Google stealthily purchased a business that was developing AI-powered avatars for social media users and brands. According to media sources, the corporation just paid around $100 million for Alter. The purchase was announced by Google on Thursday, but the financial parameters of the transaction were not disclosed. According to sources, Google purchased Alter in order to compete more effectively with TikTok.
Alter originated as Facemoji, providing a platform for other developers to integrate avatar generation systems into various apps and games. Jonathan Slimak, Alter’s main co-founder, and operations officer, recently announced on LinkedIn that he was starting a job “creating Avatars at Google.” It’s unclear how Alter’s people and technology will help Google compete with TikTok. Google’s approach to the short-form video format, YouTube Shorts, is already a triumph for the firm. Google reported this past June that the platform has 1.5 billion monthly active users after a global launch in the summer of 2021.
