Kapi Cam is a vintage digital camera app that turns your phone into a retro digicam. It comes with a bunch of retro-style filters and simple effects so people can capture their favorite throwback photos.
Built by a small Chinese team, the app launched on Google Play in January 2024 and on the App Store in March 2025.
Last month, Kapi Cam hit 1.3 million downloads across both platforms.
Right now, it sits inside the top 100 charts in dozens of countries.
A big reason for this is that they pulled in over 118 million views in the last 30 days with one Tiktok account and a worlwide influencer campaign.
Their TikTok account @kapi.cam, went fully viral in October and is still trending in November.
It posts fast edits of multiple attractive girls using the “retro” filter, paired with aesthetic songs that match the vibe.
Straight after that, they follow up with a short app demo that shows how to copy the exact camera effect.
One of the videos exploded:
“in another life i’m a baddie taking a low quality pic” -> 30.6M views on Oct 1
Since then, the account has kept using this same format and has landed several more viral videos in the last weeks.
The other strategy relies on paid partnerships with big beauty and fashion influencers. These collabs are doing insanely well, and they are working with creators in multiple languages.
For example, @rose_zzzzz posted a “retro chic vibe” photo tutorial that went crazy.
“How to turn normal light street photos into retro chic vibes” 39.2M views
This video shows how strong the demand is for a good “retro filter”, and how many Gen Z girls want to copy their favourite creators’ filters.
Paid collab videos have become their main user acquisition engine, and they are working pretty well.
Becoming a TikTok trendsetter is the quickest way to push your app into the mainstream.
Take a look at their collection on Shortimize: https://app.shortimize.com/c/2b10NBRDZfnV73
Leave a Reply