As one of the last major growth opportunities for global mobile internet platforms, short-form video and live streaming are not only new commercial infrastructure in China but are also becoming core infrastructure for internet businesses worldwide. Data show that overseas short-form video platforms exceeded 2.6 billion daily active users (DAU) in 2023, driving unprecedented growth globally. The rise of short-form video and live streaming has brought new content formats and unprecedented opportunities for the industry. Amid this shift, the global market for video beauty effects has grown explosively.

Chinese companies specializing in this field are advancing their technology rapidly and expanding into global markets to meet users’ beauty enhancement needs. As an industry leader, FaceUnity recently upgraded its AR Video Effects SDK to v8.11.0, adding an Ultra-Fast mode designed to balance the performance and visual quality of video beauty effects. It aims to give users in different regions and of different racial groups and aesthetic preferences a smoother, higher-quality beauty experience, with broad compatibility for global markets.

Adapting to Entry-Level and Mid-Range Devices Worldwide

Achieving the Best Balance Between Features and Performance

The release of FaceUnity AR Video Effects SDK v8.11.0 reflects the continued dominance of entry-level and mid-range devices in overseas smartphone markets. The Omdia Smartphone Model Market Tracker reports that the lowest-priced smartphone segment has grown the fastest since 2023. Sales of phones priced below US$150 rose from 90 million units in the first quarter of 2023 to 120 million in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 33%. Sales of ultra-low-cost phones priced at US$90 or less rose from 18 million to 34 million over the same period, an increase of 87%. In addition, while consumers in China typically replace their phones after about 36 months, replacement cycles overseas are longer, commonly reaching 48 months or more.

This difference reflects variations between app ecosystems in domestic and overseas smartphone markets and suggests that overseas users have lower demands for phone performance. Lower performance requirements, however, do not mean less demand for beauty effects. On the contrary, as short-form video, live streaming, and social apps become more widespread, demand for high-quality beauty enhancement continues to grow. Hardware limitations on entry-level and mid-range devices can cause stuttering and latency when they run computationally demanding AR video effects, harming the user experience.

To address this, FaceUnity used technical advances to achieve a strong balance between visual results and performance, releasing AR Video Effects SDK v8.11.0 specifically for entry-level and mid-range devices. The version retains the SDK’s high-quality beauty effects while substantially reducing device resource usage. It markedly improves smoothness and usability on entry-level devices so users can enjoy a better experience.

FaceUnity AR Video Effects SDK v8.11.0 also continues to refine its core facial landmark algorithms. In particular, it significantly improves lip landmark accuracy across the lip characteristics of different racial groups. This increases algorithm precision and applicability and provides a solid technical foundation for adapting beauty effects accurately to diverse users.

Continuing Global Expansion

Helping Customers Worldwide Build High-Quality Content Ecosystems

Since its founding in 2016, FaceUnity has specialized in AR video effects technology and developed a complete solution encompassing intelligent beauty enhancement, makeup and hair effects, filters, AR stickers, virtual backgrounds, cartoon Animoji characters, and interactive mini-games. It provides intelligent portrait enhancement and creative features for live streaming, short-form video, photography, social networking, marketing, online education, and other industries. Features can be customized and combined to suit each use case. FaceUnity’s AR video effects technology currently leads the industry in maturity and breadth of functionality.

As AR video effects technology spreads worldwide, FaceUnity’s AR video effects technology has not only gained a very high market share in mainland China but also expanded steadily into North America, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, the Middle East, and other regions. It gives users worldwide more ways to create content and works with global customers to build a richer content ecosystem.

For example, MeetMe, described as the largest dating and social app in the United States, uses FaceUnity’s intelligent beauty enhancement, AR stickers, gesture recognition, background segmentation, and other AR video effects capabilities. Users can easily add beauty effects, stickers, and props to live streams and real-time video interactions, continually expanding ways to socialize online and helping this established U.S. app remain attractive to users. Data show that, as of 2024, MeetMe had more than 100 million users and over 40 million monthly active users.

In India, FaceUnity’s AR video effects technology has brought new ways to create content to the short-form video platform Josh. Its 150 million active users continue to create high-quality content with FaceUnity’s full AR video effects solution, helping Josh become one of India’s leading short-form video platforms. The technology has also been deployed in Korea’s Aili live-streaming assistant, the global mobile video-calling app tango, the U.S. social live-streaming app SuperLive, and other major overseas apps, demonstrating FaceUnity’s global service capabilities and industry-leading technical expertise.

The release of FaceUnity AR Video Effects SDK v8.11.0 marks an important step in technical innovation and global market expansion. Going forward, FaceUnity will continue to optimize its AR video effects solution using facial landmark technology and other capabilities, adapting it more effectively to different racial groups, skin tones, and aesthetic preferences worldwide and delivering exceptional video beauty effects to global users.