Israeli app rocks selfie world
Lightricks’ wildly popular Facetune app receives warm welcome at RuPaul’s DragCon LA 2018
Nobody has mastered the art of the selfie like top drag queens. Some queens base entire careers on their uncanny abilities to snap the best possible shots of themselves and sprinkle them over the Internet. Now selfie-savvy queens like the stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race have a new best friend: breakthrough Israeli application Facetune.
Lightricks, the Israeli firm behind the app, traveled to RuPaul’s DragCon in May to mingle with some of the world’s top drag superstars and show what their application can do to show off every type of face.
DragCon, the largest drag queen convention on Earth and a companion happening for hit American reality show Ru Paul’s Drag Race, draws thousands of industry bigwigs and fans alike for three days of exhibits, lectures, presentations, workshops and panels related to all things drag, LGBTQ culture, makeup, style and more.
Lightricks – the only company representing Israel at the show – sponsored postevent drag shows, took part in a panel and welcomed hundreds of fans to their booth, where they partnered with much-loved season 10 Drag Race queens Aquaria, Kameron Michaels and Asia O’Hara. At the booth, fans could take part in a photo shoot with the queens, have their self-portraits edited with Facetune, get advice on editing selfies and compete in a competition for the best-edited selfie. Finalists were judged by Ginger Minj and the winner received a $500 cash prize.
Facetune and its sequel, Facetune 2, have more than 40 million users. In the US, Facetune has pretty much become synonymous with photo editing. Many fans did not realize that Facetune originated in Israel, but the reception was warm.
“People were surprised and impressed that such a big brand like Facetune actually comes from a startup all the way in Jerusalem, Israel,” Lightricks’ social media head Stav Tishler told The Jerusalem Post. “We went to meet Michelle Visage, who is RuPaul’s right-hand woman, and when we introduced ourselves, she heard the accent, asked if we were French, and when we said we’re Israeli she responded ‘oh, mishpucha [family]’, then mentioned that her daughter is going on Birthright next summer.”
“We met one other Israeli drag queen [who is] now in LA. And running into an Israeli queen there that’s part of the community really did feel just like that – running into family,” Tishler added.
“It was a great experience for our team – when you build and design a product in your Givat Ram office in Jerusalem you don’t fully understand the impact you have out in the world, until you’re at a huge conference in LA and all these people know and love your app. It’s a great feeling.”
Lightricks cofounder and CEO Dr. Zeev Farbman said: “Participating in DragCon was very important to us. You wouldn’t normally expect to see a hi-tech company at a conference like this, but our presence there is in line with our company culture and values, emphasizing fun, diversity and acceptance.”
Although Lightricks has not yet worked specifically with the drag community in Israel, “We do support LGBTQ culture,” Tishler stated. “We’re sponsoring the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade this year, specifically the entire opening event on June 26th, and we also will have a photo booth at the parade itself on August 2nd. We also have a big dream to bring some of the most famous Jewish queens for a trip around Jerusalem to tour our offices and learn where and how Facetune was born, to get their feedback on our apps face-toface, and to get a different impression of Israeli culture than what they’re hearing in the news.”