Zepeto users can create a 3D avatar of themselves, with a range of customisable options.
Zepeto, a social networking app that allows you to build a 3D avatar, has become the latest overnight sensation in China, rising from relative obscurity to the most-downloaded app in mobile stores as the country's millennials continue to explore new forms of online communication.
The app, made by South Korean
game developer Snow Corp, has been top of the daily download charts on both the Apple and Android app stores in China in the three days since Sunday, according to App Annie.
Users log in to the app with their WeChat, Facebook or Twitter account, and can then create a 3D avatar of their own, with the ability to customise facial contours, cosmetics, hair style, outfits and set a virtual home in the background.
Zepeto includes social networking features such as connecting real-world friends, "meeting" strangers from its virtual town, sending self-made emojis and creating photo booth-style virtual snaps. It also supports chat rooms and an easy-to-play mini-game.
For those old enough to remember Tencent's Qzone, once the biggest social platform in China before WeChat came along, the design bears some resemblance. Qzone allowed people to create a 2D character, pay for costumes, leave messages and send virtual gifts to one another.
