A few years ago, after returning to Hong Kong from a fun family trip to Kagoshima, Larry Lam realized he wasn’t in any of the photographs. “It was a classic ‘dad’ problem because I was the one taking the photos! Worse still, the pictures were of poor quality,” he said.
It was then that Lam thought of creating an “Airbnb-like platform” where people could hire photographers and videographers. He brainstormed the idea with a former colleague, Peggy Cheung, who had encountered difficulties in finding a photographer for her destination wedding in Phuket.
And thus KaChick Ai Ltd was born. Established in 2017, KaChick – the name comes from the sound of the camera shutter sound – boasts over 15,000 professional creative partners in Asia, and also handles cross-border photo projects and video shoots based on clients’ needs.
When the company was launched, neither Lam nor Cheung was tech-savvy – both worked in compliance at the time. The duo ended up funding the venture with their own paychecks and assembled a team comprising students, freelancers and IT consultants.
“Nine months later, we launched our first iOS native app,” said Lam. “We thought people would use it. However, no one did. Photographers didn’t join either.”
By then, they had invested about HK$1 million. While the app did not work initially, the co-founders manually matched photographers and clients, and gradually started attracting business from corporates for events and marketing videos in Hong Kong and other Asian cities.
The turning point came in 2018, when KaChick was admitted into Cyberport’s Incubation Program. At that time, Cathay Pacific launched the Ignition Program, inviting new start-up ideas to elevate customer experience. KaChick’s proposal was to send out an invite to customers after they had booked flights, offering local photography experiences. The scheme would enable hyper-personalized, AI-powered recommendations for customers based on demographics and preferences, bringing the airline additional revenue and potentially increasing engagement and sales.
“For instance, a family who visited Okinawa and hired a photographer for beach photos could receive AI recommendations for their next vacation. For future trips, Cathay Pacific could suggest Bali with family-friendly beach resorts and snorkelling lessons for children,” he explained. “We won the competition and got a chance to create a proof of concept at the end of 2019.”
Then the pandemic struck and, like many other local start-ups, KaChick’s future suddenly seemed uncertain.
“When Covid hit, no one ever thought that people wouldn’t be able to travel or that borders would be shut down,” reminisced Lam. “We had serious discussions about whether we should go on as we did not know when the outbreak would end. However, we decided to continue and went on to build Gump, an AI photo hub.”
Launched in May 2020, Gump was shared with photographers as an alternative to Google Drive. A Cloud-based platform, it offers all-in-one photo review and proofing features. “The upload speed is 5x faster than Google Drive (after some tuning),” claims Lam.
By mid-2021, KaChick had discovered what Lam calls “the secret sauce” for growth: KOL photographers across Asian destinations like Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand, who were duly appointed as the company’s brand ambassadors.
“Now, we have 15,000 photographers in our community, with 2 million customers and 60 million photos already shared,” said Lam. In 2023, an AI Face Finder was added to Gump, which helped people attending events find their photos using a self-portrait in mere seconds.
Today, KaChick has become the go-to partner for top brands looking to create high-quality visual content in Asia, including LVMH, Dior, Gucci, Shiseido and Clarins, among others. Its facial recognition technology supports business events and conferences, and has been adopted by institutions such as Cyberport, HKUST, Marriott International, etc. KaChick has also been the technovation partner of Cyberport’s flagship Digital Economy Summit for two consecutive years.
“We believe that in the future, planning for life’s important events will move beyond traditional searches on platforms like Google or social media,” said Lam. “Instead, users will receive timely and location-specific personalized recommendations based on their past events. By analyzing factors like personal preferences, relationship dynamics, and previous special occasions, we can suggest ideas for events, experiences, or gifts that perfectly complement upcoming milestones and celebrations.”
Through the company’s Chamber membership, Lam hopes to forge new partnerships with corporates, from airlines to travel booking platforms. “We invite partners to join us in shaping a future where marketing is not only more intuitive but also more effective.”
KaChick Ai Ltd
HKGCC Membership No.：HKK0524
Established：2017
Website：www.kachick.com