A sticker app with 1.12M installs and nothing new: how a Vietnamese tools studio pushed an old feature to No. 1 in Italy
What it is An Android tool app that cuts out selfies and pet photos, adds text, and turns them into WhatsApp stickers and memes.
Why it took off The Vietnamese publisher behind it started buying installs in early October, targeting countries like Italy, Hong Kong, and Germany where category charts are easy to climb and ad CPMs are high. After reaching No. 1 in the personalization chart, the exposure brought more organic installs. Money comes from rewarded video ads shown before downloading stickers.
CHow you could follow it Don't copy the product; copy the playbook: ship the same feature in several packages, test on a small budget, scale up once it clears the threshold, and pick countries with low entry barriers and high ad rates to climb category charts. If you do make stickers, build what the system can't do, like AI-generating a full set of styled stickers.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-08-22 · 11-07 installs 1,120,553
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.Android · Ratings count (cumulative) Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
October 17, an Italian user gave Sticker Maker & Funny Emoji 5 stars, writing: "Nice, but downloading stickers means watching too many ads… it kills the mood." Giving 5 stars while complaining about ads, this review pretty much sums up the app: an ordinary product, users who were bought, and money made from ads. Listed in Aug 22, by Nov 6 Google Play showed 1.12M installs. It didn't break out because of anything new; a Vietnamese publisher is pushing it.
What it is
A sticker-making tool on Android: pick a selfie or pet photo from your gallery, auto cut-out, add text, emoji, and borders, then package it as WhatsApp stickers to send. The store listing says "turn your selfies, pet photos, and favorite moments into fun custom stickers," with hundreds of ready templates: "birthday, confession, funny emoji, just put your face in."
Sticker.ly and Viko's Sticker maker had these features 2019 years ago, and WhatsApp and iOS now also cut out subjects for stickers natively. Even the package name is built around search terms: com.sticker.maker.emojifun.wastickers, titled "Sticker Maker & Funny Emoji," with "Sticker Maker" repeated again and again in the description.
How it suddenly took off
The install curve makes the surge day very clear:
| Timeline | Cumulative installs (Google Play) |
|---|---|
| 9-11 | About 1,500 |
| 9-24 | About 21.5k |
| 10-09 | About 506k |
| 10-31 | Passed 1M |
| 11-06 | 1.12M |
For the first month after launch it had only a few hundred to about a thousand installs a day. Late September to early October, daily adds suddenly jumped past 10,000, with the peak in early October. The store version has stayed at 1.0.1, and the update date is 10-04, matching the surge timing. In the last 8 days (10-29 to 11-06) it added another 181k, averaging over 20k a day.
This is the common rhythm of paid acquisition: release a bit of volume to test retention and ad revenue, then once the numbers clear the threshold, add budget all at once. Inference, with no direct evidence of which channels it bought, but there is plenty of circumstantial support:
- Lots of installs, few people speaking up. 8 days, 180k new installs, only 280 more ratings, about 10 ratings per 15k installs; to date only 7 reviews with text. Apps built by word of mouth don't stay this quiet.
- Reviews are almost all in Italian. "bellissima app," "Bellissima," and a one-star review: "Hard to install, downloaded then had to uninstall." When users concentrate in one country, the money usually went into that country.
- You can't find it on social platforms. Searching "sticker maker" on TikTok and X over the last 30 days turned up nothing related to it, and there's no media coverage at all.
Why Italy and Hong Kong
It climbed not the overall chart but the Google Play "Personalization" category free chart: 11-06 ranked #1 in Italy and Hong Kong, #3 in Germany and Canada, #4 in Thailand, #5 in Singapore, charting in 27 countries in total (Google Play category charts, 11-06). Its best in the US was #24, in the UK #28; India, Japan, and Korea ranked below #120. Its best overall ranking was #149, and it never entered the Top Grossing chart.
The choice is shrewd. Competition in the personalization category is light in these countries, so a few thousand installs a day gets you near the top; ranking near the top brings store exposure and "similar apps" recommendations, plus some free traffic. Meanwhile ad rates in Italy, Germany, and Canada are high: a user watching one rewarded video pays the developer several times what they would in India, which makes the acquisition cost worth it.
Where the money comes from
It's free to download, shows ads on open, and requires watching a rewarded video before downloading template stickers, which is exactly what the Italian user complained about. There are also $2.99–7.99 in-app purchases, likely for ad removal and premium templates. Its ad monetization is wide-ranging: the developer site's authorized ad sellers list (app-ads.txt) has 3,294 lines, with Google, AppLovin, Mintegral, Unity, Pangle, and a long list of programmatic exchanges all connected.
A third-party data site estimates its October revenue at under $5,000, but the same site's download estimates are well below the store's actual figures, so treat it as a reference only. Whether it's profitable can't be seen from outside.
Who's behind it
The developer is SHINK COMPANY, with a personal Gmail as contact, but the developer website is lutech.vn, belonging to Lutech Digital in Da Nang, Vietnam, which describes itself as "investing in, developing, and publishing apps, games, and e-commerce." At least 10 Google Play accounts list lutech.vn as their developer website, including BG.Studio, TextSoft.Studio, and ZAppsolution, with over 120M installs combined, all tools like emoji keyboards, battery icon skins, and IPTV players.
SHINK COMPANY has six to eight apps of its own. On Aug 22 it published two on the same day: Emoji Battery: Icons & Pets (now 2.03M installs) and this sticker app. The same account also has "Sticker Maker: Custom Stickers," with the same function under a different package name, with over 1M installs; another account in the same group, TNGlobalSolution, published "Sticker Maker: DIY Stickers" in June, which reached only 160k and didn't take off. The parent company itself runs TikTok ads: 11-04 has 192 live ads, targeting 29 European countries, promoting its sibling emoji battery app (TikTok ad library, 11-04).
So the playbook is: the same function listed repeatedly across several accounts and package names, with budget added to whichever performs best. This sticker app is the one that won this round.
Who it's competing with
| Product | Scale | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Sticker.ly(Naver Z) | 342M installs, +488k in 7 days | Community-driven sticker packs with large user uploads make it a legitimate product |
| Sticker maker(Viko & Co) | 204M installs | A 2018-year-old established app with the same function and strong search weight |
| Personal stickers and other old-school tools | 45M–90M | Same function, catching long-tail search |
| Romantic Stickers and other WAStickers packs | single apps 1M–8.5M | Sells ready-made sticker packs. Also paid acquisition, targeting India, Nigeria and the Middle East |
| WhatsApp's built-in sticker maker and iOS Live Stickers | System level | Free, no separate app to install |
It was itself a copycat entry. At the same time, a batch of tool shops making sticker packs and emoji battery apps were buying the same traffic.
If it were you
Verdict: What this app teaches is the playbook, not the product. The sticker-tool function is already free from the OS. To copy it, your rival is a tool shop like Lutech that runs a dozen accounts at once. Without their paid-acquisition team and monetization machine, you probably can't win.
Who it's for: Teams already running overseas tool apps, with paid acquisition and ad monetization experience and a few developer accounts. You can take the play of "pick a country with a low-bar category chart and high ad CPMs, then push to the top" and apply it to your own category.
Who it's not for: Solo indie devs hoping to build a standalone product on one new idea, and anyone who has never run ads or relies on store search or organic social reach. There's no technical moat here, and no content to tell a story with.
How to do it: Don't copy a sticker tool as-is. If you want into stickers, build what the built-in features can't do: for example, use AI to turn photos into a full set of style-consistent emoji packs (cartoonized, pet stickers), or ship ready-made content packs for one language or audience. For the playbook, follow this one: run two or three packs on the same function, test with a small budget, and only add spend once retention and per-user ad revenue clear the bar.
How to acquire users: Google App Campaigns plus mainstream ad networks. Start with Italy, Germany, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore: easy to climb the category charts and high ad CPMs. Monetize with rewarded video to unlock content, and take bids from all networks. Don't cram in too many ads. One Italian user already said "the ads kill the mood."
Timing: This playbook has no time window. You can run it any time, and plenty of people already are. Sticker demand is steady year-round, and template content sells better around holidays (Christmas, Valentine's Day).
Signs you've misread it: (1) After it stops buying traffic, installs keep growing steadily, reviews start piling up, and TikTok users post about it organically. That means the product has real substance and we underestimated it. (2) It or similar apps reach the Top Grossing charts in European countries, showing in-app purchases make money, not just the ad business. Redo the math. (3) The reverse: if December daily installs fall to a few hundred, or Lutech relaunches the same function under a new package name, that confirms it was just one round of paid acquisition.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Sticker.ly(Naver Z) Android 2019-04 Play 342M installs, +488k in 7 days Has community and user-uploaded sticker packs, a real product. The tool shell is just the wrapper. Sticker maker(Viko & Co) Android 2018-11 204M installs An older app with the same function. Stronger brand and search weight. It relies on new packs plus paid acquisition. Personal stickers / TextSticker (MEME Studio, etc.) Android 2019 45M–90M installs An older app with the same function, living off search traffic Romantic Stickers and the WAStickers family (Exdev Apps, Stickorax, Future Sole) Android 2026 Single apps 1M–8.5M, 7 days +100k–900k Sells ready-made sticker packs, not its own. Targets the messaging category and India, Nigeria and the Middle East. The play is still paid acquisition. Sticker Maker: DIY Stickers (TNGlobalSolution, also Lutech) Android 2026-06 160k installs Another account from the same publisher, same function, didn't take off WhatsApp's built-in sticker maker / iOS Live Stickers / Telegram sticker editor Big-company features 2023–2024 (unverified) System level Free, zero friction, no separate app needed. It has more templates and emoji decorations. - Where users come from
- Inferred Paid acquisition (Google App Campaigns / ad networks, inferred): After 10-04 shipped on 1.0.1, daily installs jumped from about 1k to 14k–180k. About 15 ratings per 10,000 installs, 7 written reviews in total. Charting concentrated in IT/DE/FR/CA/HK/SG. app-ads.txt lists Google, AppLovin, Mintegral, Unity and others.
- Inferred TikTok ads (parent company Lutech): tiktokads lists LUTECH SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED running 192 ads, targeting 29 European countries, with Ecomdy Media as the placing agency. The ads matching the package names were for sister apps (emoji battery, spoken-language apps). None matched this sticker app.
- Confirmed Organic installs from category-chart climbs: #1 on the PERSONALIZATION free chart in Italy and Hong Kong, #2 in Germany, and charted in 26 more countries (chart_rank 10-29 to 11-06)
- Confirmed Store search ASO: Title is Sticker Maker & Funny Emoji, package name contains wastickers, description repeats keywords
- Inferred Organic content on TikTok / X: TikHub and x-radar found no related content in the last 30 days
Why Sticker Maker & Funny Emoji (com.sticker.maker.emojifun.wastickers) took off
Channel: Google Play · Developer account SHINK COMPANY (developer site lutech.vn, behind it Lutech Digital in Da Nang, Vietnam) · Store launch 2026-08-22 · Research date 2026-11-06
Bottom line
The product itself has no differentiation. It's a standard "photo cutout to sticker" tool, published from a shell developer account (SHINK COMPANY) by Lutech Digital, a Vietnamese tool-app publisher. It took off because of the publisher's traffic machine: 2026-10-04 shipped 1.0.1 versions. Installs jumped from several thousand a day to tens of thousands almost overnight, mostly bought in European Tier-1 markets and Southeast Asia, and it climbed to #1 on low-bar "personalization" free charts in Italy and Hong Kong. Revenue comes from ads (rewarded video to unlock stickers, plus programmatic bidding across 3000 networks listed in app-ads.txt), plus $2.99–7.99 in in-app purchases. This playbook is copyable. It isn't a product idea.
1. Data (our googleplay database, 2026-10-29 to 11-06)
- Total installs: 939,526 (10-29) → 1,120,553 (11-06), up about 181k over 8 days, roughly 23k a day (app_day / app_profile).
- Install curve (app_day_ext, history filled in from AppstoreSpy): 9-11 cumulative 1,519; by 9-24 only 21.5k; daily installs jumped to 14k starting 9-30, with 10-03 to 10-08 as the peak (averaging 180k a day during 10-08); 10-09 cumulative 506k; 10-31 cumulative 1M.
- Version: stayed at 1.0.1, store update dated 2026-10-04 (app_snap). The volume surge started right with this update, a classic "small test first, then add budget once retention and eCPM clear the bar."
- Ratings: 1,933 → only 2,213,8 more in 280 days; roughly 10 ratings per 15k new installs, and only 7 reviews with text in total (app_snap.written_reviews). Rating 4.42. Almost all reviews are in Italian, one reading "Very pretty, but downloading stickers means watching too many ads… it kills the mood" (it, 10-17). High installs, almost no engagement, reviews concentrated in the targeted country: that looks like paid user acquisition, not word of mouth or organic traffic.
- Charts (chart_rank, from 10-29): On PERSONALIZATION free charts in 29 countries. #1 in Italy and Hong Kong, #2 in Germany, #3 in Thailand, Canada and France, #5 in Singapore. Best in the US was #24, UK #28. India, Japan and Korea ranked below #120. Its best overall-chart rank in any store was #149, and it never charted on any Top Grossing list.
- Monetization: ad_supported = true, in-app purchases $2.99–7.99. AppGazers estimates 104k–488k downloads in October and revenue under $5K (model estimate, with download ranges well below store counts).
2. Who's behind it: one publisher, many shell accounts
- SHINK COMPANY's developer site is
https://lutech.vn/app-ads.txt, with a personal Gmail as contact. lutech.vn = Lutech Digital (LUTECH SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED), based in Da Nang. Its self-description: "investing in and developing mobile apps, games, e-commerce and publishing" (lutech.vn/en/about; LinkedIn: "creating, publishing, and scaling digital products from Vietnam to the world"). - At least 10 developer accounts in our database also list lutech.vn as their developer site: BG.Studio (34.9M installs, top app Emoji Font Keyboard), TextSoft.Studio (30.2M, IPTV Player), ZAppsolution (29.9M, Emoji Battery Icon Customize 12.7M), Tools for Everyday - AI Tasks (11.4M), Enable Startup, SHINK COMPANY (3.89M), JoyNest Studio, TNGlobalSolution.Ltd, iClick Education, TOMODEV JSC… Together, more than 120M installs (googleplay.app, summed by developer_domain).
- SHINK COMPANY has 6 to 8 apps (6 in our database, 8 per AppGazers): 2026-08-22 launched Emoji Battery: Icons & Pets (2.03M) and this sticker app on the same day. Others include Origami (600k), Emoji Keyboard, AI Football Score Prediction, DMV Permit and Holy Bible. Another app on the same account, "Sticker Maker: Custom Stickers" (com.sickermaker.stickify.stickerapp, 1M+, per AppBrain), is the same function under a different package. Within the Lutech group, TNGlobalSolution also has "Sticker Maker: DIY Stickers" (com.asianmobile.stickermaker, 160k). The same function gets launched again and again across accounts and package names, and whichever one takes off gets the budget. That's the playbook.
3. Where users came from (growth tactics)
| Channel | Evidence | Confirmed? |
|---|---|---|
| Paid acquisition (Google App Campaigns / ad-network traffic swaps) | Within a day of 10-04 shipping, daily installs jumped from about 1k to 14k–180k. About 15 ratings and 7 written reviews per 10,000 installs. Charting concentrated in high-CPM countries with low-bar category charts, such as IT, DE, FR, ES, CA, HK and SG. app-ads.txt (lutech.vn/app-ads.txt) lists Google, AppLovin, Mintegral, Unity, Vungle, Liftoff, Pangle, Bigo and others. | Strong signals, but the specific channel wasn't confirmed (this app isn't in the Google ad library). |
| TikTok ads (parent company) | The TikTok ad library lists LUTECH SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED (Vietnam) running 192 ads now, targeting 29 European countries, starting 2025-09-01, with Ecomdy Media (Vietnam) as the placing agency. The ads that match package names are for sister apps: emoji battery and spoken-language apps. The creative copy reads "Cute emoji battery characters" and "Football emoji battery" (tiktokads.advertiser / ad, 2026-11-03 to 11-04). | The parent company's spend is confirmed. Whether this sticker app itself ran ads isn't verified. |
| Organic installs from category charts | After reaching #1 on the IT/HK personalization charts, store category charts and "similar apps" recommendations added tailwind. | Inferred |
| Store search (ASO) | Title "Sticker Maker & Funny Emoji"; package name stuffs in wastickers; description repeats "Sticker Maker" many times | Keyword layout confirmed; the traffic it brings is unverified |
| Organic content on TikTok / X / Reddit | TikHub search for "sticker maker app" and "sticker maker funny emoji" found nothing related to it in the past 30 days; x-radar shows 0 posts mentioning "sticker maker" in the past 30 days | None |
| Media, celebrities, Product Hunt | No coverage found | None |
Where the money comes from: free to download, with interstitial and native ads from the first open. Downloading template stickers requires watching rewarded video (confirmed by user reviews from Italy). Programmatic bidding is fully wired up (app-ads.txt has 3,294 lines: PubMatic, Rubicon, Unruly, Smart, AppNexus, InMobi…), plus $2.99–7.99 in-app purchases for ad removal / premium. Ad eCPMs in Tier-1 Europe are high, which is why they're willing to buy traffic there. Whether it actually pays back is unverified.
4. Competitors
| Product | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sticker.ly(Naver Z) | iOS / Android | 2019-04 | 342M installs on Play; +488k in 7 days; #6 in Brazil's Communication Top Grossing | Has a community and a huge library of user-uploaded sticker packs, so it's a real product. SHINK is just a tool shell. |
| Sticker maker(Viko & Co) | Android / iOS | 2018-11 | 204M installs | Veteran WhatsApp sticker maker with stronger brand and search weight |
| Personal stickers / TextSticker (MEME Studio, etc.) | Android | 2019 | 45M–90M | Same features, and the older app wins on search |
| Romantic Stickers and WAStickers-type apps (Exdev Apps, Stickorax, Future Sole) | Android | Batch-launched in 2026 | Single apps 1M–8.5M, 7 days +100k–900k | Ready-made sticker packs, not self-made. Same playbook of tool-factory paid acquisition to chase charts, but aimed at the Communication category and India, Nigeria, and the Middle East. |
| Neku / StickTok(Neku Avatar Studio) | Android | 2022 | 8M–27M | Focus on character / animated stickers |
| Sticker Maker: DIY Stickers (TNGlobalSolution, also Lutech) | Android | 2026-06 | 160k | Another account from the same publisher, same function, didn't take off |
| Sticker Maker: Custom Stickers(SHINK,com.sickermaker.stickify) | Android | Not verified | 1M+ (AppBrain) | Sister packs under the same account |
| WhatsApp's built-in sticker creation, iOS 17's Live Stickers (long-press to cut out), the Telegram sticker editor, and Gboard Emoji Kitchen | Big-company features | 2023–2024 (from memory, unverified) | System level | Free with zero barrier, which makes it harder for standalone sticker tools to differentiate |
5. Why it took off
- Publisher-scale paid acquisition: the Lutech setup runs 10 accounts and 120M+ installs, with an in-house paid team, outsourced buying (Ecomdy), and an ad monetization stack. This app is one of a pair launched the same day, and it scaled once it cleared the test threshold (10-04 release, scaled from 10-03).
- Picked low-barrier categories and countries: the Play PERSONALIZATION category in Italy, Hong Kong, Germany, and similar countries can reach the top few with a few thousand installs a day. Chart placement brings visibility, which in turn makes paid acquisition more efficient.
- Steady category demand, heavy store search: WhatsApp sticker and cutout-sticker searches are evergreen, and the title and package name are packed with keywords (Sticker Maker, Funny Emoji, wastickers).
- Ad-funded, no need to prove willingness to pay: rewarded video unlocks stickers + full bidding stack. High European eCPMs support the cost of paid acquisition, and it can make money without ever reaching the grossing charts.
6. Differentiation
Functionally there's almost nothing unique: cutouts, text, emoji, borders, and templates are the same as Sticker.ly, Viko's Sticker maker, and WhatsApp's built-in features, and even the other two sticker apps in its own portfolio. What actually sets it apart is distribution: a new package name, a new account, featured placement in Tier-1 / Southeast Asia category charts, and publisher-level budget and monetization stack. So the reason it's running isn't "what it is," it's "who's pushing it."
7. Visibility and copycats
- Revenue isn't public, and there are no media, X, or Reddit discussions. Only a modeled estimate on a data site like AppGazers. Almost nobody knows this specific app, but the playbook of "Vietnamese tool factory makes emoji / sticker / battery skin apps and batch-buys installs to chase personalization charts" is common in the industry, and competitors are crowded in.
- Copycats: it is itself a copycat. Other paid-acquisition players in the same period include Exdev, Stickorax, and Future Sole's WASticker packs; STARVIA's Battery Emoji Buddies (Lutech ran its TikTok ads); and TNGlobalSolution's sticker app within the same portfolio.
8. What to borrow
- The combination of "one function, multiple packages, multiple accounts, same-day launch, and add budget once the data clears the bar";
- Buy traffic in countries with low chart barriers and high eCPM (IT/DE/FR/HK/SG), and trade chart placement for organic installs;
- Ad monetization: rewarded video unlocks content + full programmatic bidding, not reliant on subscriptions.
- Looking at it the other way: if you want to build a sticker tool, pure features offer no moat. To differentiate you need content, community, or AI-generation capability.
9. Still unclear
- The specific paid-acquisition channels (how much Google UAC, AppLovin, and Mintegral each account for) and unit costs; whether this app itself runs on Meta / TikTok (the parent company runs TikTok ads, which doesn't match this package name).
- Whether it pays back and how retention looks. AppGazers' download estimates are well below store counts, so the revenue estimate of < $5K/month is only a reference.
- Whether SHINK COMPANY is Lutech's own account or a studio partner (the email is a personal Gmail; all we know is the developer site points to lutech.vn).
- The store launch date 2026-08-22 may have been reset.
Sources
- Our libraries: googleplay (app / app_profile / app_day / app_day_ext / app_snap / chart_rank / review, 2026-10-29 to 11-06), tiktokads (advertiser / ad, 2026-11-04), googleads (no records), metaads (no records).
- lutech.vn/en/about; lutech.vn/app-ads.txt (crawled 2026-11-06, 3,294 lines); www.linkedin.com/company/lutech-digital
- appgazers.com/reports/developers/android-SHINK+COMPANY(2026-11-06)
- www.appbrain.com/app/sticker-maker-custom-stickers/com.sicke…
- TikHub searched TikTok (2026-11-06), x-radar searched (past 30 days, 0 posts)