We live in an era where everyone is a creator. By editing pictures with your fingers, sending short videos on your cell phone, and opening live broadcasts, you can create value for yourself and your business, which has given rise to a brand new content economy model. So what role can the increasingly mature and powerful AI technology play in this process?
Since 2013, an Israeli computer vision and image processing AI company has been researching this issue, and has spent nearly 10 years building a full set of AI-driven creator editing tools matrix, which involves the editing and beautification of pictures and videos, audio editing, AI graphic design and material creation, and almost every audio and video creation field you can think of. Nowadays, whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat or TikTok, behind many of the images and videos that you casually swipe through, there’s actually tech support from the company called Lightricks. While most AI companies are still wooing users around, all Lightricks’ products have been downloaded nearly 700 million times around the world, and Lightricks is currently the fourth largest unicorn company in the AIGC field.
1.AI team from Israel, starting from helping you to “beautify” your face
Lightricks was founded in 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel, Zeev Farbman, Nir Pochter, Amit Goldstein, Yaron Inger, Itai Tsiddon, the five founders graduated from the Hebrew University of Israel, four of them graduated from the computer science program, one graduated from the law school. Four of them graduated in Computer Science and one in Law. Among them, the four technicians had worked in Microsoft, Google, Adobe and other companies, and the main direction of research is computer vision, graphics processing and so on. However, in the course of their work, several founders agreed that there is still a big gap between the artificial intelligence technology of large companies and consumers, and the pace of advancing the transformation and application of the technology is also very slow, so they have been working on using their expertise in computer vision and image processing on consumer-grade products since 2013. At the time, they first set their sights on social media.
In March 2013, Lightricks launched a portrait processing app called Facetune. At that time, this “ancient” overseas beauty tool provided more than ten kinds of beauty options, such as liquefaction, skinning, shape adjustment, etc., which supported users to peel and fine-tune their photos through simple operations. At that time, beauty face was not prevalent overseas, Facetune by word of mouth all the way to popularity, was named by Google as the best app of the year in 2014. 2016, with the further development of computer vision and graphics processing technology, Facetune has also been upgraded, Facetune2 came out.
Facetune2 compared to the previous generation of tools ability to jump dramatically, through the introduction of artificial intelligence retouching algorithms, directly from manual retouching people to intelligent retouching era.Facetune 2 can through AI accurate recognition of the five senses, the user only need to drag and drop the way to only irrelevant to the precise fine-tuning. In addition, Facetune 2 also puts the beauty function on the selfie camera, in addition to being able to achieve skin resurfacing, whitening, filters, and personalized fine-tuning when taking pictures.Facetune 2 was once a hit after its release, and was the most downloaded app in the Apple App Store in 2017. Since then Facetune has also been iterated and upgraded, evolving from photo beautification to one-click beautification of videos, and with the support of AI technology, providing users with more and more detail adjustment options.
- 2.Create a full matrix of AI creation tools to play with pictures and videos
Although Facetune is highly popular among users, it is not the only product of Lightricks, but just the tip of the iceberg of Lightricks’ products. In fact, based on computer vision and graphic processing technology, Lightricks has launched 11 products and apps one after another over the years, covering various segments of audio and visual content creation tracks, enabling users to perform professional-level editing.
In the field of image editing, Lightricks has launched Photoleap, Lightleap, Artleap, Filtertune and other tools. Among them, Photoleap provides users with creative and artistic editing tools. Users can use a variety of filters, adjust colors and lighting, add special effects, composite layers, doodle and paint, etc. It also supports very precise controls such as selective adjustments, masks and layer blending modes. Last year, Photoleap also launched a new text-to-image feature based on Stable Diffusion, but Photoleap not only allows users to be able to generate images, but also allows users to personalize the resulting image editing and adjustments, and ultimately generate the most satisfactory picture. Other Lightleap, Artleap, Motionleap, Filtertune and other tools are focused on image editing segments, such as LightLeap provides a variety of styles of filters collection, to give the photo professional movie and poster style, Motionleap allows the user to just tap a few times to select the area you want to animate. Motionleap allows users to “move” static photos with just a few taps to select the area they want to animate, and Artleap combines different art styles so that users can easily turn their photos into a piece of art they want.
In addition to photo editing, Lightricks also follows the trend of audio and video, launching a series of professional-grade products such as Videoleap, BeatLeap, Seen, etc. Videoleap is a professional-grade video editing application that provides a wide range of video editing tools and special effects. Users can edit, crop, merge video clips, add transition effects, filters, and text, etc. It also supports layers, masks, and keystrokes, enabling users to achieve more complex video editing effects. Currently, Videoleap can also support one-click posting of well-done videos on short video platforms such as TikTok, Shutterstock, etc. Beatleap focuses on audio, enabling users to seamlessly match and remix their edited videos with selected music in a matter of seconds.Seen, on the other hand, is a professional storytelling tool that can make your pictures and videos into a story through simple and personalized editing. clips, and also offers tons of options for transitions, stickers, animated text, and more.
In addition to providing creators with a variety of tools, Lightricks has also launched Popular Pays, a platform that links creators and brands, by providing brands with search and filtering tools that make it easier for brands to find the right creators for their needs, and then the creators can use Lightricks’ tools to create photos, videos, blog posts, and other forms of creative work that are tailored to the brand’s needs. Creators can then use the tools provided by Lightricks to create photos, videos, blogs, articles and more according to the brand’s needs, and both parties can track the progress of their projects, manage payments and get collaboration reports on the platform.
3. Highly sought after by netizens, with the creator economy growing rapidly
Lightricks is a “one-stop shop” for creators, from images to audio/video to real estate, and its products are designed to meet the needs of both beginners and professional creators and marketers. As a result, Lightricks has become increasingly popular with creators of all kinds over the years.
Lightricks’ products are based on a “free + in-app purchase” model. This means that users can download and use the basic version of the app for free, but if they want to access more advanced features or tools, they need to make an in-app purchase or subscription. For example, Text to Image is free to use, and users can download as many AI images as they want to create, but there is no editing capability. But if you sign up for Pro, you can download up to 100 “higher quality” files per month, with subscription plans ranging from $4.99-$9.99 per month.
Lightricks was completely self-funded in its early days, but as its products successfully circled the wagons, it began to attract the attention of venture capitalists; in 2015, Lightricks received a $10 million round of investment. In 2019, the company closed a $135 million Series D round that valued it at $1 billion, officially making it a unicorn company. Last February, Lightricks received another round of venture funding for an undisclosed amount, rising its valuation to $1.8 billion. Notably, investors in that round included TikTok superstar “D’Amelio family” (the same 00-year-olds who make over $100 million a year from short videos), a testament to Lightricks’ influence among creators today.
While the company is currently headquartered in Jerusalem, following the global explosion of the creator economy in the wake of the outbreak, Lightricks’ pace of globalization is also accelerating. The company has previously said it expects to see significant staff growth in Shenzhen, London and other locations, with Lightricks currently employing around 600 people, and plans to reach 1,000 by the end of 2023. Regarding the current booming wave of AI technology, Lightricks CEO Zeev Farbman believes that AI will change revolutionize the creator economy. “AI-based tools and platforms will accelerate creators’ ability to unlock their full potential. These new tools will streamline the creative process and improve creators’ skills. This is a technological revolution that will not only change the way we create and consume content, but will enable a new generation of entrepreneurs to thrive in the digital age.”