Bitmoji Competitor Genies, Launches App To Get More Market Share

Personalized avatar has become a thing in instant communication.

As Facebook, Apple and Google have been rather slow in adopting personalized avatars on their respective platforms, Snapchat's Bitmoji has experienced a strong wind on its back. But there is a new (old) player in the industry that can do things very similar.

Called 'Genies', it emerges as one top competitor to Bitmoji, thanks to its ability in customizing dozens of user traits to create realistic digital lookalike "clone" of themselves, from over a million possible permutations.

The company was founded in 2013. After rising millions from investors that also include celebrities without many people knowing, it stepped up its game by creating its own iOS and Android chat app.

The app allows users to chat through their avatars, which act out keywords and sentiments in reaction to what users typed.

Genies app

"We’ve transitioned from being an app to an avatar services company," said CEO Akash Nigam.

Nigam previously built numerous startups while at the University of Michigan, and as also worked with Genies' co-founders Evan Rosenbaum and Matt Geiger on a startup called Blend. But as Nigam saw Bitmoji becoming increasingly popular and stayed on the top download charts, he saw this as a challenge.

Inspired to see more opportunity in the avatar space, Genies shifted to content creation business, and started focusing on algorithmic suggestions for animations.

After getting sufficient funds from a wide range of investors, including from institutional companies like NEA and Tull Co. to angels like Tinder’s Sean Rad, Raya’s Jared Morgenstern and speaker Tony Robbins; athletes like Carmelo Anthony, Kyrie Irving and Richard Sherman; and also musicians, including A$AP Rocky, Offset from Migos, The Chainsmokers and 50 Cent, the company is up for the challenge.

Avatar of YouTube celebrity Jake Paul who invested $50,000 in Genies
Avatar of YouTube celebrity Jake Paul who invested $50,000 in Genies

With Genies getting into the messaging industry, the revamped Genies app allows users to chat with up to six people through their avatars.

As users type, Genies can detect actions, places, things, as well as emotions, and offer users the corresponding animations the avatars can act with just a tap.

While there are certainly more than plenty of chat apps out there in the market, Genies can be considered unique because it brings something new to the table. However, given with the many choices people can choose from, it might be tough for the company to get people to move real conversations from other platforms to Genies.

So here, Genies is just like a novelty.

But Genies also has another strategy under its sleeves, as it also launches a software development kit where it charges other apps to let them create avatars and use them for chats, stickers, games, animations, as well as augmented reality.

Going against Bitmoji, the Genies app is fresh out of the oven. Rather that repurposing the experience Bitmoji has with its cartoony avatars, Genies wants to be "much more than just goofy, cute cartoons," as explained by Nigam.

The next wave of [communication] in this age of internet is through avatars—a digital identity, an extension of you," he said. "We want Genies to represent your digital identity."

Published: 
21/11/2018