This week Reface, an app that shapeshifts faces using AI to look like celebrities, went viral after taking a stand to show the invasion into Ukraine, the company's home country.
The app compiled actual videos of local attacks and pushed them to their users in Russia, who aren't able to see independent news coverage, as well as users all over the world.
They managed to not just get the word out to users, but also acquire a lot of news users in the process.
Downloads, which average 40K on a normal day, nearly doubled to 75K on Thursday and continued to grow into the weekend, peaking at more than 200K on Sunday.
In total, our estimates show that Reface added more than a million new downloads since last week.
It's interesting to see how an app that's used for entertainment was able to create such awareness, essentially offering news. This isn't something we see often, but in times like these, it's great to see how developers are leveraging what they have to bring changes.
December saw a curious split: downloads dropped 2% while revenue sat at $1.3B. ChatGPT and TikTok dominated both charts as the mobile industry enters a new maturity phase.
Wall Street bet $2 billion on Polymarket, and downloads surged 1,172% in December. The prediction market banned in 2022 is now where Wall Street looks for signals.