Louis Chen, Chief Strategy Officer for Perfect Corp. was recently interviewed by Benzinga.
Perfect Corp. is a leading provider of AI and enterprise SaaS solutions for beauty, fashion and skincare brands. Using advanced technologies like Generative AI and real-time 3D augmented reality rendering, Perfect enhances the shopping experience for consumers by offering personalized and convenient product try-ons and skin diagnostics across various channels.
Perfect Corp. is a leading provider of AI and enterprise SaaS solutions for beauty, fashion and skincare brands. Using advanced technologies like Generative AI and real-time 3D augmented reality rendering, Perfect enhances the shopping experience for consumers by offering personalized and convenient product try-ons and skin diagnostics across various channels.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hey everyone, it's Jordan Robertson with Benzinga
00:04 and joining me today is Louis Chen,
00:06 Chief Strategy Officer at PerfectCore.
00:08 Thank you so much for being here, how are you?
00:10 - Thank you Jordan for having me.
00:12 - Absolutely, so we know that Perfect is a leader
00:14 in beauty and fashion tech industries
00:16 and your business model is quite unique.
00:18 Could you briefly walk us through the service
00:19 Perfect is providing and how do your services
00:21 transform the whole beauty and fashion industries?
00:24 - Certainly, so we are a key developer
00:27 in the beauty tech and fashion tech space.
00:29 So we operate two very distinct business model
00:32 but they are also complimentary to each other.
00:35 We are about to be the brand business
00:37 where we offer them augmented reality,
00:39 artificial intelligence, technology to help the brand
00:42 through the AR commerce, the social commerce.
00:45 So anything that a consumer want to virtually try
00:47 before they buy, for example, you will try to choose
00:50 the right shade for your lipstick
00:51 or you want to see if the rings or the watches
00:54 fit well in your hand, we can use augmented reality
00:57 technology to help the brand and help the consumers
00:59 make the decision before their purchase.
01:02 Also, we take this technology and we build a series
01:05 of mobile apps, we call the YouCan Family Apps.
01:08 So YouCan Makeup, YouCan Perfect, YouCan AI Pro.
01:11 So this is our direct to consumer business.
01:14 Basically, we take this technology and make it available
01:16 into mobile apps that user can download easily
01:19 from the app store, they can have a premium feature,
01:21 they can try all the premium features
01:23 for a free trial period and if they like it,
01:26 they can subscribe to unlock all the features
01:28 for their day to day use.
01:30 - I absolutely love this concept
01:32 and now Perfect has formed partnerships
01:34 with several top brands in the beauty and fashion industry.
01:36 Can you share how you work with these brands
01:38 and what makes you stand out when these big names
01:40 are choosing AI tech partners?
01:42 - Yes, it has been quite a journey.
01:43 We started to work with all these luxury prestige brands
01:47 about seven, eight years ago, right?
01:49 So it has been quite a journey to see how the brand
01:51 are embracing more and more
01:52 the digital transformation technology,
01:54 now the digital lifestyle, how the consumer are engaging
01:57 with this brand has transformed enormously, right?
02:00 Even before the pandemic or even more now after the pandemic.
02:04 So I think it is good to see that the brand
02:06 has tried to modernize the way that they engage
02:08 with the consumers, be more personalized,
02:10 then be able to offer user more options to,
02:13 as I said, try before you buy, or for example,
02:16 for our skincare product lines,
02:18 consumer able to detect your skin tones,
02:20 your skin concerns, your skin conditions,
02:23 just by simply taking a few selfies from your mobile phone
02:26 at the convenience of your home, right?
02:28 So these type of technology that we see,
02:30 these big brands, I guess, the Loder,
02:32 brand for recent to announce our partnership with Walmart,
02:36 we are seeing that more and more consumer touch point
02:38 when they are thinking about,
02:40 what is the right product for me,
02:41 especially beauty is a very personal category.
02:44 I think this type of technology really bring
02:46 that last mile gap between the consumer and the brands.
02:50 - Now, Purvik has a family of mobile beauty apps.
02:53 How does your 2C services compliment your 2B services
02:56 and create synergy?
02:57 - This is actually a very important
02:59 and very unique part of our business model.
03:01 When we created this technology,
03:03 especially we serving all these big enterprises,
03:06 of course, they have been very, very cautious
03:08 understanding how this technology impact consumer journey.
03:11 So typically they want to see the technology
03:14 being well tested in the market,
03:16 understanding the consumer feedbacks
03:17 before they can roll it out in a wider scale.
03:20 And I think that is where our consumer app business
03:22 come very handy,
03:23 because this is a platform that we have built
03:25 with a very active community behind it.
03:27 We able to almost use it as a test bed
03:30 to pilot every new innovation that we bring to the market.
03:34 So before this technology end up being in,
03:36 some of these big brand e-commerce site or their website,
03:40 this has already been tested by millions of users,
03:43 for a period of time, no mobile apps.
03:45 And through that learning,
03:47 we understand how to make the product better,
03:49 how to fix the issue, what are the key concerns.
03:52 So it really mature, it make the product more mature
03:55 when before we bring it out to the market.
03:57 And the beauty behind it is,
03:59 because the engine are the same,
04:00 it's developed by the same team.
04:02 So the cause of development is shared by both businesses.
04:06 Right, so that make our team very, very effective.
04:08 We able to take the same engine
04:10 and try to monetize that
04:11 for a mobile app subscription model, as I said,
04:14 and through that learning and understanding
04:15 which are the critical features
04:17 that really the beauty lovers, the fashion lovers likes,
04:20 and take that and then transform that into a SaaS platform
04:23 and make it available as an API or SDK
04:27 and license that to the beauty and fashion houses.
04:30 - So Louis, generative AI is the hottest topic right now.
04:33 What kind of possibilities do Gen AI unlock for Perfect?
04:35 And how will Perfect utilize or develop Gen AI
04:38 and its products and services going forward?
04:40 - Great question.
04:41 Generative AI has been the big, big buzz
04:43 and it has been keeping all our developers very, very busy
04:46 for the last 12, 18 months,
04:48 because it's really unlocked a lot of possibility
04:50 that was never, ever possible before.
04:53 To give you a few example,
04:54 recently we announced our partnership with TRESemme,
04:56 a brand under Unilever,
04:58 that allows user to visualize with you on selfie,
05:01 how will you look like in 10 different hairstyles, right?
05:04 So in order to generate those visuals, photos, or videos,
05:09 generative AI is the right technology to do that.
05:12 Right, so I think this is just to take the first step.
05:15 We are working on technology such as makeup transfer.
05:18 So imagine you have seen a celebrity that you like
05:21 on a magazine or on a social media photo,
05:23 wearing certain makeup looks,
05:25 and you see, how do I look like on that look?
05:27 Now, does that shade match my style?
05:29 So we're able to take generative AI technology
05:31 to learn about the pattern and the colors
05:33 of that specific makeup or the style,
05:35 and transform that directly onto your face.
05:38 Just to give you a few example on how we are doing that,
05:41 we have launched a series of generative AI function features
05:44 in our product since March this year.
05:46 And almost every Monday,
05:47 some new innovation breakthrough there,
05:48 where there's AI style, AI avatar,
05:51 AI fashions, and more to come.
05:53 Now, Perfect recently announced a tender offer plan.
05:56 What's management's thoughts behind this plan?
05:58 How should investment communities view this matter?
06:00 Right, so we are a solid business, be a real business.
06:04 The cashflow has been positive for many years.
06:07 We're sitting on a very healthy balance sheet
06:10 with 200 million cash.
06:12 So we feel that this is the right moment.
06:13 Stock price these days are undervalued.
06:16 So the management think this is a great opportunity
06:18 to put out a tender offer there,
06:20 to really create a value to our shareholders
06:22 and in the long run, right?
06:23 So I think this is a part of the strategy
06:26 to create better awareness to our stock,
06:29 but also to bring value in the long term
06:31 to our shareholders.
06:33 Beautiful, and Perfect has been the leader
06:35 in beauty and fashion tech industries.
06:36 What are the key factors that contribute to your success?
06:39 I think there are a few.
06:41 Technology expertise is certainly
06:43 the biggest one.
06:44 The brands, beauty brands, fashion brands,
06:47 typically don't have, you know,
06:48 traditionally a very strong in-house R&D.
06:51 So they rely on partners such as Perfect
06:53 to help them build a very solid technology roadmap.
06:56 And technology, you know, is affecting every sector,
06:59 every industry.
07:00 So I think it is becoming important
07:01 for those brands to invest more into IT,
07:04 into AI, into augmented reality.
07:07 So this is the first thing that we come to the market
07:09 with a true to real effects.
07:10 So it's nothing gimmicky.
07:12 You know, it has to be true to real
07:13 to the shades that you are putting on the user's face,
07:16 or is this really object that is tracking
07:18 with his watches or jewelry or earrings.
07:21 So I think it's very important that the technology quality,
07:24 the superiority of our technology
07:26 has to be really, you know, the best in the category.
07:29 That's the first thing the brand look at too.
07:31 The second thing is having a global support team
07:34 to the brands.
07:35 Most of these brands are multinational.
07:37 They operate in 40, 50 different countries,
07:39 and they are seeking for a single solution
07:41 that work globally.
07:42 And I think this is another forte of Perfect
07:44 because we have a global team, you know,
07:46 in Asia, in Europe, in North America,
07:48 be able to help the brand almost with a one-stop shopping
07:52 to enable them to create their SKUs
07:55 all the way into the consumer interfacing,
07:57 you know, omnichannel deployments,
07:59 all within the same platform.
08:00 So everything is real time.
08:02 There's analytics behind this,
08:03 so the brand get to see what is going on
08:05 in different geographies, what user likes,
08:07 what user doesn't like,
08:08 and adjust their strategy based on that.
08:10 And third, I think we are also very close to the brand.
08:13 We understand beauty, right?
08:14 We are a technology company,
08:15 but because we have been very much focused
08:17 on the vertical industry for the past few years,
08:20 we become a very close partner with all these big houses.
08:23 So we're able to learn about their languages,
08:25 about what they are thinking,
08:26 and importantly, if we work together,
08:28 our joint roadmap, right?
08:29 So what is coming down the pipeline next year
08:31 and the year following.
08:33 So we know ahead of time what the brand are thinking,
08:36 what kind of product they want to bring to the market,
08:38 what kind of digital solution has to come together
08:40 as a complimentary part of that.
08:42 So I think all these pieces together
08:44 make us what we are today here.
08:46 I'll be able to be very close,
08:47 successful partnership with the brands.
08:49 Most of the key clients I have been with us
08:52 has been with us for more than five years now
08:54 and continue to be renewing,
08:55 you know, the relationship year after year.
08:58 But at the same time, we invest heavily on R&D
09:00 to bring the latest generation of technology,
09:02 including Genevity AI that we just spoke to,
09:05 but also in the beauty sector, in the skincare,
09:07 in the hair, and more and more sector
09:09 that we are investing.
09:10 So I think this is one of the DNA
09:13 of being an innovative company while we are here.
09:15 We try to bring the latest technology
09:17 and productize that in a way
09:19 that the brand can basically trust us
09:21 to deliver a high quality product to their end users.
09:24 Wonderful.
09:25 Well, Louis, that's all I have for today.
09:26 I really appreciate your insights here
09:27 and I hope to see you back real soon.
09:28 Thank you, Jordan.
09:29 Thank you.
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