The difference is CapCut’s rise is built on its sibling TikTok’s global dominance, whereas Meitu’s early attempt to foster a social network around its photo tool to increase user stickiness never really took off.Īsides from a few in-app updates, including availability in new languages and devices, which might have contributed to CapCut’s surge in downloads, ByteDance also seems to have ramped up advertising for CapCut. The app was so popular that it became synonymous with “selfie beautifier” in China, but it also had a solid base of loyal users abroad. app stores, Sensor Tower says.ĬapCut’s rise is reminiscent of the Chinese photo editor Meitu. CapCut appears to have the same playbook.Īll told, the app has exceeded 250 million installs globally to date from across the App Store and Google Play, and nearly 9.5 million from U.S. Over the past year, TikTok has been beefing up its music arsenal through efforts like scouting for musicians and signing deals with major labels.Ĭhinese tech giants are adept at attracting a large user base first by offering their services for free, and then exploring monetization models after users become sticky to the products. Users won’t have to worry about paying for music, as CapCut has a library of licensed sound clips they can use to spice up their content. Called CapCut, the video editing app allows users to not only add a trove of stickers, filters and effects, it also has a simple-to-use green screen function, a zooming feature that works like a Ken Burns effect, and many more - which make the app like an accessible Final Cut on the go. The latest Chinese app to top the overseas charts is from TikTok owner ByteDance. But most of them tend to be a blip on the radar. It might be a utility tool like a selfie beautifier or some casual video game, which have universal appeal and require little localization effort. From time to time, we see a Chinese app climbing to the top of Google Play and App Store in a host of Western countries.

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