• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

3

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

3

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Tech

Adobe sees NFTs and the metaverse as opportunities for collaboration and growth

By
Dina Bass
Dina Bass
and
Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Dina Bass
Dina Bass
and
Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 26, 2021, 10:15 AM ET

Adobe Inc. Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen sees tools that foster teamwork and products that take advantage of trends in the digital world such as non-fungible tokens and virtual reality as the next wave of growth for his company that dominates creative design software. 

The company will release test versions of two products that let people work together: Creative Cloud Spaces, which provides a place for teammates to organize files, libraries and links, and Creative Cloud Canvas, which lets people display their design work to review with others who are part of the project. Adobe will also test web versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, which it hopes will let multiple people work more easily on projects using that popular software.  While collaboration tools have been commonplace for other types of software like word processing and spreadsheets, it has been more difficult to make sharing massive, detailed digital images and videos elegant and easy, said Adobe Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky.

“The number of stakeholders that exist in the creative process—whether you’re an agency or a marketer or a design professional or an executive who needs to approve a particular campaign—the skill set associated with the multiple people collaborating, it is different,” Narayen said in an interview ahead of the company’s MAX products conference on Tuesday. “If you’re working on a spreadsheet or working on a Word document, it’s probably a more sort of normalized set of skill sets.” 

Emerging areas such as creating three-dimensional objects for the metaverse, augmented reality and virtual reality, and technology to make sure NFTs and news videos are authentic, will expand the market for Adobe’s products, Narayen said. New mobile phones with multiple cameras that can take high-quality images are also fueling demand, he said. 

“New media types are coming,” he said. “The secular trends associated with the number of people who want to create, the new devices on which people are going to create, the dramatic advances in computing power—those are all tailwinds that will be growth drivers for us.”

As the maker of the most popular types of creative tools, Adobe has a lock on the market, but must find ways to grow in order to justify a stock price that has more than doubled in each of the past two years, expanding the company’s price-to-earnings multiple, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana. Shares have jumped about 30% thus far in 2021.

“Adobe’s Creative Cloud has a formidable position in the market and has grown over 20% for the past four quarters,” Rana said. “The depth and breadth of this product suite makes it the de-facto choice for creators. However, it is going to be hard for Creative Cloud to continue to grow at the same pace over the next 12 months, as comparisons get tougher, and it becomes harder to find new users.”

Two years ago Adobe began an alliance with other tech companies and content providers to combat things like deepfakes by providing technology to verify content authenticity. The company Tuesday unveiled features called Content Credentials, which will let users assess where digital content came from originally and who created it. The tools will be available to test for millions of existing Adobe Creative Cloud customers. Demand for NFTs and for verifying that commercial products are legitimate will probably be the first drivers that push adoption of the technology, Narayen said.

“If you’re buying a piece of great content and it was designed by (Adobe Vice President) Stacy Martinet,” he said in the interview in a nod to his colleague. “You want to make sure that it’s actually designed by Stacy rather than anybody else,” he said. 

Adobe is also working on new 3-D products to be the future design tool provider for the metaverse, an idea championed by companies such as Facebook Inc. and Adobe partner Microsoft Corp. that people will live, work and exercise inside a virtual universe.

Belsky is scheduled at Tuesday’s conference to talk about Adobe’s Substance 3D collection, which lets designers do things like sculpt a 3-D object from scratch, as well as start with materials and textures the company has created. In order for these new virtual technologies to take off, they need great content and it’s up to Adobe to make it easier to design, Narayen said. 

“The reason why you haven’t seen more AR or VR content is because it’s hard to author, but we’re making strides on that,” he said. 

More tech coverage from Fortune:

  • Thera-who? These biotech firms are looking to push what’s possible with blood
  • Teens have been losing interest in Facebook for years, data shows
  • Crypto project Worldcoin wants to give you coins in exchange for an eye scan
  • Lucid Motor’s Air EV finally hits the roads with a range that blows Tesla away
  • How Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen became the company’s worst nightmare

Fortune’s upcoming Brainstorm Design conference is going to dive into how businesses are building experiences in the metaverse. Apply to attend the event on May 23-24 in New York.

About the Authors
By Dina Bass
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By Bloomberg
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Big TechSpaceX
Elon Musk’s proposed pay package in SpaceX’s IPO filing reveals what the company actually is: a $1 trillion monster built to colonize Mars
By Eva RoytburgMay 20, 2026
5 minutes ago
elon
SuccessIPOs
SpaceX IPO targets $28.5 trillion total addressable market, mission to ‘make life multiplanetary’ and understand ‘true nature of the universe’
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
2 hours ago
Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia
AINvidia
Nvidia tells skeptical investors that AI is ready to go mainstream
By Ian King and BloombergMay 20, 2026
2 hours ago
SpaceX finally files IPO prospectus, reveals revenue is up–but losses are too
Big TechSpaceX
SpaceX finally files IPO prospectus, reveals revenue is up–but losses are too
By Allie Garfinkle and Alexei OreskovicMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago
Elon Musk sits with his fists together, looking up.
Commentaryspace
SpaceX will be worth trillions, but the space station that made it possible is worth even more — if we don’t squander it
By Tejpaul BhatiaMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago
Antler CEO Magnus Grimeland says Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on tech: ‘People can innovate from almost anywhere’
AsiaAsia Agenda
Antler CEO Magnus Grimeland says Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on tech: ‘People can innovate from almost anywhere’
By Angelica AngMay 20, 2026
3 hours ago

Most Popular

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
1 day ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
3 days ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
8 days ago
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
Success
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
By Preston ForeMay 20, 2026
9 hours ago
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 19, 2026
1 day ago
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
Travel & Leisure
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
By Rio Yamat and The Associated PressMay 18, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.