In January 2021, China Mobile (Zhejiang) Innovation Research Institute Co., Ltd. (中国移动（浙江）创新研究院有限公司) was established in Hangzhou as part of a China Mobile–Zhejiang strategic push to industrialise 5G-era innovation, with an explicit emphasis on combining network capabilities with applied AI and industry-facing digital transformation work. From the outset, the institute’s function in Zhejiang was to act as a commercialisation bridge between core network infrastructure and demonstrable “front-stage” applications that enterprises and public-sector partners could deploy, which later made it a natural provincial anchor for embodied AI demonstration projects and media-facing immersive formats.
In May 2022, Tangde Film and Television Co., Ltd. (浙江唐德影视股份有限公司) signalled an early Zhejiang content-industry pathway into digital humans by publicly positioning “virtual humans” alongside metaverse and NFT concepts as priority areas for business exploration and prospective IP-derivative development. This mattered locally because it framed digital humans not only as a technology stack, but as an extensible commercial IP form that could be developed, licensed, and merchandised from within Zhejiang’s film-and-media production base.
In June 2022, FaceUnity (相芯科技) released an updated “virtual live ecommerce” product positioned for continuous or high-frequency livestream operations, packaging digital-human creation, visual customisation, and speech-driven performance into a tool sold as a brand-facing livestream capability rather than an experimental demo. Although customer deployments could occur anywhere, the release and vendor capability originated from Hangzhou, reinforcing Zhejiang’s role as a supplier region for production-grade digital-human livestream tooling that could be adopted across commerce ecosystems.
In July 2022, Pingzhi Information Technology Co., Ltd. (温州平之信息科技有限公司) operationalised a telco-facing Zhejiang use case by signing a virtual-digital-human cooperation arrangement with Zhejiang Mobile ’s Hangzhou branch, providing a named virtual digital person, Xiaopang Shuo Yun, to explain cloud-service content to customers under an initial “free trial, paid later” commercial model. This established an early pattern that reappeared in later Zhejiang deployments: a digital human presented as a recognisable quasi-employee used to standardise explanation, reduce marginal service cost, and scale customerfacing interactions without relying on continuous human staffing.
In November 2022, World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit in Wuzhen provided Zhejiang with a high-visibility venue where “metaverse” experiences were explicitly paired with rapid creation and display of 3D digital doubles and mixed-reality scenes that lowered the barrier to first-hand public encounters with digital-human-like representations. Even where demonstrations were framed as “experience stations” rather than specific product launches, the Wuzhen summit’s role inside Zhejiang was to normalise the idea that digital humans could move from studio production into on-site, walk-up interaction formats suitable for exhibitions, public-facing services, and technology marketing in the province.
In April 2023, Zhejiang Provincial Government General Office issued a consumption-and-qualitydevelopment policy package that directly named “digital-human virtual anchors” as a supported direction tied to livestream e-commerce growth, alongside the development of metaverse consumption scenarios and cross-border e-commerce plus livestream models. This was a structural inflection point for Zhejiang because it placed digital humans inside a provincial policy logic that treated livestreaming as an economic development lever, thereby legitimising digital-human anchors as a scalable production input for commerce rather than a novelty media effect.
In May 2023, Qianxun (Hangzhou) Holdings Co., Ltd. (谦寻（杭州）控股有限责任公司) advanced a Zhejiang-based commercialisation pathway by forming a Hangzhou joint venture, Hangzhou Qianyu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (杭州谦语智能科技有限公司), with Nanjing Silicon Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. (南京硅基智能科技有限公司) to pursue AI digital-human livestreaming as a productised service. While the market contest for digital-human livestreaming was national, the Zhejiang-specific significance was that one of the country’s most prominent livestream commerce operators rooted the next-stage toolchain for AI-hosted livestreaming inside Hangzhou corporate structures, indicating that digital humans were becoming an operational extension of Zhejiang’s conventional livestream supply-chain-and-operations model.
In September 2023, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Public Security pushed embodied “digitalperson” adoption into public-sector communications by putting two named AI digital police presenters, Zhe Xiaohua and Zhe Xiaoan, into production as on-screen anchors for short-form content aimed at scaling output and standardising presentation. In the same month, Faceunity’s digital-human deployment in Zhejiang Exhibition Hall placed a “digital guide” into the Hangzhou exhibition area of the Eight-Eight Strategy 20th-anniversary theme exhibition, embedding a digital human into a formal provincial exhibition narrative as a front-stage explainer rather than a background production tool.
In November 2023, the Wuzhen summit cycle again served as a Zhejiang showcase environment when Faceunity deployed digital-human explainers and cartoon-style digital-person guides to provide continuous exhibition guidance in on-site experience halls, demonstrating an operational pattern in which digital humans functioned as always-on interpreters for visitors. In the same month, Zhejiang’s most consequential “service-type” digital human entered wide public visibility when Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission and Ant Group (蚂蚁科技集团股份有限公司) introduced the province-wide digital health person Anzhener, presenting the character as an embodied white-coat digital persona used for guided, end-to-end patient journey support rather than as a text-only chatbot. In November 2023, the second Global Digital Trade Expo opened in Hangzhou, and the event’s interactive technology design included digital-human demonstrations that let visitors experience digital-person interaction as part of trade-facing “digital innovation” narratives. Even when the showcased digital-human exhibits were supplied by firms headquartered outside Zhejiang, the Zhejiang-specific role of the expo was to institutionalise digital humans as a core demonstration object for digital trade audiences in a province positioning itself as a convenor for cross-border digital commerce practice.
In March 2024, Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司) researchers reported FaceChain-ImagineID, a framework for generating high-fidelity, audio-consistent talking faces from disentangled audio, positioning audiodriven face animation as a scalable component for virtual portrait creation. Although the work was presented as a computer-vision contribution, its relevance to Zhejiang’s digital-human trajectory lay in strengthening the province’s locally anchored capacity (via Hangzhou-based corporate AI research) to supply core generative components that can underpin digital hosts, synthetic presenters, and other embodied digital-person formats used in advertising and media production.
In October 2024, Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Administration issued a livestream marketing compliance guidance that explicitly regulated the use of AI digital humans created through deep synthesis by requiring continuous, prominent identification where confusion with natural persons could occur and prohibiting technical removal or concealment of such labels. In the same month in Yiwu, the locally oriented Chinagoods trade ecosystem publicly highlighted an AI digital human, Xiaoshuang, as a multilingual guide capable of assisting international buyers and helping them locate goods and services, linking digital-human presentation directly to Zhejiang’s export-facing market infrastructure rather than to entertainment programming.
In December 2024, the Zhejiang Health Commission–Ant Group collaboration advanced from launch into system-level integration when Anzhener was upgraded to “Anzhener 2.0”, described as being built on Ant’s medical model capabilities and integrated with Zhejiang’s multi-level medical service offerings within Alipay and provincial digital-government channels. In the same month, Zhejiang Satellite TV and China Mobile Zhejiang Innovation Research Institute jointly presented “Xiaoyu Knows” as a holographic interactive device in the Wuzhen summit setting, using a stylised virtual persona, Gu Xiaoyu , to deliver interactive guidance and cultural content in an exhibition-grade format that could be transported beyond a single broadcast programme context.
In January 2025, China Post Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (中邮消费金融有限公司) introduced the digital-employee persona You Xiaobao as a virtual staff member designed for routine customer-facing finance scenarios, explicitly describing the character as a Zhejiang-linked co-development outcome with Zhejiang University. The Zhejiang-specific contribution here was not the geographic location of the financial institution itself, but the role of Zhejiang’s university research capacity in supplying embodied digitalperson R&D that could be packaged as a client-facing “employee” format for regulated-service environments such as consumer finance.
In April 2025, Longgang ’s local media programme Longgang News debuted the AI digital news anchor Long Xiaolu, describing the character as a high-fidelity digital counterpart to an existing host that replicated appearance, voice, and gesture to perform routine presenting tasks. This was a distinctively local Zhejiang milestone because it showed a county-level or city-level governmental media outlet adopting a digital human as an on-air production unit, extending digital-human adoption beyond flagship provincial communications and into municipal news workflows.
In June 2025, Zhejiang Mobile publicly demonstrated a multilingual AI digital-human commerce video application in Hangzhou that allowed merchants to generate multi-language product-pitch videos from minimal inputs, framing the tool as a response to high-burden, round-the-clock cross-border livestream demands associated with Zhejiang’s export-oriented merchant base, including Yiwu-scale sellers. The China Mobile Zhejiang Innovation Research Institute was described as supplying core technical leadership for this Zhejiang deployment, aligning telco R&D capacity with merchant-facing digitalhuman content production designed for overseas market reach.
In August 2025, Zhejiang held the “Zhijiang Net Clean 2025” press briefing on cyberspace law-based governance, presenting livestream marketing governance and the control of online misrepresentation as part of a province-level enforcement-and-compliance agenda. In practice, this strengthened the provincial backdrop for digital-human commerce because AI digital humans were increasingly treated as a category of “high-risk presentation” within livestream marketing environments where identity confusion and deep-synthesis misuse were governance targets, rather than being treated as a purely creative form.
In September 2025, Ningbo University Affiliated Kangning Hospital announced that Anzhener had been put into operational use for patient guidance workflows, describing the digital health person explicitly as a white-coat digital-human visual persona accessible through Alipay and driven through voice interaction for triage, navigation, and report interpretation. In the same month, Tekan (特看科技) released a “digital human livestreaming 4.0” upgrade framed around improved interaction and longerduration livestream performance, signalling that Hangzhou’s digital-human supply side continued to iterate specifically towards commerce-grade livestreaming as an applied end market.
In November 2025, the National Radio and Television Administration issued a public notice of proposed entries for the 2025 “typical audiovisual system” cases, and the list included the Zhejiang project “AI+ Variety XR Entertainment Large Space” with China Mobile Zhejiang Innovation Research Institute named as the lead unit. This represented a form of national-level typology recognition for a Zhejiang-led immersive media system that positioned a virtual persona as a functional component of an XR “large space” experience, rather than limiting digital humans to conventional studio broadcasting or short-form marketing.
In December 2025, Zhejiang Satellite TV’s public year-end account described a maturing internal AIGC production stack that explicitly included digital-human interaction as a production and distribution capability, positioning its virtual host IP as both a programme element and a portable interactive interface for offline immersive experiences. Within that same month, the broadcaster also described a VR large-space project co-developed with China Mobile Zhejiang Innovation Research Institute and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, framing the project as a Zhejiang-originated media-and-technology collaboration intended for interactive deployment rather than a one-off broadcast gimmick.
In January 2026, the Ministry-led selection process for “2025 metaverse typical cases” published a notice listing the Zhejiang-submitted “AI+ Variety XR Entertainment Large Space” with Zhejiang New Blue Network Media as the declared applicant, aligning Zhejiang’s broadcast-adjacent digital-human ecosystem with a national industrial classification of metaverse applications. In the same month, the National Radio and Television Administration published the final 2025 “typical audiovisual system” cases list, also including “AI+ Variety XR Entertainment Large Space” under Zhejiang with China Mobile Zhejiang Innovation Research Institute as the lead unit, creating a dual-track national validation pathway for a Zhejiang digital-human-plus-XR application pattern that spans both technology-industry and audiovisual-system typologies.
In February 2026, Zhejiang Online’s programme reporting described the use of Gu Xiaoyu as a virtualhost interface for a Yue Opera Spring Festival production segment that linked multiple opera repertoires through an AI-mediated presentation format, underscoring that digital humans in Zhejiang had become a production tool for bringing traditional culture into interactive broadcast grammar. In the same month, Zhejiang Satellite TV’s own reporting tied its VR large-space project to a December 2025 debut at SIGGRAPH Asia in Hong Kong, emphasising that the Zhejiang-built project had been presented in an external technical-cultural venue and that the digital human functioned as a guiding interface within the experience rather than as a decorative on-screen character.
[Feb 2026]
2025
May 18, 2025: Academic paper published examining virtual influencer Liu Ye Xi’s impact on art and reality through virtual technology.
May 6, 2025: Longgang city officially debuted AI news anchor “Long Xiaolu” on the “Longgang News” television program, modeled after real anchor Fang Lulu.
April 21, 2025: Long Xiaolu AI anchor launched on Longgang News program (referenced in May 6 post).
March 30, 2025: Ideal Technology showcased their customizable AI digital human solutions for businesses including virtual employees and customer service systems.
March 24, 2025: Manchester Metropolitan University partnered with Style3D (headquartered in Hangzhou) to launch Styleverse at Manchester Fashion Institute, providing AI-powered 3D design software with life-sized avatars.
February 28, 2025: Pairui Weihang (subsidiary of Zhejiang Wenhulian) partnered with Tencent Ads to develop 16 digital human advertising avatars for AI-driven marketing and e-commerce livestreaming.
February 17, 2025: Zhejiang Satellite TV’s virtual host Gu Xiaoyu received DeepSeek AI upgrade, enhancing her capabilities in understanding and emotional simulation for promoting Song Dynasty culture.
January 20, 2025: Zhejiang Fengwo IoT Technology Co., Ltd. filed a patent for an integrated method and system for constructing digital human persona, appearance, voice, and life trajectory.
January 5, 2025: China Postal Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. launched digital human employee “You Xiaobao,” co-developed with Zhejiang University, for various financial service scenarios.
2024
December 26, 2024: Researchers from Zhejiang University of Technology published a study on integrating AIGC technologies for commercial digital human video creation, focusing on applications from “Gu Xiaoyu” to Alibaba’s AYAYI.
December 21, 2024: Zhejiang Wenhu Internet’s “Paizhi” digital humans demonstrated significant commercial impact across industries through motion capture technology creating realistic digital performers.
December 18, 2024: Zhejiang Satellite TV’s digital human studio introduced “Xiaoyu Knows,” an AI-powered holographic interactive device featuring virtual human Gu Xiaoyu at the 2024 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen.
December 4, 2024: Sun Baigui, a Zhejiang University graduate and former Alibaba AI expert, presented FaceChain technology for advanced digital human development at GOSIM CHINA 2024.
November 25, 2024: Research from Lishui Vocational & Technical College in Zhejiang concluded that anthropomorphic features of virtual avatars significantly enhance online learning effectiveness.
November 21, 2024: Xiaoyu, a digital human in traditional Song Dynasty attire, was showcased as an AI-powered holographic interactive assistant capable of reciting classical poetry.
October 23, 2024: The 30th China Yiwu International Commodities Fair featured “Xiaoshuang,” a digital human launched by Yiwu International Trade City to assist global buyers with navigation and market guidance.
October 13, 2024: Multiple Zhejiang initiatives were highlighted including AI digital humans for large display interaction and cultural heritage preservation applications.
September 29, 2024: Zhejiang issued new regulations addressing AI digital humans in live streaming, requiring clear labels and banning unauthorized celebrity voice/image use.
September 29, 2024: Documentation of 2024 China Digital Human Application Scenarios included Zhejiang 12345 Citizen Hotline Digital Human as a smart customer service solution.
September 25, 2024: The First China Digital Human Conference was held in Beijing with significant participation from Zhejiang-based companies and researchers.
September 24, 2024: Virtual human influencer research from Zhejiang Vocational Academy of Art examined parasocial interactions with consumers in China’s live streaming commerce.
September 18, 2024: Archive documentation listed major digital human companies in Hangzhou including Ranmai Technology (creators of AYAYI) and Hangzhou Youchain Times Technology.
September 6, 2024: Bytedance collaborated with Zhejiang University to develop “Loopy,” an AI model creating lifelike animated portraits from audio input alone.
August 20, 2024: Shanghai Securities introduced a digital human employee, though this appears to reference Shanghai rather than Zhejiang specifically.
August 14, 2024: New Oriental Education & Technology Group expanded into digital human technology for education, including AI-powered digital teachers.
July 19, 2024: Shanghai Museum’s Ancient Egyptian Civilization Exhibition featured China’s first museum digital human AI guide, though this references Shanghai rather than Zhejiang.
July 16, 2024: Nine volunteer students from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University used digital character “AI Sisi” to teach intangible cultural heritage at Qianlu Primary School.
July 6, 2024: Zhejiang University researchers published findings on AI bot identity disclosure effects on social media engagement.
June 19, 2024: Haihuman Technology’s CEO Liu Gang led development of highly realistic and personalized AI virtual humans with real-time interaction capabilities.
May 11, 2024: The Qufu Three Confucius Sites scenic area launched an “AI tour guide” function as part of expanding digital human applications across China.
May 3, 2024: Dong Zilong at Alibaba’s Tongyi Laboratory in Hangzhou worked on 3D digital humans and XR algorithms as an algorithm scientist.
March 13, 2024: Alibaba Group collaborated with Zhejiang University and other institutions to develop “FaceChain-ImagineID” framework for creating diverse talking faces from audio.
March 2, 2024: Analysis discussed integration of digital humans with cultural transmission, highlighting successful use at the 14th National Winter Sports Games.
February 27, 2024: Tencent’s “Tan Yuan Project” launched at Zhangye Giant Buddha Temple featuring digital IP ambassador “Yun Zhuo” and virtual Silk Road costume interactions.
February 22, 2024: Qianxun (Hangzhou) Culture Media Co., Ltd. emerged as a significant player in digital humans, pivoting from traditional live broadcasting to digital person technology.
January 6, 2024: Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics introduced a digital human “Teacher Yao” created by retired professor Yao Jianrong for E-Commerce course instruction.
2023
December 17, 2023: “Hang Xiao Yi,” a virtual digital character created using AI and VR technologies, was featured in the “Discover Hangzhou” mini-program, telling the story of the historic “Da Ma Nong” district while dressed in a qipao and holding a paper umbrella.
December 6, 2023: Chinagoods AI Smart Service Platform introduced new AI technology in Yiwu that enables local business owners to interact with foreign traders in 36 languages and translate short videos into multiple languages including English, Arabic, and Spanish.
November 25, 2023: The second Global Digital Trade Expo was held in Hangzhou from November 23-27, showcasing “AI digital humans” across various industries with over a thousand digital trade companies participating.
November 24, 2023: Yizhi Intelligent Technology (founded in 2017 in Hangzhou) showcased digital avatars at the Global Digital Trade Expo that were indistinguishable from real humans, engaging in live selling and health education activities.
November 18, 2023: “Anzhen’er,” a digital health assistant, was launched to enhance patient care in Chinese hospitals, addressing medical resource shortages and serving the aging population.
November 11, 2023: Xiangxin Technology‘s AI-driven digital human guides were featured at the 2023 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, offering 24/7 services for e-commerce and news broadcasting scenarios.
October 12, 2023: Professor Zhou Xinyue from Zhejiang University published research on virtual digital humans in consumer marketing in collaboration with Hong Kong Polytechnic University, supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
September 13, 2023: Faceunity Digital Humans served as “digital narrators” for the Hangzhou exhibition area at the 20th anniversary celebration of the “Eight-Eight Strategy” at the Zhejiang Exhibition Hall.
September 10, 2023: Zhejiang’s Public Security Department introduced two AI virtual “digital police” anchors named Zhe Xiaohe and Zhe Xiaoan who shared traffic updates and anti-fraud knowledge, achieving billions of views within a day.
August 15, 2023: Xiangxin Technology (Faceunity) continued developing their “virtual digital human engine” specializing in AR video effects and computer graphics integrated with AI for Generation Z audiences.
August 9, 2023: China Telecom introduced “Xinyi,” a new generation hyper-realistic digital human, during their 2023 mid-term results presentation, where it hosted the entire performance and Q&A interaction.
July 25, 2023: Furen Intelligence continued operating as a technology firm blending AI and computer graphics to create virtual humans and metaverse applications with their HAI-Avatar cloud engine and PTA avatar system.
July 13, 2023: Data from Tianyancha showed over 687,000 existing businesses related to “digital humans” in China, with over 106,000 new registrations in the first half of 2023.
June 27, 2023: Zhongyin Fashion and Yaowang Technology launched a digital ecological industrial base in Wenzhou, with New Changyuan introducing real-time driven 3D digital human technology for live e-commerce.
May 24, 2023: Leading livestreamer Viya’s company established a joint venture with Silicon-based Technology, supported by Douyin, to venture into the digital human livestreaming market.
April 20, 2023: The Zhejiang Provincial Government Office issued “Several Measures on Further Expanding Consumption and Promoting High-quality Development” to support virtual human hosts, metaverse development, and e-commerce live streaming.
2022
December 11, 2022: Shandong Radio and Television Station initiated the establishment of “Shandong Radio and Television Metaverse Innovation Laboratory” in collaboration with Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University to create product development combining production, learning and research resources.
November 13, 2022: Wuzhen Summit featured a “Smart Experience Station” at the 2022 World Internet Conference focusing on metaverse concepts and applications of technical forms such as naked-eye 3D mixed reality.
September 1, 2022: Zhejiang exhibition area at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) opened in Beijing, set to amaze visitors with focused displays.
August 13, 2022: Virtual Digital Human TOP50 Ranking (Phase 2) was published, highlighting virtual digital humans as one of the hottest tracks in the domestic metaverse category.
July 14, 2022: 2022 virtual digital human business value potential TOP50 ranking was released, featuring companies like Baidu’s Du Xiaoxiao, burning wheat technology’s AYAYI, and others.
July 11, 2022: Pingzhi Information (300571.SZ) signed a virtual digital human cooperation agreement with Zhejiang Mobile to open post-paid model of virtual digital human business and cultivate the market.
June 24, 2022: Xiangxin Technology launched the 3.0 version of “virtual live broadcast with goods” amid the strong rise of brand self-broadcasting during the 618 shopping festival.
May 18, 2022: Tang De Film and Television (300426) planned to develop virtual human IP derivatives and actively deploy virtual human business while paying attention to emerging technologies like Metaverse and NFT.
April 16, 2022: Wangda Software (603189.SH) confirmed its commitment to AI scene-based capability construction and digital-intelligence products including digital virtual humans.
March 16, 2022: Discussion of Torsi-style “virtual human” with “soul” empowerment and continuous operation emerged following the success of virtual technologies at the Beijing Winter Olympics.