Meet China’s hottest AI app: a portrait generator charging US$1.40 for a digital avatar
- The popularity of Miaoya has even fanned hopes that there will be many ways to profit from AI technologies in China thanks to its huge market
- The mini-program are the first popular consumer AI products to emerge from China since the advent of ChatGPT, according to an analyst
The hottest artificial intelligence (AI) app in China right now is a portrait generator that charges just 9.9 yuan (US$1.4) to create beautified avatars in different styles. It is so popular that consumer demand has overloaded servers, with some users waiting more than 24 hours to get the result.
Miaoya, or Fabulous Duck, is one of the most popular mini-program on Tencent Holding’s super social app WeChat. It allows users to upload a single headshot and a set of 20 or more recent photographs, which are then processed into a set of stylised portraits, including standard ID photo and professional portrait.
It is so popular that since it was launched on July 17, some users have waited more than 24 hours to get their portrait. The popularity of the programme has even fanned hopes that there will be many ways to profit from AI technologies in China thanks to its huge market.
AI has become one of the most popular topics in China this year, triggered by the frenzy over ChatGPT, the conversational bot launched last November by San Francisco-based OpenAI. Chinese Big Tech firms such as Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, and JD.com have all jumped in, believing the technology will help to upgrade their current services.
Zhang Dingding, an internet industry commentator and former head of Beijing-based research firm Sootoo Institute, said it was the first popular consumer AI product in China since the advent of ChatGPT. “It’s hard to say how long the popularity will last, but what’s certain is that the market will see many similar products because these kinds of products do not have a high bar,” he said.
Zhang added that users were likely to share the photos on WeChat or Xiaohongshu, China’s social e-commerce platform, so the technology also has a social connection.
The developer of Miaoya is a little known company called Weixu Internet Technology, which uses an email contact from Youku, the Alibaba-owned video platform, according to information on the corporate credit information website on Qixin.com. Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.