Zhejiang Digital Human Timeline

In March 2016, the groundwork for Zhejiang's digital human industry was laid when FaceUnity (杭州相芯科技有限公司) was formally registered in Hangzhou's Binjiang District. Founded by computer graphics researchers affiliated with Zhejiang University and led by Professor Zhou Kun (周昆), the company concentrated initially on three-dimensional face tracking, augmented reality video effects software development kits, and automated avatar generation — technical capacities that would prove foundational to the province's digital human production sector in the years ahead.

The institutional ecosystem around Hangzhou expanded steadily through 2017. In August, Yizhi Intelligent Technology (杭州一知智能科技有限公司) was founded in Hangzhou's Xiaoshan District by alumni of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Zhejiang University AI laboratories, with a focus on natural language processing, human-machine voice interaction, and intelligent marketing applications. The following month, NetEase (网易) established what was described as China's first dedicated game AI research institution, the NetEase Fuxi AI Lab (网易伏羲实验室), at its headquarters in Hangzhou's Binjiang District, with virtual human research integrated alongside reinforcement learning, natural language processing, and image and animation technology as the lab's core directions. In October, Alibaba founded its global research arm, the Alibaba DAMO Academy (阿里巴巴达摩院), with a Hangzhou entity registered the following month; the academy would later develop an extended reality laboratory that pursued virtual human research in three-dimensional face and body reconstruction and cross-modal character driving.

In May 2018, FaceUnity completed a ¥120 million Series A funding round, by which point its software development kits were serving approximately 200 corporate clients and generating more than 200 million monthly calls. Its key product at that stage was a Photo-to-Avatar system capable of generating three-dimensional virtual avatars from single photographs. In July, the Onmyoji (阴阳师) game IP operated by NetEase extended into virtual idol territory when the character Datengou (大天狗) performed an original song using real-time animation at the Bilibili Macro Link event in Shanghai — an initiative by a Hangzhou-headquartered company conducted outside Zhejiang. In November, FaceUnity and Zhejiang University co-established the ZJU-FaceUnity Joint Laboratory of Intelligent Graphics (浙江大学-相芯科技智能图形计算联合实验室) in Hangzhou, directed by Professor Zhou Kun and focused on the convergence of extended reality technology, digital human research, and artificial intelligence with computer graphics.

Research collaboration extended further in early 2019 when, in February, Yizhi Intelligent Technology and Zhejiang University established the ZJU-Yizhi Artificial Intelligence Joint Research Center (浙大·一知人工智能联合研究中心) in Hangzhou. In May, the Fuxi Lab supported a virtual character exploration for NetEase's mobile game Qiannu Youhun (倩女幽魂), though the associated product launch occurred outside Zhejiang. During the northern summer, FaceUnity exhibited its cloud AI avatar generator and Photo-to-Avatar technology at SIGGRAPH 2019 in Los Angeles, demonstrating Zhejiang-developed capabilities on an international stage beyond the province. In the second half of 2019, an independent six-person team based in Zhejiang created Pianpian (翩翩), a hyper-realistic virtual character whose verisimilitude was reportedly sufficient to mislead Douyin talent agencies into believing she was a real person — one of China's earliest documented hyper-realistic virtual human projects, developed entirely within the province. In October, Qianxun Holdings (谦寻（杭州）控股有限责任公司), the Hangzhou Binjiang-based holding company behind top livestream host Viya (薇娅), was formally established, anchoring one of China's most commercially significant livestreaming operations in Zhejiang. Toward the end of the year, researchers from the ZJU-FaceUnity Joint Lab published papers at SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 on rendering and facial animation, contributing to international computer graphics literature from a Zhejiang institutional base while presenting outside the province.

In the first half of 2020, NetEase's Onmyoji virtual character Yamausagi (山兔) conducted livestream commerce on the Tmall (天猫) platform during the 618 shopping festival, operating as a promotional welfare host and generating sales approaching ¥20 million across three platforms — a commercially meaningful event for a Hangzhou-headquartered company that took place outside Zhejiang. In September, Alibaba's Tmall Supermarket (天猫超市) launched a virtual livestreamer brand character named Xiao Dang Jia (小铛家), described internally as the first virtual streamer from Alibaba's branded character series and designed to cover late-night streaming hours — a deployment initiated from Alibaba's Hangzhou base.

The year 2021 marked a decisive acceleration of institutional and policy support for digital human development across the province. In January, the China Mobile (Zhejiang) Innovation Research Institute (中国移动（浙江）创新研究院有限公司) was formally established in Hangzhou, with an announced total investment of approximately ¥2.1 billion and a staff of around 190 personnel, the majority holding postgraduate or doctoral qualifications. In February, the Zhejiang Provincial Government convened a Digital Reform Conference and released an overall plan for digital transformation structured around a comprehensive governance framework, constituting a foundational policy ecosystem that directly enabled subsequent digital human industry development. In March, China's first provincial-level digital economy promotion regulation took effect, providing a legal framework covering artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality as priority enabling technologies. In June, the province published its 14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development, promoting fifth-generation mobile networks, artificial intelligence, and extended reality as strategic directions for the period to 2025.

The second half of 2021 saw the digital human sector move from institutional formation into early commercial deployment. In August, the Fuxi Lab's immersive meeting system Yaotai (瑶台) made its public debut at the 16th International Symposium on Biomineralization, held at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, where more than 300 scholars participated as virtual avatars using the system's AI face-generation technology. That same month, FaceUnity completed a ¥70 million funding round led by Saizhi Bole Investment Group, directed toward upgrading its virtual digital human engine and developing a hyper-realistic digital object platform, by which time the company was serving more than a thousand corporate clients in Zhejiang and beyond. In September, Yaotai entered commercial operations, offering enterprise clients an immersive virtual meeting environment with AI-powered face cloning, real-time expression transfer, and avatar-based interaction. Also in September, Professor Zhou Kun of Zhejiang University received the 2021 Science Exploration Award for computer graphics research that underpinned digital human technology development at both the university and FaceUnity.

In October 2021, the Alibaba Cloud Apsara Conference (云栖大会) held in Hangzhou showcased a technology called Cartoon Intelligent Drawing (卡通智绘), which generated animated avatars from user selfie photographs; approximately 2,000 attendees experienced the feature, making it the conference's most widely engaged demonstration. At the same event, Beijing-based BlueFocus and the DAMO Academy announced a strategic partnership on virtual livestream technology. Also in October, NetEase Capital led an A+ funding round into the Beijing-based virtual human company CiShi Culture (次世文化), representing the Hangzhou company's fifth virtual human investment of that year and involving a Zhejiang actor in a Beijing entity. In November, NetEase registered a portfolio of metaverse-related trademarks and made an additional strategic investment into StarHeir (世悦星承), a virtual fashion digital human company. In December, NetEase Cloud Music (网易云音乐) held what it described as a metaverse IPO ceremony via the Yaotai platform, during which three simultaneous representations of CEO Ding Lei appeared using artificial intelligence face-generation and virtual avatar technology. Later that month, NetEase Intelligent Enterprise (网易智企) released two enterprise metaverse solutions at its Innovation Conference: an integrated real-time interaction solution combining instant messaging, real-time communications, and virtual human presentation, and a game and virtual reality voice product. The company also hosted an investor gathering through Yaotai in which more than 200 global investors participated as virtual avatars, demonstrating the platform's scalability for high-profile commercial events.

April 2022 brought one of Zhejiang's most culturally significant digital human launches when Zhejiang Satellite TV publicly announced its virtual host Gu Xiaoyu (谷小雨) during the Guyu solar term that month. Created under the guidance of the Zhejiang Provincial Communist Party Propaganda Department and jointly developed by Zhejiang Satellite TV and the Tencent IEG Zhiji team, Gu Xiaoyu was positioned as China's first Song Dynasty culture digital promoter and represented the first use of Unreal Engine for real-time rendering of a virtual human exceeding two million polygons on a broadcast augmented reality stage — a technical and cultural milestone for provincial public broadcasting. The following month, Hangzhou Mobile and the Hangzhou Culture and Tourism Bureau jointly launched a virtual tourism character named Hang Xiao Yi (杭小忆) in the Discover Hangzhou mini-program. Designed as an eighteen-year-old virtual female character in traditional dress and named in reference to a poem by Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi, Hang Xiao Yi served as a digital ambassador for the city's cultural tourism promotional activities in Zhejiang. Tangde Film and Television (唐德影视), a Hangzhou-listed media company, also referenced virtual human production and operations as a strategic development direction in its 2022 annual reporting, indicating early-stage planning for what would later become a specific virtual character initiative.

In June 2022, Zhejiang Satellite TV formally established its Digital Human Studio (浙江卫视数字人工作室) in Hangzhou. That same month, FaceUnity released its Virtual Livestream E-commerce 3.0 product, extending its digital human toolset for the live commerce sector, and Tekan (特看科技) was founded in Hangzhou by former Alibaba senior engineers — including Wu Chunsong, the creator of the Luban AI design platform, and Chen Binghui, formerly of UC Browser and Taobao — with its angel funding round led by Fengrui Capital. In July, Pingzhi Information Technology (杭州平治信息技术股份有限公司), a Hangzhou-listed company, signed a virtual digital human cooperation agreement with the Hangzhou branch of Zhejiang Mobile, producing a digital character named Xiaopang Shuo Yun (小胖说云) designed to explain cloud services through an embodied virtual presenter within the province.

In November 2022, the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit (世界互联网大会乌镇峰会) convened in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, featuring extensive metaverse and digital human demonstrations, with Gu Xiaoyu participating in the program. Later that month, Gu Xiaoyu hosted both the 2022 Song Dynasty Culture Festival opening ceremony and the opening of the Deqing Palace Site Museum within the province, a project that subsequently received the 2022 National Radio and Television Innovation Outstanding Special Program award.

The policy environment for digital humans in Zhejiang became more explicitly supportive in April 2023, when the Zhejiang Provincial Government General Office issued a consumption promotion policy that specifically named digital human virtual anchors and metaverse new consumption scenarios as supported economic directions — a formal provincial endorsement of the sector. In May, Qianxun Holdings' subsidiary Lingke (羚客) partnered with Nanjing-based Silicon Intelligence (硅基智能) to form a joint venture, Hangzhou Qianyu Intelligent Technology (杭州谦语智能科技有限公司), registered in Hangzhou with equal shareholding between the two parties. That same month, Tangde Film and Television publicly announced its virtual character project Tianwu (天吾), the specific initiative that had been in planning through 2022. In August, Hangzhou Qianyu Intelligent Technology held a public launch event in Hangzhou for its AI digital human livestream business, framed around a redefinition of the commercial vitality of the livestreaming format.

In September 2023, FaceUnity deployed a multilingual digital guide at the Hangzhou exhibition area of the 20th anniversary exhibition of Zhejiang's Eight-Eight Strategy (八八战略), serving more than 200,000 visitors within the province. Also in September, Professor Zhou Xinyue (周欣悦) of Zhejiang University published research titled "Making Sense? The Sensory-Specific Nature of Virtual Influencer Effectiveness" in the Journal of Marketing, reporting that consumers perceive virtual influencers as capable of far-sense interaction but not near-sense experience — a finding from a Zhejiang academic institution with direct relevance to digital human marketing design.

In October 2023, the Chinagoods platform operated by Yiwu Small Commodities City (义乌小商品城) launched its AI Smart Creation Service Platform 2.0 at the 29th Yiwu International Commodities Fair, incorporating a digital human commercial avatar known as the Digital Boss Lady (数字老板娘), one-click video generation for merchant product listings, and translation capability spanning more than 36 languages — all delivered in Zhejiang's globally prominent trade hub. In November, the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit introduced digital human explanation services for the first time, presenting three-dimensional digital human creation and extended reality experience programming to delegates in Wuzhen. Later that month, at the 9th Zhejiang International Health Industry Expo in Hangzhou, the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission and Alipay jointly launched Anzhener (安诊儿), a digital health assistant built using Alipay's digital human technology and the Galacean Web3D engine. Anzhener provided cloud-based companion diagnosis services including intelligent triage, appointment booking, and medication reminders, and was deployed initially across 30 hospitals in Zhejiang. The Second Global Digital Trade Expo (第二届全球数字贸易博览会) was also held in Hangzhou that November, drawing more than 800 digital trade enterprises and featuring digital human application demonstrations throughout the venue.

In March 2024, Alibaba researchers and Zhejiang University jointly reported on the FaceChain-ImagineID research framework for identity-consistent digital human generation — an academic collaboration involving a Zhejiang institution, though not deployed within the province. In September, the First China Digital Human Conference (首届中国数字人大会) convened in Beijing, where Zhejiang was represented through a keynote address by Professor Bao Hujun (鲍虎军) of Zhejiang University and a presentation by the Hangzhou Linping District police at the conference's digital identity forum. Also in September, ByteDance and Zhejiang University jointly developed Loopy, an audio-driven video diffusion model capable of generating realistic portrait video from a single image combined with audio input; while the research was produced through Zhejiang University collaboration, the system's deployment on ByteDance's Jimeng (即梦) platform took place outside the province. September 2024 also yielded a landmark regulatory development when the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Administration (浙江省市场监督管理局) issued provincial guidance on online livestream marketing conduct, constituting China's first provincial-level regulatory document specifically addressing artificial intelligence digital human livestreaming. The guidance established 30 compliance requirements, including mandatory disclosure labeling when AI digital humans were likely to cause public confusion and a prohibition on the unauthorized deepfake synthesis of others' voices or images — a regulatory milestone reflecting Zhejiang's position at the frontier of the industry.

In November 2024, the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit returned to Wuzhen and featured the debut of Gu Xiaoyu's AI holographic interaction product Xiaoyu Knows (小雨知道), alongside an AI holographic experience representing the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai and Alipay AI agents and digital human guides deployed across the venue. That same month, Hangzhou Wenguang Group (杭州文广集团) established Zhejiang Huazhi Wanxiang Technology (浙江华智万像科技有限公司) in Hangzhou, launching a short video intelligent creation platform named Zhixiang Wanqian (智像万千) incorporating digital hosts, AI voice synthesis, and intelligent broadcasting capabilities, with a stated ambition of pursuing a public listing. In December, the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission and Ant Group released Anzhener 2.0, upgrading the digital health assistant to a hyper-realistic digital human powered by Ant Group's Bailing (百灵) medical large model trained on a corpus of hundreds of billions of medical texts. The upgraded system added intelligent specialist twinning, medical report interpretation, health record management, and companion diagnosis functionality, and had by that point accumulated more than 17 million cumulative users across more than 1,000 medical institutions in Zhejiang. Also in December, Gu Xiaoyu appeared in Zhejiang Satellite TV's New Year's Eve special programming alongside a digital twin representation of musician Jay Chou and content from the Black Myth: Wukong game intellectual property, by which point her combined platform following had exceeded 500,000.

In January 2025, Guangzhou-based China Post Consumer Finance (中邮消费金融) and Zhejiang University jointly developed You Xiaobao (邮小宝), a digital employee for financial customer interaction; the collaboration produced seven digital human invention patents, three of which had been granted and four of which remained pending — a deployment by a non-Zhejiang company drawing on Zhejiang University research capacity outside the province. In February, Gu Xiaoyu received a DeepSeek AI upgrade during Zhejiang Satellite TV's Spring Festival programming, with enhanced natural language understanding and emotional simulation capabilities integrated through the Digital Human Studio and a joint laboratory collaboration. That same month, Style3D (浙江凌迪数字科技有限公司) launched its Styleverse platform at the Manchester Fashion Institute of Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, providing students with AI-powered three-dimensional fashion design technology in what constituted the Zhejiang company's first operational presence in the United Kingdom. Also in February, Chinagoods integrated DeepSeek into its AI visual creation and merchant application tools for Yiwu sellers, and the associated commercial activity under the framing of Yiwu merchants selling products with DeepSeek became a nationally trending topic. In April, Chinagoods officially launched its digital human product promotion feature within the province, supporting 44 languages, more than 30 foreign-language digital human avatar options, and one-click distribution to more than 20 social media platforms; merchants engaging with the feature most actively reported order growth exceeding 20%.

In September 2025, Ningbo University Affiliated Kangning Hospital (宁波大学附属康宁医院) in Zhejiang placed the Anzhener digital health assistant into full operational use within its clinical environment. That same month, Tekan released its digital human livestreaming 4.0 system in Hangzhou, which the company described as achieving fully AI-generated output indistinguishable from real human presenters without requiring live model filming sessions; merchants needed only product images and descriptive text to initiate a livestream, and the client roster included Procter and Gamble, L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, and Anta. In November, the National Radio and Television Administration published a proposed list of typical audiovisual system cases for 2025, which included an AI-augmented variety show extended reality entertainment large-space project with the China Mobile (Zhejiang) Innovation Research Institute as the lead unit, recommended by Zhejiang Province for national recognition. In December, Zhejiang Satellite TV described its current AIGC production infrastructure featuring digital human interaction, with Gu Xiaoyu positioned as Chief Variety Show Recommender operating in a virtual reality large-space environment powered by DeepSeek running on China Mobile's Jiutian (九天) platform infrastructure, with interactive programming drawn from Running Man and Ace vs Ace formats.

In January 2026, the National Radio and Television Administration published its final confirmed list of 2025 typical audiovisual system cases, with the China Mobile (Zhejiang) Innovation Research Institute's extended reality entertainment project confirmed as included; a concurrent release of 2025 metaverse typical cases named Zhejiang New Blue Network Media (浙江新蓝网络传媒) as an applicant, extending the province's representation in national media technology recognition programs. In February, Gu Xiaoyu appeared at the Yue Opera Spring Festival Gala broadcast that month, which marked the 120th anniversary of Yue Opera, co-hosting a creative performance with Lan Xiaotian (蓝小天), described as Zhejiang Satellite TV's first robot-form on-screen host. That same month, Yiwu in Zhejiang served as one of four national sub-venues for the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which for the first time incorporated hyper-realistic digital humans, AIGC visual effects, and ultra-high-definition NVI production technology — a deployment in Zhejiang that brought broadcast-level digital human production to the province's most internationally prominent commercial city.

[Mar 2026]