Beauty obsession drives $3bn selfie app Meitu

China’s love affair with physical beauty is fuelling a selfie-editing app’s valuation of $3bn (€2.63bn).

Meitu is shooting for at least that much in its latest funding round, according to sources, a target that would make it one of China’s 10 largest private start-ups and eclipse household-names, like Yelp.

It is banking on China’s preoccupation with ideals of comeliness, a passion that has inspired countless internet memes and a surge in cosmetic surgery.