sad day... :-( 

Affinity was the only REAL Alternative for the Adobe Suite. I (as many other customers) left Adobe because I don't like a subscription. And since I don't see a clear statement from Canva/Serif that there will be no such thing in the future I assume that they will switch to a subscription model es well...

And then I will instantly switch back to Adobe... Especially since I use Adobe Express instead of Canva...

But I'm quite sure that Canva isn't interested in the old customers anyway... Otherwise the public communication would have been different...