Meitu competitive product analysis report!

Photo editing software and photography software are must-have apps on many people’s phones. What are the differences between these software in terms of functions, effects, operating methods, and profit models? This article is a long article of ten thousand words, which clearly introduces the differences between the Meitu series and Qingyan and Xingtu. It is also a complete and detailed competitive product analysis report for your reference. Recommended to friends who are interested to read.

1. Purpose of analysis

This report compares the core photo editing functions of Meitu XiuXiu, Beauty Camera, Light Camera, and Xingtu Meitu software, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of user experience, and provides reference suggestions for the current market.

Figure 1-1 Comparison of basic product information

2. Basic Overview of the Meitu Industry

As 5G technology is about to become popular, people are increasingly inclined to showcase themselves and their works on social networks to satisfy their social needs and gain benefits. Online platforms with social attributes such as Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Moments are developing rapidly and unstoppably. With the improvement of people's living standards and aesthetic awareness, people in the social context of the "face economy" are paying more attention to their own image.

The popularization of mobile Internet and the continuous optimization and upgrading of computer vision technology have led to the emergence of beauty shooting apps.

This type of APP mainly provides beautification services for users, allowing users to automatically beautify their faces and apply makeup during the shooting process, thereby solving some of the users' image needs on social networks. At the same time, it will also provide a variety of derivative services such as stickers and emoticon production. People are willing to use beauty apps to share their daily lives, which also provides impetus for the development of the beauty industry.

1. Market size

According to the "China Beauty Photography APP User Marketing Value Insight Report" released by iResearch Consulting in 2020, as of December 2019, the number of monthly active users of beauty photography apps reached 300 million, and the penetration rate of APPs was 20.3%. According to the "Meitu Company 2021 Mid-Year Report", as of June 30, 2021.

The number of monthly active users of Meitu XiuXiu has reached 114 million, and the number of monthly active users of Beauty Camera has reached 62 million. Compared with the average monthly active user scale of other types of apps such as food delivery, online travel, and fitness, it can be seen that the overall user traffic of beauty photography apps is relatively large.

Figure 2-1 Number of monthly active users of beauty photography apps (Source: iResearch)

2. Industrial structure

The overall development of the beauty industry has become relatively mature, mainly including the leading APP Meitu XiuXiu (2008) and the later emerging Tiantian Ptu (2014), Faceu Jimeng (2015), B612 Kaji (2016), Qingyan (2018), Xingtu (2020), etc., as well as foreign beauty APPs such as Piscsart and Facetune that entered the overseas market.

The following table is a comparison of the download volume and revenue of four mainstream beauty apps in China. It can be seen that although Xingtu and Qingyan Camera are backed by the large Internet company ByteDance, due to their late launch time, their market popularity and download volume are still not as good as the leading Meitu XiuXiu.

However, since the disappearance of the demographic dividend, the number of monthly active users of Meitu has declined to a certain extent, so these two products pose a very big threat to Meitu.

Figure 2-2 Comparison of product downloads and revenue (as of October 16, 2021)

The industry's business model mainly makes profits through advertising, e-commerce, and advanced service unlocking, and it has relatively few profit channels. However, recently Meitu has also begun to involve financial services, hoping to make profits from this. At present, the demand for loans from users on Meitu is relatively low.

Beauty apps have greater tool attributes, and users generally use them and leave, switching back and forth between the beauty apps and social software. Therefore, these photo editing apps have also developed social attributes, condensing this process on one platform. High-quality UGC content can bring greater traffic to the platform, increase user stickiness, and finally content creators can also profit from the platform.

The following figure shows the relationship between users and Meitu APP, e-commerce brands, advertising agencies, social platforms, etc. Most of the profit is made through users viewing advertisements, some is made through users purchasing advanced services of the APP, and some is made through users purchasing goods on the platform's e-commerce.

Figure 2-3 Operational model of beauty apps

But from the current perspective, whether it is Meitu or ByteDance, their products are divided into photo editing apps and photography apps. Meitu’s photo editing app is Meitu XiuXiu, and its photography app is Meitu Beauty Camera. ByteDance’s photo editing app is Xingtu, and its photography app is Qingyan Camera.

3. Analysis of the competitive products of the Meitu series VS Qingyan & Xingtu

This chapter will analyze from the perspectives of users, functional framework, core function comparison, etc.

1. User Profile

With the development of information networks and the gradual disappearance of the demographic dividend in Internet products, the market coverage of the two series has continued to increase, and the user groups have begun to overlap more and more.

Figure 3-1 Gender and age distribution of users of four products

According to the search data of Baidu Index in October 2021, except for Meitu XiuXiu, the number of female users of the other three is more than 10% higher than that of male users. Among them, the number of female users of Qingyan Camera even reaches about 70%, and the actual number of female users will be even higher.

However, most of the users of Meitu XiuXiu are male, which may be because some male photography enthusiasts prefer the photo editing function of Meitu XiuXiu.

Compared with the Meitu series of products, Qingyan Camera and Xingtu are more down-to-earth, and their users are younger, more energetic, and have lower purchasing power.

The proportion of users under 19 years old of Qingyan and Xingtu respectively is 17.07% and 21.75%, but the proportion of Meitu Xiuxiu users aged 20-29 has reached 41.43%. This may be related to the fact that Meitu Xiuxiu dominated the market in the early years. At the same time, Meitu Xiuxiu's beauty camera is more competitive in the market over 30 years old, and its TGI is much higher than that of similar products in the market over 40 years old. There are not many users over 40 years old, but the TGI of beauty camera in this market can reach up to about 160.

This also indirectly shows that beauty cameras dominate the market for people over 40 years old.

The differences in the user portraits of the four products also explain, to a certain extent, the differences in their user-oriented positioning strategies.

2. Product function comparison analysis

This chapter will compare and analyze the functions of the four products from the perspective of product function structure, iterative development direction, core photo editing functions, and core shooting functions, and draw relevant conclusions.

1) Product function structure diagram and version iteration diagram

Meitu Xiuxiu:

Figure 3-2 Meitu XiuXiu product function framework diagram

The product functions of Meitu XiuXiu are divided into five modules according to the tabs in the bottom bar: Home (Picture Beautification/Camera/Portrait Beauty/Puzzle/Video Editing), Meitu (Fashion/Ancient Style/Two-Dimensional), Yanjiubang (Evaluation Center/My Skin Care), Message (Social/Initiate Chat), Me (Settings/Exclusive/Wallet).

Figure 3-3 Meitu Xiuxiu product iteration path (yellow text indicates important functions)

According to the historical iteration record versions of Meitu XiuXiu, we can clearly see that with the popularization of 4G technology and AI technology, Meitu XiuXiu's efforts are focused on three major aspects: video, photo editing, and community. In terms of technology, the mature application of AI technology has introduced intelligent functions such as "Meitu Recipe" and "One-click Beauty", which further reduces the time cost of users using Meitu XiuXiu and enhances the competitiveness of the product.

Beauty Camera:

Figure 3-4 Beauty camera product function framework diagram

The product functions of the beauty camera are mainly divided into three modules according to the bottom bar: Home (picture and video shooting), Trendy Photography (community type), and Me (personal interface).

Figure 3-5 Iteration version of beauty camera product

Beauty Camera was launched in 2013 and is mainly positioned as a shooting tool with beauty effects. It meets users' shooting needs by providing various beauty effects, stickers and other functions. Compared with Meitu XiuXiu, Beauty Camera pays more attention to the shooting experience, such as real-time beauty and video beauty functions.

The main focus of Beauty Camera is real-time beauty effects and video beauty effects. Recently, Beauty Camera has begun to pay attention to community content. Beauty Camera is another weapon for Meitu to further penetrate the beauty market.

Light Camera:

Figure 3-6 Product functional structure diagram of Qingyan camera

The product functions of Qingyan Camera can be divided into three major modules according to the bottom bar Tab, namely taking photos (taking the same style), taking videos (slow motion, taking the same style), and draft box.

Figure 3-7 Iteration versions of Qingyan camera products

Qingyan Camera was launched in 2018, and was mainly positioned as a real-time beauty shooting tool. Since then, it has been developing around "one-click", "intelligence" and "output quality". The developed templates, posture functions and shooting of the same videos can all prove its direction of effort. In addition, Qingyan Camera is backed by the Douyin APP, and with the help of the short video and live broadcast craze, it began to vigorously develop video functions one year after its launch.

Wake up picture:

Figure 3-8 Functional structure diagram of Xingtu product

The product functions of Qingyan Camera can be divided into three major modules according to the bottom bar tab, namely photo editing, templates, and mine.

Figure 3-9 Iteration version of Xingtu product

Among these products, Xingtu is the youngest. Since its launch in 2020, it has mainly focused on the vertical field of photo editing. Although it does not have a shooting function, it has created a wake-up photo craze in 2020 and attracted a large number of users due to its convenience and ease of use, powerful functions, high-quality materials, and being completely free.

Summarize:

In general, the overall functional architecture of the two series of products is relatively similar, and both can meet users' shooting needs, photo editing needs, and social needs. They all focus on the major modules of photos (taking photos), videos, and communities, but they are beginning to focus on the video field and AI smart shooting field. Among them, Meitu has also begun to expand in the direction of e-commerce and finance, launching modules such as "Yanjiubang", "Meitu Mall", and "Borrowing Money".

However, since Qingyan Camera and Xingtu were launched later, there is still a certain gap in functionality compared to the Meitu series products.

2) Comparison of core photo editing functions of products

This chapter mainly compares the main photo editing functions of Meitu XiuXiu, Qingyan Camera, and Xingtu. The photo editing function in Beauty Camera overlaps with that in Meitu XiuXiu, so it will not be discussed in this section.

Photo editing functions of the Meitu series, Qingyan, and Xingtu:

Figure 3-10 The main photo editing process of the three products

Figure 3-11 Meitu XiuXiu’s photo editing interface (beautification function on the left, beauty function on the right)

Figure 3-12 The photo editing interface of Qingyan Camera and Xingtu

In general, the functional structure and operating experience of these three products are the same. In addition to the difference in the final effect, the most core difference is the setting of the APP function modules. For example, Meitu XiuXiu divides the photo editing into two major sections: beauty (face editing) and beautification (adjustment), while Xingtu and Qingyan Camera put them on one page.

Meitu XiuXiu and Xingtu are positioned as photo editing software, while the corresponding photo editing functions of Meiyan Camera and Qingyan Camera are not perfect. Compared with Meitu XiuXiu and Xingtu, Meitu XiuXiu has more comprehensive functions. In addition to the batch photo editing and light and shadow effects provided by Xingtu, Meitu XiuXiu has all other functions.

Because Xingtu was launched late (2020), some functions such as background blur, dynamic magic photos, borders, etc. are missing, which means that if users want to use these functions, they need to jump to other software to use them. At the same time, when using the graffiti pen, contouring pen, and face-slimming functions of the Qingyan Camera and Xingtu, there is no magnifying glass auxiliary function, which makes it difficult for users to operate and affects the user experience.

Figure 3-13 Comparison of photo editing functions of three products

Although the photo editing functions in Xingtu are not comprehensive, most of its functions are quite powerful, which can indeed attract many users. There was no mosaic function in version 3.4.0 of Xingtu, but this function has been developed in version 4.5.0. This also shows that Xingtu is developing rapidly.

Figure 3-14 Comparison of beauty functions of four products

In addition to the comparison of picture beautification functions in photo editing, there are also beauty functions that users use more frequently. From the function comparison in the above picture, we can see that Meitu XiuXiu is superior in terms of functions, but some functions in Meitu XiuXiu are only available to VIPs. The up-and-coming Xingtu, on the other hand, offers some special features such as skin-evening and one-click acne removal to users for free.

To sum up, in terms of the number of functions, Meitu XiuXiu is slightly better in terms of picture beautification and beauty functions, but there are many functions that require VIP permissions to use. On the other hand, the up-and-coming Xingtu, although not as many functions as Meitu XiuXiu, has its own unique functions, such as skin evenness, batch photo editing, etc., and is provided free of charge to all users, which can better win the favor of users.

One-click beauty function:

The one-click function can automatically adjust the user's facial skin color, acne removal, and plasticity through algorithms, which can greatly reduce the user's operating costs and achieve good results.

The pictures below show the original photo and details.

Figure 3-15 Original photo and details

Meitu Xiuxiu:

Figure 3-16 Meitu Xiuxiu’s one-click beauty function and multi-person recognition

analyze:

Meitu XiuXiu's one-click beauty function has multiple packages to choose from, each of which comes with specific beauty levels, makeup levels, filter levels, blemish coverage levels and other functions. This provides users with more room for self-selection, but doing so may also result in uneven beautification of the 9 photos and inconsistent filter colors.

The names of the filters are very nice, allowing users to immediately associate them with style characteristics, such as: Milk, Native, Overexposed, Natural, Sweet and Cool, Spicy, etc. Among them, the native one-click beauty can retain more details such as the user's skin texture, skin color, eye socket wrinkles, etc., while the beauty and filter levels of other options will be greater.

However, when the user covers half of the face (the most common scenario is using a mask and blocking the face when shooting), the makeup effect will have bugs, and the makeup outline will appear in the covered facial area.

Group photo:

When importing group photos, Meitu can identify multiple people in the photo, each person’s gender, and then perform targeted photo editing.

Meitu XiuXiu cannot beautify all photos of multiple people. You can only switch the characters one by one. And if everyone uses the one-click beauty function, the filters may cause overlapping problems. You need to manually adjust the filters to 0 to avoid overlapping problems.

Beauty Camera:

Figure 3-17 Beauty camera one-click beauty function and multi-person recognition

analyze:

The one-click beautification function of the beauty camera will default to mild beautification, no face slimming and filter when it is turned on. Users can freely and conveniently choose the degree of beautification, but the author believes that it would be more user-friendly to change it to a slider function.

One-click beautification will remove skin blemishes but will not change the user's facial features, such as moles.

The one-click beauty function supports MEN mode. In MEN mode, features such as beards will not be blurred, but facial blemishes will be repaired.

Group photo:

When importing user photos, people can be accurately identified.

After one-click beautification, everyone will be beautified. You cannot select a single person for one-click beautification. You can freely select people and use other beautification functions.

Light Camera:

Figure 3-18 One-touch beauty function and multi-person recognition in QY Camera

analyze:

The one-click beauty function of Qingyan Camera is located in the first-level menu "Style". The "Style" naming may make it difficult for users to find the entrance to the one-click beauty effect, thereby increasing the user's replacement cost.

The "Style" function provides users with multiple sets, and different styles have different beautification effects on the face. You can adjust the degree of filter makeup effect.

Naming names like "texture" and "Korean school girl" can make users immediately associate it with its style.

In terms of interaction, the style of the Qingyan Camera can be modified interactively, for example, you can remove the tear mole by clicking.

Group photo:

Everyone can add makeup, but not everyone's face can be automatically slimmed down. Only one person's face will be slimmed down automatically. In the manual beautification function, you cannot select people to beautify by yourself, and everyone will be beautified.

Wake up picture:

Figure 3-19 Awakening one-click beauty function and multi-person recognition

analyze:

Just like the slogan of Xingtu, create high-end beauty. The one-click beautification effect of Xingtu is natural and can well preserve the user's skin characteristics.

After the one-click beautification effect, users can make subtle adjustments directly in the current menu, such as skin smoothing and skin resurfacing functions. After one-click beautification, functions such as freckle and acne removal can be turned off. This gives users a great deal of freedom, but at the same time, it also increases the time and selection costs of users for photo editing.

Group photo:

When importing a photo of multiple people, you cannot select individual people for beautification, you can only beautify them all with one click. You can also perform targeted face editing in the first-level menu.

Summarize:

In general, Meitu XiuXiu, Beauty Camera, Xingtu and Qingyan Camera have one-click beauty functions. Although they have their own characteristics in the final effects, they are all very convenient and fast, and the beauty functions are powerful.

Meitu XiuXiu and Qingyan Camera mainly provide users with one-click beauty packages, which include filters and makeup effects, and users can also make targeted adjustments.

The one-click beauty function of Meitu XiuXiu and Beauty Camera will have beauty effects for boys, the salt formula in Meitu XiuXiu and the MEN mode in Beauty Camera.

The one-click beauty effect of Xingtu is very powerful and can preserve the skin texture and texture very well. Although the effects it provides are not as many as the other three products, it provides more options in the current menu such as skin smoothing, skin resurfacing and other functions. Although it gives users greater freedom.

When editing a group photo, in order to beautify everyone, the one-click beauty effect of Meitu XiuXiu may superimpose filters, and the filters need to be adjusted to zero for use. The author suggests adding the full beauty function to the one-click beauty function.

The Beauty Camera, like the Wake-up Photo app, can beautify everyone with one click, but the degree of beautification for each person cannot be adjusted individually. The author suggests that when facing a group photo, you can adjust the one-click beautification degree for each person. In the Qingyan Camera, you cannot select people to beautify with one click, you can only beautify one of them.

When using the manual function, Beauty Camera and Light Camera will produce a beauty effect for everyone.

One-click beautification:

Intelligent optimization of pictures is also very important in photo editing software, because there are many still life and landscape photos that require the use of intelligent optimization functions to improve photo quality. This section mainly compares the beautification functions of Meitu XiuXiu, Light Camera, and Awakening. The beautification function in Light Camera requires entering Meitu XiuXiu to operate, so I will not go into details here. The pictures below show the original image and photo details.

Figure 3-20 Original landscape image and details

Meitu Xiuxiu:

Figure 3-21 Meitu Xiuxiu one-click beautification effect (landscape)

Figure 3-22 Meitu Xiuxiu one-click beautification effect (character)

analyze:

Meitu XiuXiu's intelligent optimization function will automatically identify the objects being photographed, such as: scenery, defogging, people, pets, etc. And after intelligent optimization, you can adjust the degree of optimization according to your own aesthetic taste.

The optimization content includes: removing haze, increasing the visual clarity of photos, improving some contrast, increasing the saturation of blue primary color to make the picture color look fuller, and finally increasing the sharpness. However, the author's subjective feelings are a bit too sharp.

In Meitu XiuXiu, the one-click beautification of characters is more like a one-click beauty function, which can make adjustments to the face and skin tone, increase the brightness of the photo, and make the photo transparent, but its function is not as rich as the one-click beauty function in its beauty module.

Light Face Camera:

Figure 3-23 One-click beautification effect of Qingyan Camera (landscape)

Figure 3-24 One-click beautification effect of Qingyan Camera (people)

analyze:

The one-click beautification function in the Qingyan Camera is called "Save Waste Film". In comparison, it is more suitable for portrait adjustment. It will make the skin tone more translucent and have a light pink feeling. At the same time, it will increase the contrast to a certain extent and enhance the three-dimensional sense of the picture.

Wake up picture:

Figure 3-25 One-click beautification effect of awake image (landscape)

Figure 3-26 One-click beautification effect of awake picture (character)

analyze:

The one-click beautification function of Xingtu is called "Smart Optimization". "Smart Optimization" is in the secondary menu. After turning on smart optimization, the icon will show on, and when it is turned off, it will show not off.

The automatic optimization function of the awakening image will produce more moderate colors, but it cannot automatically adjust the degree of intelligent optimization. At the same time, the sharpness is not improved too much, and the visual feeling is still very comfortable.

The smart optimization and automatic beautification functions of the awakening image are not particularly obvious in the menu.

For portraits, the smart optimization function of awakening pictures will increase the brightness of the skin tone, make the skin look more transparent, and can also increase the saturation of dark areas, but it will not have the effect of removing spots and acne or shaping the face.

Summarize:

In general, the one-click beautification effects of the three products are similar. Depending on the content, they will increase the contrast and brightness of dark areas in the tone, remove haze to increase the sense of transparency, intelligently increase the saturation of color, and improve the sharpness of texture.

The difference is that Meitu XiuXiu provides users with different optimized templates in terms of interaction. If they are not satisfied with the smart selection, they can change the selected template. Users can use the slider to adjust the degree, which further improves the user's convenience and operability. The Xingtu and Qingyan cameras are the same, they can be opened with one click and the degree cannot be adjusted.

Template set material functions:

The template function can greatly reduce the user's operating costs and time costs, and also obtain a good photo. This section focuses on the template function of the two photo editing softwares, Meitu XiuXiu and Xingtu. The template set functions of Beauty Camera and Light Camera focus more on real-time makeup and filters, so they will be stated in the core shooting comparison.

Meitu Xiuxiu:

Figure 3-27 Meitu Xiuxiu template set functions

Figure 3-28 Meitu Xiuxiu layer function and UGC formula

analyze:

The template set function of Meitu XiuXiu is named "Meitu Recipe". There are 21 types of recipes in total, covering daily photo-taking scenes of all sizes, and there are also cutout function templates to support more interesting templates.

"Meitu Recipe" supports user UGC recipes, user mine and collection functions. The collection function requires users to long press the "recipe icon" to collect.

The text, stickers and filter colors in the "Beauty Recipe" can be customized and adjusted manually directly in this level menu. The layer function in the "Recipe" allows users to adjust the current effect more clearly and intuitively.

When users import photos, Meitu XiuXiu can use algorithms to automatically identify the content of the picture, and then recommend templates of the corresponding type in the first two of the "Meitu Recipes" menu.

In terms of design, there is no text on the “Meitu Recipe” button, which directly shows the effect to users. At the same time, the UGC "Beautiful Picture Recipe" material also has a preview animation of scanning, allowing users to see the special effects of the "recipe" at a glance when using it.

Wake up picture:

Figure 3-29 Awakening template set functions

The template set function of Xingtu is simply called "Template". There are 13 types of templates in total, covering all kinds of scenes in daily life. It supports UGC content and "Favorites" module, but there is no customized "My Template".

After using the Xingtu template, you can double-click the elements on the screen (portrait/text/sticker) to make customized modifications, but functions such as filters cannot be modified in the current menu. You need to enter the filter template to modify them. After the filter module is loaded, it is not possible to intuitively see which elements are added to the current template.

When users import photos, the smart template can automatically identify the content of the picture. If you are not satisfied with the current smartly selected template, you can click the smart template again to change it. However, this function does not support the operation of undoing to the previous template. The author suggests adding a new function here, the most recently used and previous template.

UGC content does not support direct display of before-and-after comparison dynamic pictures.

Summarize:

In general, from the perspective of usage and interaction, Meitu XiuXiu is more convenient and faster than Xingtu in terms of UGC dynamic preview and customized operation of recipe layers. Xingtu does not support users to directly create my template (it may also be that the author did not discover it).

In terms of UGC templates, Meitu XiuXiu has a DIY function, which makes the user migration cost high and thus increases the user retention rate.

From the perspective of template content, the author subjectively feels that the template quality of Xingtu is slightly better than that of Meitu XiuXiu. The Japanese and Korean variety show templates in Xingtu are very popular among everyone.

Both have popular types of templates, and you can long press to save templates. However, when saving templates in Xingtu, there will be a prompt "Long press to save template", but there is no prompt in Meitu XiuXiu.

A "Recently Used" module can be added to facilitate users to use the last satisfactory template.

3) Comparison of core shooting functions of products

(1) Basic shooting functions

Meitu XiuXiu, Beauty Camera and Light Camera all have photo-taking functions. This section will compare the shooting experience of these three.

Meitu Xiuxiu:

In terms of functions, there are mainly cute shooting mode, style selection, beauty, filters, time-lapse shooting, flash, night shooting function, automatic acne removal function, raw pictures and classic functions. Among them, the raw photo function of Meitu XiuXiu will produce portraits with more texture and higher definition.

The content of the cute photos is cute AI stickers, which will always follow the user's face. There are many types of cute photos, including selected, popular, VIP, INS, sand sculpture and other 19 types of cute photos. Style provides users with sets such as makeup filters. Satisfy users' shooting experience in various scenarios.

In terms of UI interaction, when entering the Meitu XiuXiu homepage, you need to click the camera button to enter the shooting module, and the camera will automatically start the selfie mode. When users adjust beauty, makeup and other effects in Meitu XiuXiu, they can directly shoot without returning to the previous menu.

Beauty Camera:

In terms of functions, the beauty camera shooting page mainly has three major module functions, namely classic, native, and MEN. There are four options under Classic: Stickers, Style, Filters, and Beauty.

The native module has two options: color adjustment and beautification. The beautification degree of the photos taken by the native mode will be lower; the MEN mode is more targeted at male users. This mode has two options: trendy shooting theme and beautification. The makeup function in trendy shooting is changed to HDR function, which can highlight the muscle lines of boys.

In more functional modes, you can choose ultra-clear portraits, textured movies, full-body mode, multi-frame camera, emoticons, and assist shooting functions.

In terms of UI interaction, like Meitu XiuXiu, after entering the APP, you need to click on the shooting button before entering the shooting page. This operation will increase the user's operating cost.

Light Face Camera:

In terms of functions, the Light Face Camera mainly has two modes: classic and raw photo mode. In the raw photo mode, the skin texture will be more realistic, and the degree of classic beauty is very high. The functions under the classic module and the native module are the same, mainly including style, beauty, filter, posture, blur and other main functions.

In terms of UI interaction, unlike Meitu XiuXiu, after entering the APP you will directly enter the shooting page, which reduces the user's operating costs and is positioned more like a camera. The photo editing function can be accessed in the lower left corner of the shooting main page.

When ordinary users forget to cancel VIP materials, the VIP processing page will pop up every time they take a photo and they will not be able to take photos.

Figure 3-30 Comparison of shooting functions of three products

Summarize:

In general, the number of functions of the Light Camera and Beauty Camera, which are positioned as shooting tools, are roughly the same, but the number of functions of the Beauty Camera is slightly better. Meitu XiuXiu, which is positioned as a photo editing tool, has less effort in shooting, leaving more shooting duties to the beauty camera.

After opening the QY Camera, you can start shooting directly, which saves users’ time to a great extent, while Meitu’s products require another click to enter the shooting page.

All products will apply moderate or severe beautification effects to the user's face the first time they enter the camera, and come with some filters to make the photos look softer. The visual beauty at first glance can stimulate the user's desire to take selfies, thereby increasing user usage.

In addition to some popular names such as "Haijie" and "INS", the filter names of Beauty Camera and Meitu XiuXiu also include the extremely popular "GR2", "Hasselblad", "X5", "5207", and "ECN-2" (GR2 refers to Ricoh gr series cameras, and X5 and Hasselblad are the names of developing and scanning instruments. 5207 refers to Kodak 5207 movie film, and ECN-2 refers to the developing and scanning process. Because the related photos are beautiful, they are popular on major platforms.), which shows that Meitu company pays attention to hot topics.

The native camera of iPhone 11 has a pixel size of 1200w, the pixel size of photos taken by Meitu XiuXiu is 800w pixels, the pixel size of photos taken by Qingyan Camera is 600w pixels, and the pixel size of photos taken by Meiyan Camera is 1100w. Judging from the photo quality data, the photos taken by the beauty camera will be higher resolution.

When ordinary users of the beauty camera use VIP materials to shoot, they will be prompted that VIP materials are being used. They can continue shooting after canceling. However, in the current version of the QY Camera, when ordinary users forget to cancel VIP material shooting, only the VIP activation page will pop up without any prompt, which may easily lead users to mistakenly believe that "only VIP activation can take pictures."

(2) Real-time beauty function

Figure 3-31 Comparison of real-time beauty functions of three products

The picture above shows the effect when the filter and beauty effects are at the default values. From the comparison of the above three pictures, we can see that the beauty camera defaults to medium-high beauty, with functions such as face slimming and small head. The default setting of Light Camera is medium beautification, and there will be a larger adjustment for face slimming. Meitu XiuXiu is closer to the native camera, and the default setting is light beautification, and there will be a slight adjustment for face slimming.

When the filter is empty, the color tone of the beauty camera will shift towards magenta, the face will become red, and you can see that the background color will become redder, while the tones of the other two products are more neutral. The color of the light camera is more pleasing, and the color reproduction is better.

As for tones, Beauty Camera increases the shadows on the face, making it look a bit flat, while Light Camera retains the shadows on the face very well and has very suitable retouching functions, which can retain a certain three-dimensional sense of the face. The tones of Meitu XiuXiu are stronger and closer to the original images taken by the iPhone system's built-in camera.

When the default shaping function is used, the plasticity of the Light Face Camera is greater, with a significant reduction in the bridge of the nose, the tip of the nose and other parts, but the snake-like face features are also more obvious. The Beauty Camera is second, and the Meitu Xiu Xiu has the lowest degree.

When the default skin smoothing effect is used, the skin smoothing effect of the beauty camera is the strongest. Although the skin looks good, it will also reduce the three-dimensional sense of the face and make it lack texture. The light camera has a certain skin smoothing effect, but without losing texture. Meitu XiuXiu has the least degree of skin smoothing.

Figure 3-32 Comparison of real-time beauty functions of three products

The number of functions provided by Beauty Camera exceeds that of Light Camera and Meitu XiuXiu, but Light Camera is better than Beauty Camera in terms of body beautification function. Of course, the increase in the number of functions, if not properly classified, will cause a bad experience for users.

In terms of UI interface design, the order of various functions of Qingyan Camera and Meitu XiuXiu is rather confusing, while Meiyan Camera divides the beauty functions into skin, head, eyes, nose, mouth, and others, making it easier for users to see at a glance.

(3) Special effects style function

Figure 3-33 Comparison of special effects styles and functions of three products

As can be seen from the above picture, the number of special effects style functions of these three is similar, but Meitu XiuXiu does not support UGC content.

All three support interactive switching of beauty effects, such as removing teardrop moles.

In terms of arrangement, Meitu XiuXiu and Beauty Camera both separate the sticker function and the style function, while Qingyan Camera sets them as a complete set of effects. A complete set of one-click operations helps reduce the user's operating costs.

Among them, the Qingyan Camera supports custom functions, and users can experience a very powerful facial text tracking function, which is very interesting. When using custom functions, there will be a layer display function, which makes it more convenient for users to operate.

After selecting a style, the beauty camera will automatically pop up a prompt box saying "See how others take photos", which can provide users with shooting references, improve the shooting experience and the user's film output. When using specific filters on the Light Camera and Beauty Camera, there will be thoughtful reminders such as turning on the flash to take pictures.

(4) Ultra-clear portrait function

Beauty Camera:

All beauty effects are default.

Figure 3-34 Comparison of the ultra-clear portrait function of the beauty camera

analyze:

To enable ultra-high-definition portrait, you need to enter the ultra-high-definition portrait shooting mode. It cannot be enabled after shooting on the main page. Doing so will increase the user's operating cost.

After the ultra-clear portrait function is turned on, part of the skin texture is retained, the face is more three-dimensional, and the skin tone is more even. The overall feeling becomes transparent, but the beautification effect is still too great and lacks real texture.

Light Camera (VIP function):

The original image is in raw mode, and all beauty effects are at default values.

Figure 3-35 Comparison of ultra-clear portrait functions of Qingyan cameras

analyze:

To enable the ultra-clear portrait function, you need to take a photo first and then enable the ultra-clear portrait function.

After turning on the ultra-clear portrait function, the details of facial hair and skin texture are more obvious, the skin tone and lip color are more natural, the skin texture is more even, and while removing acne, a certain texture is retained, and the light and shadow on the face are more three-dimensional.

Overall, the whole photo looks a little more transparent, but the skin still looks a little over-beautified and lacks real texture.

(5) Posture reference function

When taking full-body portraits, the system can provide users with shooting poses for reference.

Beauty Camera:

Figure 3-36 Full body template function of beauty camera

analyze:

The posture function of the beauty camera can only be enabled by entering the full body mode and selecting the full body template. When selecting some filters, you will be prompted to "see how others take photos", and there will also be prompts for postures. The author suggests that after AI recognizes a specific scene, it can automatically provide poses for users to use when taking photos.

Some templates are just special effects and do not provide poses.

The full-body templates in beauty cameras are not classified, and there are only 15 templates available.

Light-eye camera:

Figure 3-37 Light-eye camera posture function

analyze:

The posture function of the light-eye camera is on the top of the homepage and is easy to find.

The posture functions of the Qingyan camera include 12 types: food, selfies, daily life, travel, selfies in the mirror, boys, couples, best friends, street scenes, internet celebrity stores, winter, and beachside, covering most of the daily life scene types. There are 10 to 50 postures in each category, providing users with a rich photo experience.

After turning on the posture function, the frame lines on the screen will appear, guiding the user to adjust the frame lines posture.

There are buttons next to them: Close, Mirror and Close frame lines. The UI interaction is very intuitive, easy to operate, and the user's operating cost is low. However, some functions have fewer and single postures.

Summarize:

Generally speaking, both products have posture functions. The posture function of the light-eye camera can be turned on and off at any time on the main page. The beauty camera needs to enter the full-body mode to select on. The author suggests that users can reduce the cost of operation, such as automatically identifying the whole body for inquiries and recommendations.

There are many types of poses of the light-eye camera, and it is clear at a glance according to the usage scenario. There are fewer types of beauty cameras, some functions overlap with stickers in the whole body mode, and the arrangement is relatively messy.

The author suggests that self-portraits can be added in this regard, such as facial expressions, gestures and other postures.

The posture function can solve the problem that novices do not know how to take pictures when taking pictures, reduce the user's operating costs and improve the quality of users' film production.

3. Business profit model

The main profit methods of beauty apps are:

1. Online advertising business: Gain revenue through brand advertising, content, and free style trial plans.
2. Advanced service VIP and in-product purchases: Membership and paid premium features are launched in-product.
3. Internet value-added business: Promote third-party mobile entertainment and related services to obtain share.
4. Other businesses: Obtain merchant advertising fees through KOL celebrity online performances, and provide content production support to obtain income sharing. Provide AI technology and other products for physical skin care and beauty products.

Figure 3-38 Comparison of the commercial profit model of four products

1) Beautiful pictures show

Information advertising delivery:

Meitu Xiuxiu’s information is more about maternal and child care products from JD.com, Tmall, and Juhuasuan, including skin care products, open-screen advertisements, selection of photos, and homepages.

In the game center of Meitu Xiuxiu, you can get gold coins and other game props by watching advertisements.

Promote advertisements for brand cooperation, such as advertising such as Dior AI smart beauty on the homepage.

Advanced Services (VIP):

The fee is 12 yuan per month and 98 yuan per year.

VIP can provide more functions, such as neat teeth, full face, medical beauty-grade wrinkle removal and other functions.

Reduce advertising privileges, and the exemption does not include home page advertisements and open-screen advertisements.

E-commerce monetization:

In addition to the shopping function, Meitu Xiuxiu has added modules such as "Meitu Aesthetics" and "Scene List" to the APP. Users can apply for skin care products, browse skin care strategies, and evaluate their own skin.

other:

Meitu Xiuxiu has added small financial consumer loans, paid photo editing, ID photos, customized creative photo books, etc.

Set up a game center entrance on the homepage, and the content is more about female casual games, such as Shining Nuannuan, Love and Producer.

2) Beauty camera

The profit model of beauty cameras is similar to that of Meitu Xiuxiu, and it is also monetized through information advertising, advanced services (VIP), e-commerce monetization and other models. I will not repeat it here.

Differences: Ads will appear when setting shooting parameters on the beauty camera on the shooting function page. For example, Yan Qing medical beauty, offline medical beauty advertisements. The monthly continuous price of VIP is 9 yuan, and the continuous annual price is 88 yuan, which is about 10% lower than the price of Meitu Xiuxiu.

3) Light-faced camera and wake-up picture

The light-eye camera and wake-up image may have started late and its functions are not nearly perfect, and it is still expanding the market and attracting users. Apart from providing 9 yuan monthly VIP service, Qingyan Camera has no other obvious profit methods. However, it is not ruled out that advertising, e-commerce monetization and other profit-making methods will be introduced in the future.

4. Operational events and information

Meitu Company attaches great importance to operational work. Since its initial launch, Meitu Xiuxiu Mobile Edition has released photo editing tutorials on a large number of related social platforms. After that, it has collaborated with major officials (such as Heytea, Beautiful China, Dior, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts), planned various topics and competitions, and invited celebrities to use them. At the same time, Meitu Company is also very concerned about the public's aesthetic trends, such as the "Chinese Color", "Hanfu" formula, "Haselsai", and "5207" filters launched.

Meitu's operation work has played a very critical role in its overall product development and its huge user base. On the other hand, Meitu Company also attaches great importance to community content operation, and launched the "Meitu Creator Academy", "Family Lianmeng Creation Camp" to encourage and guide users to output more high-quality content, thus forming a positive cycle incentive effect on the platform's ecology.

The popularity of Qingyan Camera is inseparable from its operation team and Douyin's large traffic promotion. In an era when the public began to feel aesthetic fatigue with internet celebrity faces, Qingyan Camera entered the market with its slogan of "photographing high-end faces". Qingyan Camera was initially positioned as a makeup app for female users. This novel positioning, coupled with Douyin's powerful traffic orientation (topics and recommendations) and Weibo KOL's recommendation, Qingyan Camera's popularity in major application markets once reached the top in a short period of time.

In addition, Qingyan Camera will also launch limited stickers during holidays to improve user freshness, and also launch some activities such as "creation with prizes" to encourage users to create. On the other hand, Qingyan Camera has launched activities such as "Yellow Girls' Hall" and "Qingyan Creative Stickers Competition" to encourage users to use filters and check in on Weibo.

The positioning of Xingtu is more like an all-round and powerful photo editing software. Like the light-eye camera, the early popularity of Xingtu is also inseparable from the support of Douyin's large traffic, the recommendation of KOL celebrities on Douyin, the control of popular content by the Xingtu operation team, and the excellent material quality and powerful functions of Xingtu have made Xingtu, which was launched late, attract a large number of users.

Afterwards, Xingtu increased its efforts to launch the event "Alice P-P Competition" and released post-tutorials on major platforms.

Overall, all four products attach great importance to operations.

The main operating methods include co-branding with experts, recommendations from celebrities, mastering aesthetic trends, planning hot topics, holding competitions, promotion tutorials, etc. For beauty apps, the practicality of functions is the core of the product. These four major products are deeply engaged in the beauty vertical field to meet users' wider beauty needs. In addition, Meitu Xiuxiu and Qingyan Camera also strongly encourage users to create and output better content or set templates. In this way, we can realize the positive cycle of aesthetic quality and content ecology.

5. Competitive product analysis summary

From a macro perspective, it makes a macro analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of Meitu Xiuxiu, Beauty Camera, Light Camera, and Xingtu.

1) Beautiful pictures show

Advantages:

1. It has a high market share, a huge user base, and a high reputation.
2. Whether it is photo editing or portrait beauty, it has a very complete function and can cope with a large number of daily activities.
3. The social functions are complete, the users are active, and there is a dedicated creative center.
4. The profit model is diversified, and in addition to advertising and VIP services, there are also many profit models.
5. Strong functions, high product technical capabilities and good results.
6. Filters, formulas and other functions are keeping pace with the hot spots.
7. Black technology has many functions, cooperates with other brands, and has many interesting ways to play.

Disadvantages:

1. The software has many functions and cannot be fully used by users, so the experience is average.
2. Photos cannot be processed in batches.
3. The large number of advertisements is likely to cause disgust among users.
4. Some materials are of average quality.

Optimization suggestions:

1. Optimize usage methods and integrate integrated functions.
2. Optimize the design of the homepage, reduce messy arrangements, and increase user experience.
3. Social beauty content can reduce the number of arrangements on the page, display the text content of the article, and increase the rationality of the layout. It can be similar to the layout of UGC content of "Beautiful Picture Recipe".
4. Members can be completely free of advertising, rather than partial advertising reduction. Member content should increase quality.
5. More and more complete male functional modules.
6. To reduce some excessive beauty effects, you can set user preferences and establish an independent beauty plasticity model.
7. Convenient to repair multiple photos.

2) Beauty camera

Advantages:

1. Relying on Meitu Xiuxiu's powerful IP, it has strong ability to attract users.
2. It has powerful shooting function and comprehensive functions, and has easy-to-use black technology functions such as AI recognition and intelligent correction of distortion.
3. A model exclusive to boys.
4. There are many black technology functions and many interesting ways to play.
5. The style function will provide "see how others shoot" to increase the user's probability of making a movie.

Disadvantages:

1. The large number of advertisements is likely to cause disgust among users.
2. After opening the APP, you cannot enter the camera shooting page as soon as possible, which increases the user's operating costs.
3. There is less material for the whole body template.
4. The photo editing function is weak.

Optimization suggestions:

1. Reduce advertising delivery or optimize advertising delivery methods.
2. After opening the APP, enter the shooting page as soon as possible to reduce user operation costs.
3. AI recognizes the user's subjects, such as full-body photos, which can automatically recommend templates.
4. Improve the boys' functional module.
5. The ultra-clear camera function adds the turn on button after shooting. Instead, it can only be used in ultra-clear camera mode.

3) Light-faced camera

Advantages:

1. The user base is large and the user is younger. If the user can be retained, there will be more consumption power in the future.
2. Backed by ByteDance Mountain, it can provide more traffic exposure.
3. After opening it, it can be used directly, with a faster startup speed and a good shooting experience.
4. Real-time beauty function, restore the texture to the reality.
5. Rich body beauty functions and posture guidance functions.
6. The page is simple, the design is comfortable, the user's learning cost is low, there are no advertisements, and the installation package is small.
7. The same style and style are powerful and the content is of high quality.

Disadvantages:

1. Functional perfection and richness are insufficient.
2. Missing community functions.
3. The contouring pen, graffiti pen and manual face-slimming function are not easy for users to operate without a magnifying glass.
4. The profit model is relatively single, with only advanced services (VIP).
5. Some commonly used functions require VIP.

Optimization suggestions:

1. Functional richness needs to be improved, while improving content integration and reducing user operation costs.
2. Add community functions and pay attention to UGC except for the same model.
3. Use a contouring pen, graffiti pen and manual face slimming function, and add the upper magnifying glass function to facilitate user operation.
4. Use ByteDance’s large-traffic products to promote.
5. Without affecting the user experience, expand the profit method as much as possible.
6. Improve the irreplaceability of VIP functions.

4) Wake up picture

Advantages:

1. The page is simple, ad-free, and easy for users to operate.
2. It can be edited in batches, which is very convenient.
3. The one-click beauty effect is natural, and the acne removal function can be customized directly in the current menu.
4. The content recognition is accurate, and the intelligently recommended template is more suitable.
5. The template material is of high quality and can grasp the current hot spots.
6. Black technology has powerful functions and many gameplays.
7. Users under 19 years old account for a large proportion and have great consumption potential in the future.

Disadvantages:

1. Use a contouring pen, graffiti pen and manual face slimming function, and add the auxiliary function of the magnifying glass above to facilitate user operation.
2. The functions are relatively limited, there is no shooting function, and the social functions are relatively limited, so it is impossible to chat privately.
3. It entered the market late and its user base is weak.
4. There is currently no profit method and users are less willing to pay.

Optimization suggestions:

1. Using a contouring pen, graffiti pen, etc. requires the fingers to slide the image and add the magnifying glass function.
2. Improve shooting and social functions and improve the richness of photo editing functions.
3. Acquire customers through ByteDance’s large-traffic products.
4. After the user reaches a certain base, he begins to expand his profit model without affecting the user experience.

Author: Yingzejun

Source: Yingzejun