The age of artificial intelligence keeps manufacturing surprises, bringing us many innovative experiences beyond our expectations. Recently, a “clay” style trend has swept across social networks, with such images being shared rapidly on platforms like Xiaohongshu and WeChat Moments, creating a craze reminiscent of the distinct style seen in “Shaun the Sheep.”
Most of these images originate from a mobile application named Remini. Remini is an AI-powered photo editing app, where users upload a photo, choose a filter style such as the clay effect, and instantly, a new image is generated. The operation is exceedingly straightforward, essentially applying a special filter effect to the photo.
However, the uniqueness of this filter lies in that its purpose is not to beautify users but instead produce photos that visually appear “ugly” or, more specifically, have an “ugly-cute” appeal. It is this unconventional style feature that has deeply attracted netizens’ attention, thereby triggering widespread popularity and sharing.
Supported by large-scale AI models, image processing software can provide diverse entertainment options. For instance, Miao Duck Camera, which touted AI portraits, once enjoyed its moment of fame. Now it’s the turn for the clay AI filter to take over the internet, which is hardly surprising.
What’s particularly noteworthy is why AI image processing apps frequently become hits? How long will clay-style filters remain popular? And how did these clay filters, which give people’s faces a somewhat eerie and strange transformation, become a hot topic?
It’s precisely this filter’s unique “ugly-cute” effect that stimulates users’ desires to explore and share. With the Labor Day holiday approaching, amid the peak travel season, people’s travel photos shared on social networks, when augmented with the clay filter, can save the trouble of elaborate photo editing while also attracting more attention and likes due to their distinct effect. Thus, the clay filter rapidly soared in popularity during the holiday period.
The original intention of the clay filter was not for beautification, but rather a humorous and slightly cheeky style. True enough, people quickly applied it to various memes and popular TV show photos. For instance, clay-style photos from “Empresses in the Palace” and their related memes were widely circulated during the holiday, leading some to mistake it for a cartoon version of the drama. These highly recognizable images, through secondary creation and sharing via the clay filter, attracted even more experimenters.
After many bloggers shared their experiences, numerous fans inquired about the process in the comment section, and related tutorials and tips emerged accordingly. More memes and TV show photos became uniquely artistic after going through the clay-style transformation.
The “clay world” created by the clay style gives new life to real-world photos in that realm. A user who tried the Remini clay filter shared their experience: the filter processes photo details very finely. For instance, when using the clay filter, not only do facial features change, but textures of clothing, furniture in the background, and more are all given a clay-like texture, making the overall appearance very harmonious. Additionally, the app intelligently extrapolates based on photo content. For a photo uploaded by the user, showing someone holding balloons by the sea, the processed image included two seagulls in the background, and the balloons were transformed into little fish, adding a lot of creativity.
Remini, this overseas software, is currently launched in the iOS app store in mainland China, allowing Apple phone users to conveniently download and experience its features. However, Android system users are currently unable to find the software directly in the domestic app market, thus they have to resort to asking others for help to try out the special features of the software. Driven by curiosity for novel things, Android phone users leave their own photos in the comments under some bloggers’ posts, hoping to get help in adding the popular clay filter effect.
On the Xiaohongshu platform, a phenomenon of mutual “relay” appeared in the comment section under discussion posts about the clay filter. Additionally, some people even offer paid services on second-hand trading platforms such as Xianyu to customize photos with the clay filter effect, with charges ranging from 1 yuan to over ten yuan per picture. This “limited supply” scenario further sparked the curiosity of netizens, thereby accelerating the spread and crossover popularity of the clay filter trend. Such popularity has allowed Remini to dominate the top spot in the Apple App Store’s free rankings for a long time.
However, as a product of AI technology, Remini still encounters issues such as unstable generation effects and local errors, challenges that all software based on AI large model technology face. Sometimes, the generated photos may have errors like misplaced elements, such as the brim of the hat not aligning with the eyes in the picture.
Although this software is currently highly sought after, it may still be regarded by many people as a novelty for the moment. Remini is a paid application, offering a weekly subscription service for 68 yuan, with a 7-day free trial period for new users. Many users take advantage of this trial opportunity to taste the novelty and then cancel the subscription to avoid automatic charges after the free period ends. In terms of price, the weekly fee of 68 yuan is not cheap, especially compared to the membership service of ChatGPT (20 USD/month, approximately 34 yuan/week), the price of Remini is almost twice that of the latter.
In response to this pricing, users who have tried Remini say they do not plan to continue paying after the trial expires, “It’s too expensive, I won’t consider continuing after the trial.” Compared to those reluctant to pay, there is also a group of users known as “wool-gathering party” who specifically look for such temporary free trial opportunities. For instance, one user opened the Remini app hoping to enjoy the 7-day free trial, only to be unexpectedly charged the 68 yuan subscription fee. She promptly contacted customer service to request a refund and cancel the subscription, and afterwards made sure to turn off the auto-renewal feature.
Some professionals in the AI industry comment on this phenomenon, stating that one of the biggest challenges in developing consumer-oriented (C-end) AI products in China is the low willingness of users to pay. People are resistant to paying for content, and even very low prices might be deemed expensive. Observing the number of users willing to continue paying after the 7-day free trial can more accurately assess the appeal of Remini in the domestic market.
Although the weekly subscription fee of 68 yuan might seem a bit steep for just using the clay filter, Remini’s features go far beyond that. In fact, the software’s initial popularity in overseas markets was due to its excellent photo restoration capabilities, which can clearly repair blurry and old photos, and this became its main selling point. Last year, with special features like “See what your future baby will look like” and “AI aging filter,” Remini became a hot topic in foreign markets, especially on the TikTok platform, where a large number of users shared photos of their future children generated by AI, which dramatically increased Remini’s popularity. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Remini even replaced META’s Threads as the number one app on the US App Store and successfully maintained the top spot for a week.
According to recent data provided by SimilarWeb, this AI product Remini enjoys high popularity worldwide. Specifically, its web traffic ranks second among global AI products, only behind the much-talked-about ChatGPT, and it is also ranked fifth in mobile apps. The heat of Remini in the domestic market is just an extension of its overseas popularity. This surge in popularity is not without reason; it’s because of the addition of a new feature on top of the original product, a change that has brought it back into the spotlight. Based on the good foundation in the market, Remini dared to set a high weekly subscription fee of 68 yuan in the domestic market.
Technically speaking, the clay filter is not particularly complex. Industry experts point out that by using the LoRA model and a series of clay-style photos, a corresponding style and features can be trained to create filters. The AI repainting process is very much like generating such filters. Applications of large-scale models for style transfer, such as those released by ChatGPT for generating “The Simpsons” style photos, are similar in concept. The clay filter might result in subjects looking more like Westerners due to most of the training materials being from abroad. Following the clay filter, Remini launched the Jade (porcelain doll) filter, which some bloggers believe “is more suitable for Chinese babies,” sparking hot discussions on forums.
Remini’s rapid iteration of its products shows that the company is very sensitive to market insights. Its strategy of a weekly rather than monthly subscription may be due to considering a shorter feedback cycle for renewals, which is convenient for timely updating the product according to feedback. Remini’s clay filter was so popular upon its release that even when Meitu XiuXiu later introduced a similar feature and made it available to users for free, Remini still had the market advantage by being the first mover.
If we delve into Remini’s history, we will find that it actually originated from an app developed by a Chinese company. In 2019, Bigwine Technology launched the “Me When I Was Young” APP, which utilized AI technology to restore blurry and old photos, and its overseas version is Remini. Both versions are very popular in their respective markets. A much-loved feature of “Me When I Was Young” was the “Celebrity Childhood Restoration Photo,” and the generated photos were widely circulated, causing hot discussion among netizens and capturing the hearts of fans. In 2022, Bigwine Technology began to explore the digital human business and the live e-commerce scene, after which Remini was acquired by the Italian company Bending Spoons. Whether it was the explosive popularity overseas last year or the recent heat in China, both are the results of Bending Spoons’ management. The product’s ability to be popular in the past, present, and possibly in the future indicates that its success is no accident.
In the competition of image-related software tools, it’s easy to see a temporary boom, but such popularity often fails to last. The investment community’s experts analyze that such tools usually have a short life cycle, are highly replaceable, and their business prospects and competitive barriers are relatively weak. Apps that were once popular like FaceMeng, ZAO also couldn’t avoid the fate of being a passing fad.
Recently, the wave driven by large artificial intelligence models has inspired many tech companies to seek market-leading AI blockbuster applications. The resurgence of the Remini app shows the potential to break through the bounds of the traditional life cycle. Bending Spoons, a unique company, has once again proven the possibility of mass-producing successful AI products.
Bending Spoons’ business model stands out by gathering many popular products under its banner, most of which were acquired and revitalized through the company’s skillful transformation, achieving new successes. These products include the professional camera app Focos, the video editor Splice, the photo and video editing app Filmic, the social event startup company Meetup, and Evernote, among others.
Unlike venture capital institutions focused on financial returns or large corporations seeking strategic synergies, Bending Spoons selects products that have been market-validated for investment, and then redevelops the products according to its own ideas, including redesigning software architecture, improving user interfaces, and optimizing charging methods. This approach has tested the company’s operational capabilities, turning it into an APP factory similar to ByteDance’s behavior in the Chinese market.
Taking Focos as an example, this application created by Chinese developers already had considerable market popularity and a user base, and had received high praise from Apple officials. Under Bending Spoons, the company decisively promoted the commercialization of the product, successfully increasing the user pay rate to a new level. This model challenges the company’s operational capabilities and makes it operate like an app manufacturing factory, with practices quite similar to ByteDance in the Chinese market.
According to Bending Spoons’ public data, its products have about 100 million monthly active users (MAU), and according to Sensor Tower’s data, Remini’s income on iOS reached $4 million in March of this year alone.
For domestic manufacturers, the experience of Remini is particularly worth learning from. Its innovations in product design and operation, as well as promoting products by enhancing user experience and engagement rather than just pursuing technical parameters, are important points to learn. Because if technology does not align with practical application, it merely remains at the theoretical level.
Despite this, as time goes by, people’s interest in innovative features may shift, and today’s popular trends—such as clay filters—will eventually fade away. Manufacturers need to continuously think and create new features to maintain market competitiveness.
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