Ukrainian app Reface tops the App Store charts being ahead of TikTok and Netflix

The deepfake video app Reface from Ukrainian developers reached the first place in the U.S. AppStore in the Entertainment category. The application is ahead of such services as TikTok, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc. The news was announced by Oles Petriv, CTO of RefaceAI, on Facebook.

Also, Reface was ranked second in the Overall Free Apps category, being ahead of YouTube, Gmail, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.

About Reface

Reface (previously Doublicat) is one of the projects of the Ukrainian startup RefaceAI, founded by Roman Mogylnyi, Oles Petriv, and Yaroslav Boiko in 2011. Later, Ivan Altsybieiev, Denys Dmytrenko, Dima Shvets, and Kyle Sygyda joined them. The R&D center of the company is located in Kyiv.

RefaceAI develops AI technology to swap faces in photos, GIFs, and videos. Influencers in social media often use the application of the company.

According to developers, unlike other face-swapping applications, they do not use CGI or 3D-modelling. The technology is based only on AI, they use generative adversarial networks, known as GAN.

The startup’s portfolio also includes other viral applications. For example, Reflect allows you to change faces in your photos.

How did it get the top

According to Roman Mogylnyi, the application has already crossed the mark of 27 million downloads. The application is also a success on Android: Reface App ranks first in the Entertainment Google Play category in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and 14 other countries. In the USA, it is No. 4.

He also added that 90% growth of the Reface app is organic, and only 10% comes from marketing.

“One of the triggers of popularity in the App Store was the recent articles on Techcrunch and VICE. Another factor of virality is social networks of celebrities, which use the Reface App and make regular posts on Instagram. Among them are Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, Dua Lipa, Trevor Noah. They posted not once or twice, but use it regularly. Users like personalized digitized content, and, as experience shows, when it is of high quality, they will come back again and again.

The fact that we are constantly improving the technology itself has also affected our success. Initially, it was possible to make only face swap in GIF, now this feature is also available for creating high-quality videos,” Roman Mogylnyi explains.

The startup’s staff grew by 30% as well. Currently, it employs over 50 people in the Kyiv office. RefaceAI continues to strengthen the technical team.