AI-Generated Anime Selfies Propel Beauty App to Top in Japan

Meitu has been developing AI photo-altering tools since 2017
Japan’s proven an eager early adopter of the technology

Meitu’s beauty app uses AI to turn photos of people into colorful anime characters.Source: Bloomberg; Meitu Inc.

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By Grace Huang and Jane Zhang

December 8, 2022 at 5:47 AM UTC

Updated on

December 9, 2022 at 3:31 AM UTC

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The ability to turn a user’s selfie into an anime character has turbocharged the Meitu app to the top of Japan’s download rankings over the past week, spurring a big jump in the company’s shares.

Hong Kong-based Meitu Inc. is up more than 50% over the past couple of weeks, in which time its app has reached the top of Apple Inc.’s free iPhone downloads chart and number 2 on Android’s Google Play in Japan, according to data.ai figures. While not new to the Japanese market, the key novelty in the beauty app was the addition of the option to transform a photo into an anime style with the help of AI.