China's top smartphone app MYOTee is inspired by manga
Ex-Tencent employee pursues 'a life in comics' and creates smartphone app MYOTee, which has been downloaded 36 million times
Erick Guo left Asia's largest internet company last year to build a team of artists and engineers who could create smartphone applications inspired by Japanese comics. The 25-year-old and his team ended up with China's hottest app last month and are working on their next hit.
The free app, called MYOTee, lets people design avatars, or digital images, of themselves and friends that can be used for instant messaging or on social networks. It topped the Apple and Google Android app stores in China in June, with the software downloaded 36 million times.
Guo, who had previously worked at China web giant Tencent Holdings, developed the app by inviting Hong Kong T-shirt artist Peter Lee to join the team and create digital versions of his designs. With backing from venture firms such as IDG Capital Partners, Guo's team at Lemon Tech is seeking to follow MYOTee's success with new products such as mobile games.
"We hope to become the youth market's favourite technology company," Guo said in an interview over instant messaging.
MYOTee, known in Chinese as Lianmeng, lets people customise cartoon images by choosing facial features, hair colour and accessories like hats or sunglasses. What has helped it gain momentum is that the avatars can be used across social media, such as Tencent's WeChat messaging service which has about 400 million users.
The avatars, with designs similar to Japanese manga comics, can bring a more intimate, playful feel to messaging over smartphones or other devices.