US software firm Adobe said it is pulling its China-tailored software bundle from the mainland market following a business assessment, but vowed to maintain a long-term commitment to local clients.
After December 3, the Adobe mainland website will no longer offer the Creative Cloud China Photography Plan, which is currently sold via a partnership with e-commerce services provider Baozun, the San Jose, California-based company said in an emailed statement to the Post on Monday.
The decision was made based on an assessment of its business, Adobe said, without elaborating.
For now, customers can still subscribe to the 888 yuan (US$125) annual plan – which includes photo-editing apps Photoshop, Lightroom Classic and Photoshop Express – for up to five years through Adobe’s official online store on Alibaba Group Holding’s Tmall platform.
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That store is also run by Baozun, a company that helps global brands from Intel to Microsoft manage their e-commerce presence in China.
On June 1, Adobe’s Tmall store will also stop accepting new subscriptions to the plan, which costs around half the price of a similar product in the US.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Adobe said it remains committed to serving Chinese customers through other plans offered under Creative Cloud, its collection of software for graphic design, video editing, web development and photography, offered on the web.
Individual apps, including the flagship Photoshop, are still available for users in China via Adobe’s business-oriented plans, such as Teams and Enterprise, through authorised resellers at different pricing.
The Teams plan, for example, includes 15 Adobe apps for an annual fee of 7,599 yuan, according to a sales representative at a reseller, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Adobe’s China Photography Plan, launched in August 2019, was initially marketed as an affordable option for both professional and amateur photographers, and touted as the software giant’s first app solution for individual users in the country.