YouCam Makeup trailblazes AR in beauty — Exclusive interview with CEO Alice Chang
Taiwanese company Perfect Corp. is behind the virtual makeup “YouCam” series of apps that has seen 700 million downloads worldwide. As they prepare to enter the next phase of growth, they aim to “further utilize data to create an even more richly personalized user experience.” So says CEO Alice Chang, with whom BeautyTech.jp recently gained an exclusive interview with.
Even as the use of AR in the beauty industry gains popularity, Perfect Corp.’s strength lies not just in their well-loved apps, but also in their well-balanced business portfolio that includes a wide range of services to over 200 global brands. That includes services related to AR-generated virtual makeup, hair color, skin analysis as well as Beauty Advisor training. We were curious to find out what this fascinating company is focusing on next and where they intend to take their business in the future.
When we called on CEO Alice Chang at Perfect Corp.’s headquarters in Taiwan in October last year, she received us with a friendly hug and we were struck by the very open and honest atmosphere of the workplace.
So just how did this warm and friendly trailblazing female entrepreneur manage to carve out a new niche in the past half-decade, and what does she have her eyes on for the future?
Perfect for women and work
As a company, Perfect Corp wears two hats. One is as a developer of virtual makeup apps for general users, such as YouCam Makeup, and the other is as a vendor that provides virtual makeup services to beauty brands and retailers.
It’s these services that target beauty companies that are gaining attention in the industry for their unique way of utilizing AR and AI to create new business opportunities by adding value to traditional face-to-face customer service. Perfect Corp. provides a dashboard to businesses that collate all matter of data generated from users trying on different makeup in the virtual world. Companies can see what colors users try on and what’s popular, and utilize such data in their marketing. This is one of the strong points of Perfect Corp.’s business.
Growing globally
Chang saw the potential for the marriage of AR and beauty at an early stage before going on to create her business. She was originally CEO of Taiwanese PC software distributor CyberLink Corp., and during that time was a regular user of a Chinese selfie app that appeared early in the market. “The app allowed you to capture yourself in a good light, but I couldn’t help thinking how artificial it looked”, and thus she decided to start developing something better in her company.
Currently, the YouCam series is growing at a pace of 200 million downloads per month globally and now supports over 20 different languages. Chang says that “the target for the app is all women around the world who own smartphones”, and to achieve that the user interface is designed to be intuitively usable by anyone.
Fun and Functional
The business of smartphone apps is all about whether users feel the app they’ve downloaded is really worth their while. As Chang mentions, “if a user uninstalls the app even once it can be very difficult to bring them back”. Thus, her company takes pains in designing a good UX (User Experience).
Virtual makeup apps such as YouCam Makeup are designed to be fun to use as a game. However, as part of Perfect Corp.’s business is to connect with online purchasing functions, the app’s “practicability” also needs to be up to speed. Users should relish the convenience of being able to try on so many different colors and analyze the condition of their skin. Without this practicability, the app simply becomes a virtual makeup game without fulfilling its ability to link with E-commerce.
Need for speed
One element of Perfect Corp.’s growth that can’t be ignored is its speed. After launching her initial selfie app in March 2014, Chang went independent from CyberLink Corp. and in 2015 founded Perfect Corp. as CEO. Since then, speed has been a priority and the company has expanded AR across many channels, including launching 16 different types of platform services that are ARaaS (AR as a Service), such as virtual “try on” experiences for both nails and hair.
Their track record shows they’ve been continuing to launch over three different services in the space of just one year. Speed is, of course, an important factor for them, however, there are times when, as Chang explains, “If it is too early for the market to accept, it won’t work”. Users failing to understand a product too far ahead of its time is a risk that the company has to manage when launching new services.
Move into AI recommendation
An area where they plan to put their efforts into from now is one-on-one consultations with BA (Beauty Advisors). This is a service where, through live streaming, users can have their virtual makeup applied for them by an expert while they also chime in with their own requests and opinions and receive direct advice. Once their virtual consultation session is over, the user is presented with a list of what products were tried out on them and they can purchase the ones they’re interested in.
A recent new development by the company is the “AI Smart Shade Finder”. So far versions of YouCam have had the user select the colors themselves to try on, however this new “Shade Finder” service just requires the user to take a picture of their face and the AI will analyze their skin color and recommend products like lipstick or eyeshadow that best matches them.
Chang says that “with the AI+AR recommendation system, we’ve reached a new stage.” The company has full confidence in this direction and convinced that it will be another game-changer.
Perfect Platform
What about Perfect Corp.’s competition? Chang exclaims that there’s “honestly none — we strongly believe that we don’t have to be competitors.”
Instead, the company is focused on how they can grab the attention of women who are highly receptive to beauty, fashion, and makeup, and it’s Chang’s thinking that their “high potential of achieving synergy by working together with stakeholders” will result in more merit for the end users.
As to what type of company she wants Perfect Corp. to grow into, Chang’s wish is for it “to become a truly global platform”.
“With our app, you can first try on 10 to 20 or so colors before going to the store to buy the corresponding products, or you can just buy the products using the app. We want virtual makeup to become commonplace in people’s lives around the world, irrespective of the place or method, and we want to become another valid way to purchase beauty products. So far we’ve given customers the chance to find out what colors suit themselves, colors they may have never thought to try before, however nevertheless these are colors they have to go through manually and find themselves. From now, through the power of AI recommendations, we hope to make the selection process easier and more interactive.”
“Having someone look for candidates among thousands of different colors can be a huge task, however, AI can solve that particular pain point. Eventually, we want customers to choose the color they really want out of the ones put out by the AI, and this will make for much more personalized customer experience. Also, we will strive to maintain qualitative AR. This, plus increasing sales of cosmetics brands and raising the CVR will ultimately lead to a lower rate of product returns.”
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Shidu Kumon
