Sergey Tokarev, an investor of RefaceAI, shared his views on the success of Reface, an app that allows its users to replace faces on GIF-images and videos, in various parts of the world. RefaceAI is an IT development company based in Ukraine. The original name of the Reface app was Doublicat. The company changed its name to make it easier for users to understand the purpose of the app.
Sergey Tokarev, an investor of RefaceAI, shared his views on the success of Reface, an app that allows its users to replace faces on GIF-images and videos, in various parts of the world. RefaceAI is an IT development company based in Ukraine. The original name of the Reface app was Doublicat. The company changed its name to make it easier for users to understand the purpose of the app.
0 Download – 20M Downloads, how did it happen?
The company released the face replacement app on January 13, 2020. It grabbed over 1 million downloads in the first three months of its release on App Store and Google Play. In July, the app surpassed 5 million downloads. The company officials said that the app had surpassed 20M downloads by the end of August, and the number is still increasing. The app has beaten many other popular apps on App Store and Google Play in various countries of the world.
In the beginning, the app grabbed the attention of Thailand residents. Within the six months of its release, the app reached the no. 1 position in Thailand on the charts. Similarly, the app became highly famous in the Philippines. Later on, the app topped the charts in the European market in early July. Now, the app has surpassed the most popular apps in the US market. It is the number 1 app in the entertainment category of AppStore in the United States.
What are the success factors behind Reface’s popularity?
Sergey Tokarev, a renowned It investor, noted that the uniqueness and excellent final results of the app made it successful. The RefaceAI developers worked hard for a long time to developed their own technology based on artificial intelligence. The competitors of Reface are still using computer-generated imagery (CGI) technology. However, CGI technology has many major flaws including limited user experiences and bad end results. “The result has exceeded all our expectations. It takes only a short time to process an image, and you get the final picture as realistic as possible,” expressed Sergey Tokarev about Reface. The users can replace faces on their own videos and GIFs along with a vast database provided by the developers. They can replace their or anyone else’s face with the face of a famous athlete, celebrity, politician, and others.
In 2019, the company attracted Elon Musk through Reflect, a face replacement app that works on photos. Musk decided to swap bodies with Dwayne Johnson by using the Reflect app and shared the results on his Twitter account. “These photos were published by thousands of media around the world, and the app instantly gained popularity among users,” noted RefaceAI investor. Reface is a larger prospect of the company as compared to Reflect. It allows its users to replace faces on videos and GIF-images. Many singers have used this technology to produce their music videos.
The development team takes the safety of users’ data as the most important priority. Sergey Tokarev, the investor of RefaceAI, said, “The app doesn’t store the photos of people. The app doesn’t need a photo to process an image.” GoogleCloud processes the image sent by Reface. The images automatically get deleted within 24 hours. The user’s phone is the only place where the final photos and videos are stores. The company has a main aim to target the gaming, advertisement, entertainment, and filmmaking industries to generate revenue. Investors are keen to achieve their goals in the near future.
