Pexels updates search algorithm to increase visibility for LGBTQ+ community

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Pexels’ algorithm update gives LGBTQ+ couples equal presence, another step in strengthening its overall quest to improve representation for marginalized communities

Pexels shows photos of families with straight couples, same sex couples, and interracial couples when you search for the term ‘family’

Pexels, the multimedia library dedicated to sharing diverse, free stock photos and videos, announced that it has made a major update to its algorithm to increase visibility of content that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community. This announcement follows Pexels’ previous partnership with Nappy in March of 2018 to highlight photos representative of diverse cultures and races. A company that values inclusivity at its core, Pexels has been on a mission to improve its search results to provide more well-rounded offerings since it launched in 2014 and was later acquired by Canva in 2018. Now, in light of Pride month, Pexels is permanently adjusting its algorithm for all relationship-based search keywords to deliver more diversity across genders and sexualities, giving presence to all types of relationships.

Searching for the term ‘couple’ on Pexels returns images representing all races, genders and identities

Pexels sets itself apart from its competitors with its artful, high-quality and curated library that offers over two million photos and videos for free. Additionally, Pexels’ library is the first truly inclusive collection focused on diversity across cultures, ethnicities and genders. While other stock photo sites do have images to reflect diversity, these do not naturally surface in the search results.

To find these photos, users must use search terms that clearly indicate whether they want a photo of a straight or a same-sex couple. Pexels’ algorithm update is focused on inclusivity and prioritizing LGBTQ+ imagery, democratizing all images, not requiring a user to delineate between same sex or other descriptors. Search terms like ‘couple’ or ‘holding hands,’ that typically only return images of heterosexual couples, now yield photos representing all races, genders and identities, increasing visibility and encouraging mainstream use. In a space that is crowded with cisgender, heteronormative, and white-washed content, Pexels continues be a pioneer in supporting underrepresented communities. The company hopes to empower its own community to tell better stories and inspire other stock photo sites to do the same.

“As one of the premier free photo and video libraries, we understand the power a photo or video can have,” said Monica Silvestre, Head of Community at Pexels. “Media has the power to make or break ideologies, challenge the status quo and humanize experiences. Images fuel stories and create movements, and it’s our responsibility as a global platform to act as a force for good; a force that helps power progress. This is why we’re improving our learning algorithm. The next time someone searches for “couple” or “love” they will find refreshing content that reflects life as it really is around us—straight couples, same sex couples, interracial couples, non-binary folks and more.”

In addition to the algorithm update, Pexels has amped up its efforts to partner with creators and companies that prioritize images and videos that challenge relationship norms and offer LGBTQ+ perspectives. The team will continue to adjust how its algorithm learns, making it intentionally calculate equal representation in order to offer its users choices they might not have previously considered. Pexels also employs a team of curators to specifically view, tag and boost submitted images to ensure the highest level of diversity and equality across the platform. Pexels encourages all photographers and creators to upload their LGBTQ+ photography to the platform. 

For more information about Pexels, please visit pexels.com.

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ABOUT PEXELS

Launched in 2014 and acquired by Canva in 2018, Pexels is a free to use photo and video library powered by a community of photographers. Its beautiful library of images and videos is donated by a global community of talented contributors who upload their work for everyone to use freely, helping millions of creators around the world develop beautiful products and designs. Pexels believes in diversity as a force for good and creative innovation. The team of over 30 people worldwide celebrates strength in different cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds and embraces its community of imaginative photographers.

ABOUT CANVA

Launched in 2013, Canva is an intuitive online design and publishing platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. Featuring a simple drag-and-drop user interface and a vast library of templates ranging from presentations, social media posts, posters, invitations to resumes, a huge collection of stock photography, illustrations and fonts, anyone can take an idea and create something beautiful. Canva is available on web, iOS and Android.

LBC Amps Up Digital Services for Filipino Businesses on the Move with LBC Online

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Logistics and delivery services have become the lifeline for many households and businesses especially with the stringent lockdown and those who have limited access to physical shopping spaces. The growing reliance of the general population on online delivery and services inspired LBC Express, Inc. to continue to fuel Filipino businesses by providing digital solutions to online sellers as a way to move their passions and dreams.

With the steady rise of online businesses over the last few months, LBC has launched a platform dedicated to sellers in the social sphere, LBC Online. The platform fast-tracks the business transactions by giving social sellers a tracking service for their packages and flexible collection options. LBC enables sellers through its services and with this new platform, aims to help them succeed as they continue to move their businesses forward. 

Miguel Angel A. Camahort, president of LBC, said, “LBC has always been the stronghold of generations of Filipinos when it comes to cargo and courier services and we are always ready to gear up for their changing needs. As we recover our normalcy and recuperate completely from the challenges that have forced us to rethink our normal, LBC will reinvent its way of moving, its service to bridge the distance between Filipino to Filipino. We start by introducing a safe, convenient way for Filipino online sellers to manage their business.”

By signing up for an LBC Online account, sellers get to pre-process transactions online and enjoy a number of benefits including their own dashboard that allows them to track and trace their deliveries, faster transaction for a smoother branch experience, and more flexibility in payment options that lets you collect your funds at your own convenience. 

Shipments can also be processed online to make your branch drop-off transactions easier and more convenient. Those who need transaction reports can rely on the platform’s dashboard — simply filter your transactions by date and download your reports to save time for more important matters. 

“We hope that through LBC Online, we are in a way, lifting up Filipino online sellers with a platform that helps them manage their business at the comforts of their own homes,” adds Camahort. 

To sign up for LBC Online, just visit https://lbconline.lbcexpress.com/signup. 

LBC introduces more digital services

As the demand for door-to-door delivery increases, the country’s leading courier is also cutting the steps of sending parcels to any point in the country with LBC Pickup, an online booking system that allows LBC staff to get the packages directly at the home of the sender.

To also minimize the need to go to-and-fro in their local branches, LBC is enabling sending remittances from home through Instant Peso Padala (IPP) Online. With IPP Online, anyone can send money through their phones and computers, and have it claimed through thousands of LBC’s physical stores or remittance partners: Cebuana Lhuillier, MLhuillier, and Palawan Pawnshop. This service is free of transaction charges until July 5, 2020.

In view of the current situation, LBC is firm in strengthening country’s collective effort to bring the local economy off the ground. Needless to say, LBC is pioneering the next wave of services needed by the modern Filipino retailer and consumer. 

For more information on LBC’s newest services, visit www.lbcexpress.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/LBCExpress/.

ZRewards, ZALORA Team Up For Up To 25% Shopping Discount

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Shop and save with ZALORA and ZRewards by Zeal! Enjoy up to 25% discount at ZALORA’s Big Fashion Sale which runs until July 2 by using an exclusive voucher code for ZRewards by Zeal, the newest one-stop location for awesome deals in town.

Just log on to http://www.zalora.com.ph or sign in on the ZALORA app and apply voucher code ZEALBFS upon checkout. Get 22% discount for existing customers and 25% savings for new customers for minimum spend of P2,499. Maximum discount is P1,000 per voucher which can be redeemed five times per account.

Those on a tight budget can also get more for less since the voucher code can be used to shop for bargains in ZALORA’s sale section which carries items at knockdown prices.

ZALORA is the country’s leading online fashion store with over 120,000 products- ranging from apparel, footwear, bags, accessories, to beauty essentials – coming from an ever-expanding line-up of top local and international brands. It offers shipping discounts, a host of payment methods, and free returns.

ZALORA has recently partnered with ZRewards by Zeal, a brand under 917Ventures, the largest corporate incubator in the Philippines and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe. Through the ZRewards website, users from all over the Philippines can grab hold of premium and solid offers from different companies redeemable at their favorite online shops and physical stores.

Zeal the deal and pre-register for free at https://www.zeal.ph/registration. Be the first to learn about the newest and biggest deals when the ZRewards website goes live in July.

InLife offers free life insurance to 110K essential workers

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Insular Life (InLife) will give away free insurance and hospitalization coverage to 110,000 essential workers to help secure them in case they catch the COVID-19 virus. 

Called the “Chain of Protection,” the program will be bankrolled by the Insular Foundation and will be underwritten by InLife. 

“As you know vaccines against COVID-19 have yet to be developed and yet, many of our essential workers continue to serve. We want to extend some form of insurance protection and hospital allowance while they still continue to discharge their duties to the public during the quarantine period,” said InLife Executive Chair Nina D. Aguas. 

Ms. Aguas is also the chairman of Insular Foundation. 

While viral pandemic diseases are exclusions in a standard life insurance policy, InLife created Chain of Protection specifically for this purpose, to assist the vulnerable workers at this time of crisis. 

The free insurance provides life insurance cover of P50,000, if death is due to accident or COVID-19 disease, plus hospital allowance of P500/day (maximum of 10 days) if hospitalized due to accident or COVID-19 disease. The free life insurance and hospitalization allowance coverage is limited to 45 days. 

Chain of Protection is for individuals who work for industries or organizations that provide essential goods or services during the quarantine period. To get the free life insurance, they only need to register to the web link dedicated for this purpose at: 

https://chainofprotection.insularlife.com.ph

The complete list of essential industries under the program can be found there as well. 

“We are now nearing our 110th year, and as a Filipino company, we will always be here for our kababayans. We will continue to support them and even create special products just for them,” added Aguas. 

Record growth at Canva sees new $6B valuation

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Canva today announces a new valuation of US$6 billion from US$3.2 billion, after having raised a US$60 million round.

The doubling in valuation is attributed to Canva’s growing prominence as a workplace collaboration platform fueled by its strong performance in user growth, which continues to accelerate as the world shifts online amidst the global pandemic. Today Canva is embraced by over 30 million people every month to design around the globe, collaborating on presentations, marketing materials, social media content, videos and more -- at a whopping 80 designs per second and a total over 3 billion designs created since launch. 

Canva cofounder and COO Cliff Obrecht said despite the economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company continues to see a significant increase in user activity.

“Canva’s accelerated growth is indicative of the “new normal”, as more teams realize the need for a more scalable, more collaborative, more affordable and more user-friendly design platform. 

“Now more than ever, organizations of all sizes are doubling down on building a reliable remote workplace, and are turning to modern productivity platforms like Canva to ensure they remain flexible and scalable.”

Investor Rick Baker from Blackbird, a renowned venture capital firm based in Australia said the surge in Canva’s numbers is a testament to the design platform’s abilities to cater to the changing needs of the modern workplace.

“This round is further evidence that Canva continues to power ahead. In a post-COVID world of remote working, we are seeing Canva’s original vision - a collaborative platform to provide all the elements to create great design - become even more powerful. As a result, Canva has seen phenomenal growth over the past months, cementing its place as one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world.”

Mood Rowghani, general partner at Bond adds, "The recent changes in our world have pressured organizations to embrace new methods of work and collaboration. As the lines between home and office have blurred, Canva's digital design platform is empowering a new wave of productivity and interaction for businesses, schools, and nonprofits across the globe. We have been thrilled to work with the team and are excited about what's to come."

Canva affirms its spot as a powerful workplace collaboration suite

Since launch in late 2019, Canva is the collaboration platform of choice for a number of large organizations to mobilize its workforce to create on brand content.

● More than 500,000 organizations on the platform from Small Businesses to Enterprises such as Warner Music, American Airlines, Ingram Micro, and Eaton

● With more than 90,000 schools and universities worldwide such as the NSW Department of Education in Australia and Georgetown University

● As well as over 55,000 nonprofits such as the World Health Organization, Task Force for Global Health, NHS Charities Together and UN Commission on Human Rights.

Skyscanner, the travel search engine that serves 100 million monthly global users, has used Canva to roll out a full rebrand across 36 markets ― all within six months. 

Skyscanner Senior Design Manager, Judson Cowan said, “The time saved for our design and marketing teams was immense. Canva has allowed us to simultaneously adopt our re-brand across all regions, regardless of timezone, or access to designers. The result was an on-time and well received brand launch, which is rare for large businesses.”

As people continue to collaborate online, design creation and sharing on Canva has increased by over 50% since the start of COVID-19. The company will also be rolling out a number of new workplace collaboration features designed to help teams of all sizes work together, through effective visual communication:

● Canva’s Real-time Collaboration brings teamwork to life by letting users work on designs simultaneously.

● Canva Brainstorms is a new design type built for teams to collaborate simultaneously on notes, build moodboards and flesh out ideas using an infinite canvas space.

● Canva Talking Presentations brings a new way to create engaging presentations by allowing presenters to talk through their slides in an interactive format.

● Canva for Desktop offers a seamless desktop experience, paving the way for offline editing and other native features by the end of the year. 

Cementing Canva’s presence in the US and beyond

As a key growth market for Canva, the company is investing in its US operations with the opening of an office in Austin, Texas. 

The US team will provide strategic support for enterprise clients and nonprofits as the country navigates the “new normal” workplace together, kicking off with its inaugural online Enterprise conference on July 29, Elevate 2020. The conference will feature a keynote from Canva CEO and cofounder, Melanie Perkins, as well as customer panels with HubSpot, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and IDC Global, to name a few. 

When it comes to furthering international growth, Canva is also open to considering acquisitions whereby it invests in companies for their world-class engineering and product teams.

Cliff explains, “We’re open to investment opportunities in the media and editing space as we continue on our mission to provide a comprehensive and valuable product.

“Ultimately, we want Canva to be the go-to platform for all your design needs, so we’ll continue to monitor and evaluate acquisition opportunities.”

For the latest product news, visit https://www.canva.com/whats-new/