Start-up Pupupula, the online design app’s developer, has made its product free to use, reflecting a promotional strategy employed by China’s largest internet firms to engage and attract users.
China, which has the world’s biggest internet population, looks to be in the grip of a trendy new online app that has millions of users creating and sharing cartoon strip-like family portraits featuring their pet cats and dogs.
Beijing-based start-up Pupupula, the app’s developer, launched a viral campaign called “2018 Year of the Dog family portrait” that has become popular on the mainland since its launch at the start of the year.
The link to the app has recorded about 20 million hits since the launch, with family portraits created by more than seven million users to date, according to Pupupula chief executive Sichuan Zhang.
She said Pupupula has no plans to profit directly from the design app as the campaign was meant to help promote the company’s future product launches.
By having users freely create and share family portraits using its app, Pupupula would garner not only their goodwill, but also a certain degree of loyalty when the company releases products that may have competition in a market of more than 772 million internet users as of June 30 last year. Mobile internet users accounted for 96.3 per cent of that statistic.
China’s biggest internet firms offer millions, keeping users glued to their apps
Pupupula’s strategy reflected the same sort of marketing tactic employed by larger internet companies to entice users to stay glued to their products and services even during the country’s most important holiday.
