Cartoon selfie app is a hit with mainland users

Want to add a cute touch to your social network photos? You can now create your own cartoon selfies using MYOTee, the latest hit mobile app on the mainland.

The application, called “lian meng” in Chinese - literally meaning “cute face”- allows users to design a cartoon avatar by choosing from dozens of built-in templates to design their character’s hairstyle, eyes, face shape, and other facial features. They can then save their creation and upload it to their social networks as their profile picture.

MYOTee has become popular on various social networking platforms, notably microblog Weibo and mobile messenger WeChat, where users have rushed to change their usual selfies to the cartoon profile pictures generated by the application.

It has become the number one downloaded free app by Chinese mainland users on the iTunes App Store, Apple’s online mobile app shop, for more than a week. As of Wednesday the app had been downloaded more than 20 million times on different mobile platforms.

“China’s dynamic social networking platforms make it possible for applications like MYOTee to go viral within a short period of time,” said Wang Jian, an analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Enfodesk which specialises in social media and e-business in China.

“But still, 20 million [downloads] is quite a number for a new application within a short period of time,” she said via telephone on Wednesday.