A Malaysian startup takes on Adobe

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Meet 123RF, the stock image website that has an average of 25 million views per month, according to SimilarWeb. Here’s what’s surprising: The company behind it is based in Malaysia, has been profitable for years, and boasts an annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars. And now, its latest surprise is how it’s pivoting into a software-as-a-service (SaaS) player to go up against Adobe. Can it succeed?

Today we look at:

• The Malaysian startup that’s going up against the goliaths of the creative cloud space
• The startup that banked US$16.7 million, thanks to the rise of online shopping
• Other highlights such as how Facebook is practicing censorship in Vietnam and Grab’s great third quarter

A super content library player’s move into SaaS

Inmagine Group, the parent firm of 123RF, bootstrapped its way to where it is today. But that’s not enough, as it has set it sights on getting a piece of the US$31 billion creative cloud market which is US$25 billion bigger than the stock content industry.

• Building the next Adobe: To win in the creative tools space, Inmagine began acquiring companies in 2017, including online image editing suite Pixlr and filmmaker community platform Story and Heart.
• The target audience? Creative professionals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and creative agencies that want a more affordable option compared to Adobe. Inmagine currently has 35 million monthly active users across all its platforms.
• On the other hand, Inmagine’s competitors have also moved into the stock market space: Adobe acquired Fotolia in 2014 and later rebranded it to Adobe Stock while Canva bought stock content sites Pexels and Pixabay just last year.

Delve into Inmagine’s fight in the creative space: A profitable Malaysian startup is taking on Adobe and Canva

Catch our other good reads on Malaysian companies:

• A startup is racing to turn everyone into an internet service provider
• How a startup plans to profit from the regional car ownership boom
• Can AirAsia’s super-app ambitions take off?

This startup says yay to the rise of online shopping

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