What is Zepeto?

Zepeto, an avatar-builder from South Korean app developer SNOW, is currently the number 1 social networking app in the iOS App Store. At least 1 million teens and tweens are using it to connect with friends and meet strangers using 3D avatars.
    This probably sounds familiar. If you were on the internet in the early to mid-2000s, chances are you used a desktop tool like Second Life, Meez, IMVU, or TizMe to create a virtual avatar, and more recently maybe you’ve made a Bitmoji on your smartphone. Zepeto has many of the same features that these tools had: users can customize their own outfits, hair styles, and virtual homes. They can also create "greetings"—which are basically like AIM away messages, but communicated through a combination of text and a gesture or dance move completed by your avatar. For instance, my greeting of choice is having my avatar say "Hi fellas" while flossing, sealed with a dab.
    But the main thing that distinguishes Zepeto from the avatar builders of yesterday is that it uses a facial recognition tool compatible with iOS to automatically render your face into a virtual 3D avatar which you can then customize. Zepeto also has a social component built into the app: by sharing a 6-digit personal code, you can "follow" your actual friends. That means Zepeto is also more than just an avatar-maker, which have existed since the beginning of time (the early 2000s) and other iOS avatar builders, like Bitmoji.
    When you "follow" someone on Zepeto, it mainly means you can see their avatars and virtual homes, as well as message them. And much like IMVU, users can also meet other users in a chatroom known as the "Zepeto Town Street" a virtual town square where random user avatars walk by and make eye contact with you. If an avatar seems interesting, you can tap on them, see their greeting, and follow them. Greetings often contain references to Fortnite. Similarly, people can use the "Discover" tool to swipe through cards of random Zepeto users.