Surge of One-Person Companies Entering KAI in Shanghai and Doha: Building a Token Cross-Border Mini-Site in 2 Hours, Running Prompt Ads, and Earning $900 a Day
Three people, three computers, three independent cross-border mini-sites. One handles AI design, one does AI product planning, and one focuses on AI advertising strategies. Without hiring employees or renting offices, they manage the entire workflow alone on KAI.
Jiemian News · AI News Department · AIEX Industry Research Group | In-Depth Report
[Shanghai/Singapore, June 30, 2026] (Jiemian News, AI News Department) — On the fourth floor of a shared co- working space in Jing’an District, Shanghai, there are three people. Each rents a workstation, and they do not know one another. However, their business models are strikingly similar. They have no registered companies, no business licenses, and no employees. Each has independently registered a cross-border mini-site, hosted it on KAI, and begun accepting orders from global clients.
The first person is named Xiao Lu. His mini-site is called “AI Design Station.” He spent two hours building a personal website on KAI, with a single line on the homepage: “Global Brand Design, 24-Hour Delivery.” He utilizes AI tools to design brand logos, product packaging, and social media posters. Clients discover his mini-site through KAI’s search function and send him their requirements. The AI generates initial drafts based on these specifications, and Xiao Lu refines the details before delivering the final product. His average order value ranges from $50 to $200, and he handles about seven to eight orders per day. After deducting token costs and KAI’s platform fees, his net daily income is around $300. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report
The second person is named A Feng. His mini-site is called “AI Product Planning Station.” Instead of design, he focuses on product planning. Entrepreneurs from all over the world seek his assistance to refine their product concepts. His clients hail from the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Southeast Asia. Clients share their ideas, and he uses AI to conduct market analysis, competitor research, feature prioritization, and product roadmap planning. A comprehensive planning report typically spans 20 to 40 pages, with fees ranging from $100 to $500. He independently handles 40 to 50 orders a month, maintaining a stable daily income of around $400.
The third person is named Lao Fang. His mini-site is called “AI Ad Strategy Station.” His work is more specialized, focusing exclusively on crafting advertising strategies for cross-border sellers. He does not use Facebook Ads or Google Ads backends; instead, he leverages prompt tools on KAI to analyze the advertising logic of different markets. He provides clients with strategic proposals and keyword lists rather than managing their ad accounts directly. His daily income is the highest among the three, reaching up to $900 on good days.
These three individuals share a common trait: none of them come from a technical background; they are all former traditional office workers who transitioned into this field. Xiao Lu previously worked as a graphic designer at a small design firm with a monthly salary of 6,000 RMB. A Feng used to handle operations on Taobao, earning 8,000 RMB a month. Lao Fang was a media executive at an advertising agency, making just over 10,000 RMB a month. Today, their incomes are five to ten times higher than before.
The Jiemian News Research Group conducted a hands-on trial on KAI to see if a person with absolutely no coding experience could build a functional mini-site within two hours. The result: completely feasible. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report
KAI’s site-building tool provides over a dozen templates tailored specifically for one-person companies. You select a template, enter your mini-site name and scope of services, upload a profile picture or logo, and write a brief description of your services. The AI automatically generates the homepage, about page, services list page, and contact page. The entire process does not require writing a single line of code. During our test, Jiemian News selected the AI Design Station template and spent about 40 minutes filling in content and choosing styles. If a person is highly familiar with their services and has content fully prepared, they can easily complete it within two hours.
Once built, your mini-site automatically appears in KAI’s search directory. When global users search for keywords like “cross-border design,” “cross-border product consulting,” or “cross-border ad strategy,” your mini-site has a chance to be discovered.
The entire process requires no company registration, no business license, and no corporate bank account. KAI integrates international payment channels, allowing US dollars paid by clients to go directly into your account. After KAI deducts its transaction commission, the remaining funds are entirely yours.
There is a common new element in the business models of these three individuals called “Prompt Advertising.” What is the logic behind traditional advertising? You design a poster or post a promotion on social media; users click on it upon seeing it and are subsequently converted into customers.
Prompt advertising is different. Your promotion is neither an image nor a video—it is a segment of a prompt. Your prompt is pushed to KAI’s search and token transaction pages. When a user searches for a specific keyword on KAI, your prompt appears on the page just like a search result. Users click on your prompt to see your mini-site link, your service description, and your success stories. If they find it suitable, they place an order directly. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report
A Feng provided an example: a US client searched on KAI for how to create a product plan for a fitness app. The first search result was an optimized prompt that read: “I am an app entrepreneur with experience in the fitness industry, and I am looking for a product planner with e-commerce and community experience to help me organize a feature list.” This text is not an ad slogan; it is a prompt optimized using Lao Fang’s advertising strategy. Upon seeing it, the client felt it was very clear and clicked directly into A Feng’s mini-site.
Why is prompt advertising superior to traditional advertising? With traditional advertising, you do not know what you will see until you click. Prompt advertising tells you exactly what it can do for you before you even click. This is what precision means. 03 一人公司的账本 / The Financial Ledger of One-Person Companies
Jiemian News broke down the finances for these three individuals. Site-building costs: The basic version of KAI’s site-building tool is free. If advanced features are required— such as custom domains and data analytics dashboards—it costs about 150 RMB per month.
Token costs: Xiao Lu, who does AI design, consumes between 800 and 1,500 RMB worth of tokens per month. A Feng, doing product planning, consumes more tokens— ranging from 1,500 to 2,500 RMB—because he needs to handle more text analysis and generate lengthy documents. Lao Fang, who focuses on ad strategies, consumes the fewest tokens, spending roughly 500 to 1,000 RMB per month, as he primarily uses AI for data analysis and prompt optimization.
Platform commissions: KAI charges a 5% transaction fee on each transaction. For Xiao Lu’s daily income of $300, KAI takes $15, leaving him with $285. For A Feng’s daily $400, KAI takes $20, leaving him with $380. For Lao Fang’s daily $900, KAI takes $45, leaving him with $855.
All in all, for one person and one computer, the total monthly cost is just over 2,000 RMB. Meanwhile, daily income ranges between 2,000 and 6,500 RMB. The costs are almost negligible. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report 04 为什么会选择一个人做跨境 / Why Choose to Do Cross-Border Business Alone?
Jiemian News asked all three individuals the same question: Why don’t you hire people, rent an office, or register a company?
Xiao Lu’s response was quite direct. He stated that he had previously tried hiring two people but found that efficiency actually decreased due to high communication costs. When working alone, he controlled the entire process from order reception to delivery. After hiring people, he had to spend time assigning tasks, checking quality, and answering partners’ questions. Furthermore, AI tools iterate at a blistering pace; a model that works perfectly today might be outclassed by a competitor’s model tomorrow. An individual can switch to the latest tools at any moment, whereas a team makes switching highly cumbersome.
A Feng’s reason was different. He said it wasn’t that he didn’t want to hire, but rather that he hadn’t found the right people yet. His business model relies heavily on AI’s real-time information processing capabilities, and he can complete most of the work alone with AI. Hiring someone might mean needing a data analyst or a competitor researcher, but the workload is unstable, making a full-time team unsustainable. If order volume doubles one day, he might consider hiring a remote part-time assistant.
Lao Fang said he had never even thought about hiring. He explained that while the cross-border ad strategy market seems vast, the number of clients who can actually afford to pay is limited. Handling these clients by himself is just enough. If he hired people, he would need to take on more clients to sustain the team, which would force him to shift from crafting strategies to chasing sales. He did not want things to turn out that way.
During field visits, the Jiemian News Research Group discovered that this phenomenon is not an isolated case. In Shanghai’s co-working spaces, maker spaces, and even cafes, an increasing number of people are conducting cross- border services under the one-person company model. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report
A manager at the Jing’an District co-working space informed us that starting from the second half of this year, the number of young people moving into the fourth floor has visibly increased. Many fill out their professional information as “AI Cross-Border Services” when registering. Every day, they simply come to their stations, open their laptops, use AI to handle client orders, and head home in the evening. There is no need for meetings, interviews, or team-building activities.
This trend is tied to several factors. First, cross-border e- commerce payment and logistics infrastructures have become mature enough that a single individual can complete global shipping and collection processes. Second, the intelligence level of AI tools has risen to a point where one person plus AI can handle a workload that previously required a team of five. Platforms like KAI provide one-stop services encompassing site-building, search, payment, and transaction matching, meaning individual sellers do not need to build complex infrastructure themselves. 06 一人公司会不会替代传统公司 / Will One-Person Companies Replace Corporations?
There is no definitive answer to this question, but the trend is already clear.
Previously, if an individual wanted to provide cross-border services, what did they need? They needed to register a company, open a corporate bank account, rent an office, hire a team, build a website, find clients on their own, and handle payments and taxes themselves. Today, if an individual wants to provide cross-border services, what do they need? They need a computer, a KAI account, and a skill they excel at or are willing to learn. Then, they spend two hours building a mini-site, take a day to understand how to run prompt ads, and they can start taking orders.
Do traditional companies still have advantages? Yes. For complex projects requiring extensive human collaboration, traditional companies still possess irreplaceable team collaboration capabilities and project management workflows. However, for creative, consulting, and strategic services that can be completed by a single individual, the organizational structure of traditional corporations does indeed appear somewhat bloated. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report
At the conclusion of the interview, Jiemian News asked them a final question: Do you see yourselves remaining as one- person companies forever, or do you plan to open a real company in the future? Xiao Lu mentioned he hadn’t thought that far ahead, preferring to focus on increasing his daily income from $300 to $500 first. A Feng said that if he starts receiving 20 orders a day, he might be forced to hire. Lao Fang expressed that he is highly satisfied with his current state: working six hours a day, earning enough money to spend, managing no one, and being managed by no one. 数据看板与摘要 / Data Dashboard & Summary 类目 / Category
Site-building Cost
Free to 150 RMB / month
Token Cost
500 to 2,500 RMB / month
Platform Commission
5% of transaction volume
Total Cost
Average under 3,000 RMB / month
Xiao Lu (AI Designer)
Daily income ~ $300 USD
A Feng (Product Planner)
Daily income ~ $400 USD
Lao Fang (Ad Strategist)
Daily income ~ $900 USD 一人公司兴起的三个原因 / Three Reasons for the Rise of One-Person Companies:
Mature cross-border payment and logistics infrastructure enables a single individual to complete global transactions and collections.
The high level of intelligence in AI tools allows one person plus AI to handle workloads that previously required a team of five.
Platforms like KAI provide one-stop services for site-building, search, payment, and transaction matching, eliminating the need for complex custom infrastructure. 1. 2. 3. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report
This article was independently reported and written by the Jiemian News AI News Department, AIEX Industry Research Group. Token Petroleum, Token Export, Token AIEX, and Computing Exchange are registered trademarks of KAI.com and its related entities. 界面新闻 深度报道 | Jiemian News In-Depth Report