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How is a design website having 189M users? This is astonishing more than the hack!

r3bl 7y ago
Because it made it easy to create inspirational posters and social media posts/avatars/covers. Its simplicity of creating a "good enough" design is what got non-designers registered, myself included.
- rhizome 7y ago
  Sounds like Print Shop Pro 30 years ago! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Print_Shop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Print_Shop
lm28469 7y ago
You can sign up with facebook + there is a free 30 days trial. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people just signed up to check it out and if a lot of other users registered multiple times with different emails to have access to the free trial.
- jeromegv 7y ago
  Hmm there is an entirely free version and has quite a lot of features, it's more than a trial. This is popular not just because of people re-creating accounts on different emails. https://about.canva.com/pricing/ https://about.canva.com/pricing/
jslabovitz 7y ago
It's also a common tool for non-designers who maintain their own websites. I heard about Canva through my girlfriend who used it on her Android phone to build banners, buttons, and other graphics for her Wordpress site.
tyingq 7y ago
Guessing, but maybe because a site that allows for somewhat discrete link spamming attracts spammers. Facebook says ~17 million fake account creation attempts per day[1] (that they catch after the fact), so it doesn't seem that unusual. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20000235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20000235 (3B/6 months == ~17M/day)
AznHisoka 7y ago
My guess is it doesn’t. Anyone can make up a number if they don’t have to prove it. Hootsuite doesnt even have that many.
- gist 7y ago
  Well it also depends on what is considered a 'user'. For example let's say you had 'only' 50,000 users. So you then pack the database with hundreds of millions of fake users. The purpose of the fake users is simply to lessen the probability that the real users get their data used in some way. Further to the point if the number of fake users is high enough it makes it more difficult to sell the data because nobody knows what data is fake and what is not (sure you could cross ref it with other data but that would take some effort). And even moreover a news story saying that 25,000 users data was stolen is not a big deal. A news story saying that 1 billion users data was stolen is a big deal. And then brings up the obvious question of whether the stolen data is really real in some way.
- jeromegv 7y ago
  You don't "need" hootsuite, you can login on twitter and facebook just fine to craft your social media. Sure for professionals it helps to have your calendar of content, but tons of people get away without it. Hootsuite also kind of missed the transition to Instagram and they are left to do whatever is being allowed by the API of the social media platforms. However, if you need any kind of design work, you absolutely need a software to do it and Canva let you do all of it, up until the final output. Potential for growth is definitely bigger with Canva than Hootsuite.
  - AznHisoka 7y ago
    That is true. I'm the biggest Hootsuite hater.
- tomhoward 7y ago
  Canva is ranked at 170 on Alexa [1]. Hootsuite is ranked at more than 1100 [2]. So we'd expect Canva to have a lot more users than Hootsuite. Also, they've raised over $80M in multiple rounds from top VCs including Sequoia [3], which would be hard to do if they were bullshitting about their numbers. [1] https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/canva.com?ver=classic https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/canva.com?ver=classic [2] https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hootsuite.com?ver=classic https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hootsuite.com?ver=classic [3] https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/canva-50-9-million-australia-tech-unicorn-startup-funding-2018/ https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/canva-50-9...
jeromegv 7y ago
Canva is used by anyone doing any kind of marketing or design work. It's easy to use, doesn't require any app on your laptop, will save your design in the cloud, and the free version is quite decent. I'm sure there's a fair amount of unused accounts but Canva is quite HUGE (i work in ecommerce/marketing/social media)
- 8bitrebellion 7y ago
  Can confirm, I just logged into Canva to check whether I had an account and turns out I made one a year ago for some project and had forgotten
  - dmix 7y ago
    A good example of how bad press is good for business. Plenty of people are probably learning or relearning about Canva.
DisruptiveDave 7y ago
Was likely one of their earlier users, been on the platform for more years than I can remember. It's simple to use and covers all the basics for digital marketers who don't have time to wait for internal design resources to free up. Business cards, CPC ads, banners, etc. I just finished designing a 15-page downloadable PDF in it. Oh, and I only just upgraded to a pay account; been using it free for many many years.
- dmix 7y ago
  So the idea is a library of templates/icons/clip art combined with a web UI to edit the text and objects? With some sharing/collaboration features built in. Sounds like a good idea. Templates have pretty much taken over web design, it makes sense that it will take over other run-of-the-mill categories of design (where hiring a custom designer doesn't make sense).
  - parksy 7y ago
    I use it for my side project's album covers. I can upload images, overlay text, add basic shape layers. It's no photoshop / sketch but it does the basics well enough which is why I use it, and being online I don't have to be near my studio if I want to finish up publishing a track. Definitely a great service, it doesn't surprise me it has so many users.

r3bl 7y ago

Because it made it easy to create inspirational posters and social media posts/avatars/covers. Its simplicity of creating a "good enough" design is what got non-designers registered, myself included.

rhizome 7y ago
Sounds like Print Shop Pro 30 years ago! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Print_Shop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Print_Shop

lm28469 7y ago

You can sign up with facebook + there is a free 30 days trial. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people just signed up to check it out and if a lot of other users registered multiple times with different emails to have access to the free trial.

jeromegv 7y ago
Hmm there is an entirely free version and has quite a lot of features, it's more than a trial. This is popular not just because of people re-creating accounts on different emails. https://about.canva.com/pricing/ https://about.canva.com/pricing/

jslabovitz 7y ago

It's also a common tool for non-designers who maintain their own websites. I heard about Canva through my girlfriend who used it on her Android phone to build banners, buttons, and other graphics for her Wordpress site.

tyingq 7y ago

Guessing, but maybe because a site that allows for somewhat discrete link spamming attracts spammers. Facebook says ~17 million fake account creation attempts per day[1] (that they catch after the fact), so it doesn't seem that unusual. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20000235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20000235 (3B/6 months == ~17M/day)

AznHisoka 7y ago

My guess is it doesn’t. Anyone can make up a number if they don’t have to prove it. Hootsuite doesnt even have that many.

gist 7y ago
Well it also depends on what is considered a 'user'. For example let's say you had 'only' 50,000 users. So you then pack the database with hundreds of millions of fake users. The purpose of the fake users is simply to lessen the probability that the real users get their data used in some way. Further to the point if the number of fake users is high enough it makes it more difficult to sell the data because nobody knows what data is fake and what is not (sure you could cross ref it with other data but that would take some effort). And even moreover a news story saying that 25,000 users data was stolen is not a big deal. A news story saying that 1 billion users data was stolen is a big deal. And then brings up the obvious question of whether the stolen data is really real in some way.
jeromegv 7y ago
You don't "need" hootsuite, you can login on twitter and facebook just fine to craft your social media. Sure for professionals it helps to have your calendar of content, but tons of people get away without it. Hootsuite also kind of missed the transition to Instagram and they are left to do whatever is being allowed by the API of the social media platforms. However, if you need any kind of design work, you absolutely need a software to do it and Canva let you do all of it, up until the final output. Potential for growth is definitely bigger with Canva than Hootsuite.
- AznHisoka 7y ago
  That is true. I'm the biggest Hootsuite hater.
tomhoward 7y ago
Canva is ranked at 170 on Alexa [1]. Hootsuite is ranked at more than 1100 [2]. So we'd expect Canva to have a lot more users than Hootsuite. Also, they've raised over $80M in multiple rounds from top VCs including Sequoia [3], which would be hard to do if they were bullshitting about their numbers. [1] https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/canva.com?ver=classic https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/canva.com?ver=classic [2] https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hootsuite.com?ver=classic https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hootsuite.com?ver=classic [3] https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/canva-50-9-million-australia-tech-unicorn-startup-funding-2018/ https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/canva-50-9...

jeromegv 7y ago

Canva is used by anyone doing any kind of marketing or design work. It's easy to use, doesn't require any app on your laptop, will save your design in the cloud, and the free version is quite decent. I'm sure there's a fair amount of unused accounts but Canva is quite HUGE (i work in ecommerce/marketing/social media)

8bitrebellion 7y ago
Can confirm, I just logged into Canva to check whether I had an account and turns out I made one a year ago for some project and had forgotten
- dmix 7y ago
  A good example of how bad press is good for business. Plenty of people are probably learning or relearning about Canva.

DisruptiveDave 7y ago

Was likely one of their earlier users, been on the platform for more years than I can remember. It's simple to use and covers all the basics for digital marketers who don't have time to wait for internal design resources to free up. Business cards, CPC ads, banners, etc. I just finished designing a 15-page downloadable PDF in it. Oh, and I only just upgraded to a pay account; been using it free for many many years.

dmix 7y ago
So the idea is a library of templates/icons/clip art combined with a web UI to edit the text and objects? With some sharing/collaboration features built in. Sounds like a good idea. Templates have pretty much taken over web design, it makes sense that it will take over other run-of-the-mill categories of design (where hiring a custom designer doesn't make sense).
- parksy 7y ago
  I use it for my side project's album covers. I can upload images, overlay text, add basic shape layers. It's no photoshop / sketch but it does the basics well enough which is why I use it, and being online I don't have to be near my studio if I want to finish up publishing a track. Definitely a great service, it doesn't surprise me it has so many users.