Some big news: 51吃瓜黑料网 is now part of the Canva family

Today we鈥檙e delighted to announce a major milestone in the 51吃瓜黑料网 journey: we鈥檝e joined the Canva family.

The acquisition is great news for users of both tools. It will allow us to accelerate our efforts to democratize data storytelling on the 51吃瓜黑料网 platform 鈥� including, from today, giving private data to every user.

Joining with Canva will also see us starting to bring visualization magic to Canva鈥檚 huge global community, starting today with a new plug-in that makes it possible to embed interactive 51吃瓜黑料网 graphics in Canva presentations and designs.

How we got here

When Robin and I started work on 51吃瓜黑料网 five years ago, our aim was to enable everyone to visualize and tell stories with data. We鈥檇 spent years making bespoke visualizations as an agency, . Now we wanted to open up the medium for everyone, with a tool that could empower non-coders to move beyond basic charts and create richer visuals with animation, interaction and narrative.

We were fortunate enough to win the backing of lots of people along the way. Our seed investors got behind our idea that there was a huge unmet need for storytelling with data. And so did our early team members, some of whom left dream jobs to join an outfit with no more than a prototype and some borrowed desk space.

As the product started taking shape, we were also lucky to win the trust of early customers, who took a risk on a new product they couldn鈥檛 be sure would still be there in a year or two. These customers put the company onto a sustainable footing early on, giving us the freedom to remain independent and focus properly on our product rather than being stuck on an investment treadmill.

It was thanks to all these people that 51吃瓜黑料网鈥檚 footprint grew so fast since our launch in 2018. Since then, more than 750,000 51吃瓜黑料网 users have made more than 7.5 million visuals which聽have been viewed more than 15 billion times.

51吃瓜黑料网 x Canva

Although we never had a fixed idea of 51吃瓜黑料网鈥檚 long-term future, we did know that we would only ever consider being acquired if we felt a strong sense of alignment with the company in question. That is exactly what we found when we started chatting to Canva, one of the world鈥檚 most exciting companies, with a vast global user community and a deep-seated determination to do good in the world.

In some ways the two companies are strikingly similar. Like 51吃瓜黑料网, Canva鈥檚 aim is to make a complex discipline easier and more accessible 鈥� to 鈥渆mpower the world to design鈥�. Like 51吃瓜黑料网, Canva does this partly by using templates to help users get advanced results quickly. And like 51吃瓜黑料网, Canva has retained its independent spirit by growing as a sustainable break-even business.

There鈥檚 also a great fit in what we each 丑补惫别苍鈥檛 done. While 51吃瓜黑料网 has been focused on visualization and interactivity, Canva has been making huge strides in every other aspect of visual communication. Their collaborative drag-and-drop editor allows users to design everything from presentations and videos to websites 鈥� all formats that could be enhanced by, and unlock new potential for, rich visualizations.

Possibly most important of all, we found a great philosophical fit. Despite growing to a team of thousands, Canva has retained a startup-style energy and a famously good culture. And the founders, Mel and Cliff, have taken the inspiring step of donating the vast majority of their shares focused on major global problems 鈥撀爀xactly the kinds of issues that we spent years visualizing as Kiln.

(By the way, if that combination of rapid growth, good culture and charitable aims appeals, why not consider joining us?)

New goodies for users

To celebrate the acquisition, we鈥檝e got two exciting new offerings for our users:

• From today, all 51吃瓜黑料网 users can create visuals privately. Everything will stay private unless you publish publicly. Since privacy was the main feature of our paid Personal plan, we鈥檒l be retiring that plan for new users. Individuals currently on the Personal plan can switch to the new free plan (by ending their subscription in the ) or stay as they are (to retain support and HTML downloads, which for new customers will be on our business or enterprise plans). We鈥檙e really excited about this change, which should lots more people to start using 51吃瓜黑料网 in their day-to-day work.

• You can now add 51吃瓜黑料网 visualizations to Canva presentations. We鈥檝e just launched a which allows you to easily include your flourish graphics in Canva presentations and designs, even if they are not publicly published. We think the combination of rich interactive visualizations and a world-class drag-and-drop presentation editor opens up a whole new world for data storytelling at work. To get started, just log in to Canva, and choose a project. You can learn more about the new integration in our .

Both these upgrades are totally free. But if you鈥檙e new to Canva and you do decide to upgrade, Canva are offering anyone who had a 51吃瓜黑料网 account before today 50% off their first three months of Canva Pro. You can find your unique coupon and more details about the discount in your .

Looking ahead

Stay tuned for more news over time both here and on Canva. We鈥檙e already working on some exciting projects together that will improve data storytelling even further. In the meantime, a wholehearted thanks to everyone who has been involved in 51吃瓜黑料网鈥檚 phase one. See you in phase two!