AI photo enhancer Remini is the latest hot app in China, surpassing TikTok’s sister platform Douyin
- Remini ranked first for downloads in the seven days from April 30 to May 6, ahead of Douyin Lite in third spot and Douyin at No 11, according to Data.ai
- The momentum was boosted by China’s five-day Labour Day holiday that ended Sunday, when netizens tended to share more photos of their trips
The hottest app in China right now is a photo editor powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the same one that went viral in the US last year for its ability to generate images of what a couple’s child could look like.
Remini, which can unblur old photos and, as many Chinese users are rushing to try, make a portrait look like a clay sculpture, topped China’s free app rankings on Apple’s App Store as of Wednesday.
Remini ranked first for downloads in the seven days from April 30 to May 6, ahead of Douyin Lite in third spot and Douyin at No 11, according to Data.ai. In the prior week, Remini was ranked 255th.
The app’s popularity among Android users in China is hard to determine as it is only available on Google Play, which is inaccessible in the mainland China market. But there are a dozen tutorials online that teach people how to install it via Google Play or with an APK file, contributing to rising demand for the app.
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The momentum was boosted by China’s five-day Labour Day holiday that ended Sunday, when netizens tended to share more photos of their trips. Remini-generated clay-style pictures began to flood local social media platforms earlier this month, including Tencent Holdings’ WeChat and microblogging site Weibo.
Domestic media Dushikuaibao attributed the app’s popularity to the clay filter “being both ugly and cute”. Tech media Zhidxcom said the product charges a relatively fair price for its generative AI technology.
After a seven-day free trial, Remini users have to pay at least 8 yuan (US$1.1) to keep using it, and 68 yuan per week to access more advanced features like the clay effect.
A grey market is even emerging. On Xianyu, the second-hand online marketplace, dozens of merchants offer to edit photos with their paid Remini accounts for a fraction of the subscription cost. Xianyu is run by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.
Remini, owned by Milan, Italy-based Bending Spoons, was initially developed by Beijing-based start-up Caldron. The parent was later acquired by the Italian firm in 2021.
Caldron chief executive Huang Shuo said at the time that many people tried to persuade them not to sell, as they saw the potential of Remini. “Our team consists of engineers only, which means we are barely capable of marketing,” said Huang at an event in Shenzhen in 2021. “So it is better to transfer it to someone better at promotions.”
In 2023, Remini went viral in the US and other Western markets after the app added a new feature that generated a photo that predicted what a couple’s child could look like.
