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PicsArt service reached a value of $1.5 billion
The image-editing app PicsArt was created by Hovhannes Avoyan as an assistant for his daughter, who loved to draw. The startup is now valued at $1.5 billion and is one of the most popular in the world.
Hovhaness Avoyan made his fortune in organizing and further selling technology startups in Armenia. In 2011, his daughter complained that a drawing she posted on social networks was received negatively. The entrepreneur wanted to support his daughter in her endeavors and developed a cell phone application that helps correct images. During 10 years PicsArt had been downloaded more than 1 million times by users from 180 countries. Originally, the interface of the service was only in English, but now it is translated into 28 languages. PicsArt is popular among an audience of people under the age of 35 who use the application to edit photos or videos for their social networking pages and improve images for posting to online stores and websites.
Initially, PicsArt was available for Android, which allowed it to attract a large number of users and avoid the strong competition that had already developed among iPhone services. In addition, the startup actively promoted the product through various marketing moves, such as making product updates on a certain day of the week, regularly adding new features, and more.
The program offers a large set of tools, some of which are available in the basic free version. The rest can be used at a cost of $4.66 per month. In addition, PicsArt earns revenue from advertising, but very little, and no data is collected for targeting. The startup has generated more than $100 million in revenue this year.
Not so long ago, the company held a funding round, which resulted in raising $130 million. Softbank was the main investor, Sequoia, Graph Ventures and others also took part. PicsArt has a staff of about 800 people, Avoyan is the main shareholder, although his share was not disclosed.
The app has become popular primarily because of its ease of use. The tools here are designed with artificial intelligence technology and in Java, making it easy to edit photos. Any user can improve an image for their social networks without spending a lot of time and without special skills. Now PicsArt has also caught the attention of people who are professionally involved in design. The app is also relevant to small businesses, such as those involved in online commerce.
After the first investment from Sequoia in 2015, the company was headquartered in San Francisco, but most of the developers are located in Armenia.