“We’ll be able to bring our technology to Facebook’s audience of almost 1.6 billion people”, wrote Eugene Nevgen, CEO of MSQRD maker Masquerade Technologies, in a blog post announcing the acquisition.
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Masquerade, which is also known as MSQRD, lets users add live effects and face swap on videos in real time.
Financial details weren’t disclosed for the transaction that brings Facebook the technology to apply filters to videos.
Available for Android and iOS, Masquerade is the latest selfie filter app to be snapped up by a bigger social network – back in September Snapchat bought Looksery to power its new Lenses feature.
“Over the past year we’ve focused on building out more creative tools for people on Facebook”, the Menlo Park, California-based company said in an e-mail.
Masquerade’s work could also benefit Facebook’s research in facial recognition and other imaging technologies; it’s reported that Masquerade’s three founders will move into Facebook’s London office. Although Facebook boasts of a much demographically wider and larger user base than Snapchat, it still falls short when it comes to eye-catching features to hook in the young crowd. This is a scale of audience we never imagined was possible.
“While we will be partnering with Facebook to integrate our technology, the app will stay up and running so you’ll continue to record fun selfies and keep using the product”.
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But Masquerade is similar to Facebook rival Snapchat’s own filters, which became such a hit that Snapchat started charging for some of them past year.
