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.