China's rapidly expanding artificial intelligence sector has given rise to a unique economic model: individuals are now licensing their facial likenesses for integration into AI-generated content. This innovative approach allows people to earn income from their appearance without actively participating in every production, spanning AI-driven short dramas, commercials, and video games.
How Face Licensing Platforms Operate
Platforms such as ActID, New Claw, Yuanxiang Xinsheng, and Xinzhua facilitate this new market. Users register their faces after a stringent identity verification process. Once registered, content producers can browse extensive digital catalogues, filtering faces by age, gender, and appearance. Categories range from 'girl-next-door' to 'rugged' and 'supermodel', allowing producers to find the exact digital persona they need.
Individuals retain control over their likeness, specifying whether their faces can be used in television commercials, short-form dramas, video games, or other digital content. Some platforms even allow users to set their own prices and determine the number of productions their face can appear in.
Potential Earnings and Market Dynamics
Earnings in this emerging market vary significantly, with fees reportedly ranging from 50 yuan (approximately ₹700) to 99,999 yuan (around ₹14 lakh). Payouts are influenced by factors such as the permitted usage, the duration of the license, and the frequency of a person's face appearing in productions.
ActID, launched in March, has registered approximately 800 users, including professional extras, influencers, and those with no prior acting experience. Fees for projects on ActID have ranged from 99 yuan to 500 yuan (approximately ₹1,400 to ₹7,000) per episode, with the platform retaining a 10% commission. Another platform, Xinzhua, which began operations in April, features around 370 digital actor profiles with fees from 500 yuan (₹7,000) to 6,000 yuan (₹85,000). A notable example includes a bank employee who reportedly earned nearly 2,500 yuan (approximately ₹35,000) after an advertising company licensed his portrait seven times within three days.
Driving Demand: The Microdrama Boom
A significant driver for this demand comes from China's booming microdrama industry. During the first three months of 2026, over 95% of the 128,000 microdramas released in the country reportedly utilized AI in their production. Long Lyu, operations lead at New Claw, acknowledges the disruptive impact of AI on the entertainment business. He notes that offering rights to their photos provides actors and models with an additional income stream while they continue their traditional careers.
Consent and Privacy Concerns
Despite the economic opportunities, this trend raises considerable concerns regarding biometric data, consent, and long-term control over one's digital likeness. Legal experts warn that many contracts may not clearly define how a licensed face can be modified or reused once it enters an AI marketplace. Yile Deng, a Beijing-based lawyer specializing in AI-related portrait-rights cases, highlights the ambiguity surrounding the scope of authorization as a major problem, emphasizing that users might not fully understand who will ultimately use their likeness or for what specific purposes.
China has already seen numerous disputes involving unauthorized AI face swaps. ByteDance's AI drama platform, for instance, reportedly removed over 85,000 videos involving unauthorized reproductions of people’s faces and voices since the beginning of 2026, underscoring the pressing need for clearer regulations and stronger user protections in this evolving digital landscape.