Ann Ding introduces the application Stampme to the market by employing artists to create digital versions of real life users. Photo provided to Shanghai Star

In a world of mass produced products, customized items are hotly sought after - even in the online world. Yu Ran reports.

Personalization is the new trend - even in the virtual world.

Ann Ding, who worked in Japan for nearly 10 years, has latched on to the demand for personalization by launching Me Inc with Stampme, a personalized animated emoji application for young people to customize their emojis when they use social media.

Ding noticed that there is a huge unexplored market among people in their early 20s, who have leisure and money and spend lots of time online.

"More young people are not satisfied with reading comic books or watching animation, they want to get involved with the animated space by having personalized animated characters," says Ding, who used to be an engineer.

A series of applications including Bookfaces (the former version of stampme) were introduced to the Japanese market in 2011 as a trial program by Ding, who was trying to test the waters.

It started simple. Bookfaces was an application that allowed users to get a customized animated portrait for about 300 yuan ($49). The users would upload their photos to the platform and professional painters designed personalized portraits.

It quickly gained popularity among Japanese users thanks to its simplicity.

After gaining experience painting portraits for people, Ding established the company in Beijing before moving back to Shanghai, her hometown, in 2013, which has a more mature animation culture.

"Since we moved from Beijing to Shanghai the company has transformed. We have been focusing on the development of Stampme, which now is the star application in our company," Ding says.

To add more personalized elements and attract more users, Stampme was launched in 2014 to be a customized dynamic emoji creator, a nod to the rise of animated GIFs in social networks.