Reface investor Sergey Tokarev was speaking of one of the highly successful Ukrainian tech developed. He also explained how the Ukrainian app, Reface, managed to dominate the world charts in less than twelve months and the app taking first places in the US App Store downloads charts. In the summer of 2020, the American market was conquered with a face swap app for videos and GIFs.
Reface was previously termed Doublicat. It reached the top place in the Entertainment category. The giants of that category Instagram, Youtube, and Netflix were left behind by Reface. It created history as a Ukrainian app reached the top positions for the first time. Reface conquered the overall charts as well. Reface rise to the top was different from other hit Ukrainian mobile apps, like Grammarly, Travelpost, and Fander. Reface’s growth was much exponential than these other apps.
9 months for 50 million downloads
On January 13, 2020, the official app was released as Doublicat app. The app was downloaded over a million times in just the first few months. The downloads crossed five million in just six months. Tech giants Instagram, Zoom, Netflix, Amazon, and Youtube were crossed by the app in mid-August in a number of countries. It reached 20 million downloads by the end of August. By the first week of September, the downloads had doubled. In fact, according to RefaceAI, the app had 35 million users. The app had dominated the Android platform as it reached first placed in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, along other dozen countries.
Sergey Tokarev says Reface is in the top 10 in the App Store as of the end of October 2020. He also says Reface in the top 20 in the Google Play Top Free Entertainment Apps in the United States. According to Tokarev, more than 50 million people have downloaded the app.
Star Usage
The app is not only popular among ordinary users, but world-famous celebrities have also downloaded and enjoyed the app. Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears, Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lopez are some stars that have refaced their images using the app. Reface was given attention by Ukraine artists as well. Singer Jerry Heil, known for the hit “Okhrana, otmyena” was also a fan of the app. RefaceAI created a video #Blogger with Heil.
The creators say the app’s popularity growth is organic. Worldwide media has mentioned the app more than 600 times since the release. Media powerhouses Forbes, Mashable, Techcrunch, and VICE have also acknowledged the app. Sergey Tokarev says in 65% of cases, the users post the Reface created videos and photos in their social media accounts.
Working principle and technology
Reface is based upon an exclusive technology developed in-house. Reface is based on the GAN (generative adversarial network) machine learning algorithm. The maximum realism of the final content is achieved because of artificial intelligence exclusivity. Sergey Tokarev says the real-time technology incorporated within Reface gives it the advantage over others. He also says the app is simple and accessible to everyone possessing a smartphone.
Launch Story
The development company was launched in 2011 as NeoCortext, to work to improve the machine learning methods. The developers, after some time, started to create their own artificial intelligence algorithm for replacing the faces in images. Sergey Tokarev says the team has worked hard and has come a long way. He says a lot of companies have started entering the market, but they need a huge gap to fill.
Safety Is The Priority
RefaceAI is socially responsible and gives attention to safety. The company is taking preventive measures to hinder the risk factors. Sergey Tokarev says the public domain has access to only about a tenth of our technology’s potential.
Future
RefaceAI is ambitious for the future. They are planning to attract one hundred million new subscribers in the next years. The company is also developing several new products with plans of releasing a full-fledged video editor Reface Studio this fall.
