Snow is a trending app in China right now. However, its designs and features appear to have been ripped off from Snapchat.

Snow bears a striking resemblance to the image messaging and multimedia mobile app Snapchat, which is currently banned in China. Like the US-based app, Snow also has a slate of filters to choose from; could send short, self-destructing messages; and could transform people into animals, police officers, and other figures.

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Snow became an instant hit in Asia. It has been downloaded more than 30 million times after it made its debut in September 2015.

According to the Times, a spokesperson for Snow "acknowledged it was similar to Snapchat, but said Snow had unique features like video chat."

Snapchat, on the other hand, has refused to comment on the issue and declined to provide details about whether it has plans to pursue legal actions against Snow's parent company Naver.

Meanwhile, Ivy Zhou, a student at a university in Hong Kong, said that although Snapchat's social network is more vibrant than Snow, the South Korean version of Snapchat could somehow fill the gap for Chinese netizens since they cannot access Snapchat from the mainland.

Furthermore, "With the rise of China and China's infatuation with Korean culture, it's breathed new life into Korean start-ups and founders," Tim Chae, a partner at 500 Startups that focused on Korean start-ups, said.

"This is a market that happens to be a lot bigger than the U.S., that seems to be more welcoming for Korean technology and culture than the Western world ever was."

Currently, Snow is China's most downloaded photo/video app in Apple's Chinese version of the App Store. Furthermore, according to research firm App Annie, it ranked 19th on the most downloadable free app overall on the iPhone in China. Its Facebook page now has more than 1.2 million likes.

Tagssnow, snapchat, App, Smartphone Apps