If you’re a design professional Adobe has likely been a part of your life, a titan of the software industry and one who has dominated the design industry for decades. In recent years it’s faced a slew of challenges and backlash from its user base. This unrest is reflected starkly in the search interest data for the term “cancel Adobe”, which has reached unprecedented levels between 2020 and 2024.
Analysing the data reveals a narrative of growing user dissatisfaction, influenced by legal issues and controversial policy changes.
A surge in search interest for ‘Cancel Adobe’
According to Google Trends data, the search interest for “cancel Adobe” has shown a marked increase over the past few years. Here’s a breakdown of the annual changes in search interest:
- 2020: This year serves as our baseline.
- 2021: A decline of 11.63% from the previous year.
- 2022: A significant increase of 38.88%.
- 2023: A further rise of 8.17%.
- 2024: The interest peaked with a 9.97% increase.
The surge in 2022, followed by continued increases in 2023 and 2024, highlights a growing wave of discontent among Adobe’s users with a total increase of 57.02%.
If we look at current revenue data this isn’t affecting Adobe financially, with record-breaking revenue of $19.41 billion in fiscal year 2023, which represents 10 percent year-over-year growth. But it might be a sign of a shift on the horizon for the monolith that is Adobe.
Recent legal troubles Adobe have faced
One of the pivotal factors contributing to this trend is Adobe’s legal battles. The company is currently involved in a lawsuit filed by the US government, accusing it of violating consumer protection laws with hidden termination fees and making it hard to cancel subscriptions.
Controversial policy changes
In addition to legal woes, Adobe recently updated its terms of service, sparking outrage among its user base. The language shifted from granting them limited access to user content to potentially broader access “through both automated and manual methods,” including manual review of user data, which wasn’t previously mentioned. This move sparked immediate privacy concerns and calls for a boycott. Facing this backlash, Adobe was forced to explain the changes and what they meant for user data.
An all-time high in discontent for Adobe users
The combination of legal challenges and unpopular policy changes has possibly culminated in a substantial movement against Adobe. The data from 2024 shows that the search interest for “cancel Adobe” is at an all-time high. This peak underscores the critical juncture at which Adobe finds itself. For consumers and industry watchers, the rise in search interest is a clear indicator of the broader issues faced by the tech giant.
What does this mean for Adobe?
While revenues may remain high for Adobe, with an ever-growing userbase, it would be foolish to ignore this trend which may have a long-term impact on customer churn. The surge in search interest for “cancel Adobe” between 2020 and 2024 is more than just a statistical anomaly. It reflects deep-rooted issues that Adobe would likely be better to face head-on to help restore its reputation and relationship with its existing users.
While Adobe and it’s suite of tools like Photoshop and Illustrator are the most popular tool for most designers and agencies, if you are looking for an alternative, tools like Affinity Designer and Coral Draw are both great options. Affinity is particularly appealing for many users with it’s one-off fee approach similar to that of Adobe before 2011 when they moved over to a subscription model. Or if you’re not a designer but want to create a design for T-shirts, learn more about the best fee T-shirt design software options.
