Hong Kong-listed Meitu, Inc. had 19.83 million global paying subscribers as of September 2026, the company said. That was a net addition of 1.39 million during the quarter, the largest quarterly net increase in the past four quarters. Revenue from its core photo, video and design products came to RMB1.0 billion in the third quarter, unaudited, up 28.2% year on year.
Fewer products, more resources
Management said Meitu will narrow the scope of its generative AI exploration and direct resources to a smaller group of core products that have shown product-market fit. Founder and chief executive Xinhong Wu compared the shift to the company's early mobile internet period, when it settled on a direction after repeated experiments and then committed to it over the long term. Picchi's latest net billings ARR is close to US$1.4 million and MVLAND's close to US$0.85 million, with MVLAND's application due to launch in December; projects reaching ARR of US$2 million and US$5 million will unlock additional strategic resources.
Productivity and overseas markets
Paying subscribers to Meitu's productivity applications rose 18.3% year on year to 2.39 million, and annual recurring revenue for those AI-driven applications reached RMB655 million, up 40.1%. Meitu said it now designs products for the global market from the research stage, and that its overseas operations have moved from grouping markets by language to grouping them by culture, citing a Latin American region represented by Brazil and Mexico. ARR at Kaipai, aimed at mainland China, and Vmake Labs, aimed at international markets, each grew more than 100% year on year as of September 2026. Chief product officer Jianyi Chen said the company is extending from productivity tools to marketing solutions that cover planning, content production, distribution and performance optimisation.
Features as products
Meitu said it will increasingly treat individual features as products and make paying subscribers its core target group, pointing to the commercial strategies of fashion consumer goods. Chief financial officer Gary Ngan said more of its new businesses monetise through consumption of AI credits, which he said offer more ARPPU flexibility than traditional products, and that the company watches overall product revenue and net profit rather than gross margin.
