The store says "permanent SFW," but the website's first screen is 18+: How AsterLoop squeezed into the France photography Top Grossing chart

AsterLoop: AI Photo Motion has been live for three weeks, with 35k installs on Google Play and not a single rating. Yet it has steadily held around #32 on the France photography category Top Grossing chart. It isn't a hit made by an independent developer. It's one of four Play shells for the adult AI generation site Cling AI: one backend, two developer accounts, four names. Below: how it collects money, where the traffic comes from, and why this is something you can only watch, not copy.

A Pakistani phone number, a Wyoming LLC

On 2026 Oct 15, the developer account "muhammed waris" published AsterLoop on Google Play. The same account also has a Document Inspector (a document scanning tool), which has nothing to do with AI video. The "About the developer" section at the bottom of the store page lists a different name: Hashrate Horizon, LLC, at 30 N Gould St in Sheridan, Wyoming. That address belongs to a registered agent service where thousands of shell LLCs are registered. The contact phone number is a Pakistani number starting with +92, and the email is a personal Gmail address (Play store page, 11-06).

The store description reads like a tidy, standard listing:

Bring your photos to life with AsterLoop. … A fit for portraits, travel shots, pets and everyday memories.

Further down is a dedicated statement: "SAFE FOR WORK. AsterLoop keeps a permanent SFW policy. Adult, sexual or otherwise sensitive content is not allowed in prompts or uploads." The content rating is Teen.

But the support email listed under "App support" on the same page is [email protected], and the website is asterloop.proeai.com. 11-06 When you open this website, the page title is "Cling AI — Age Verification," and the first line reads "This website contains adult content and is intended for adults only." After clicking "Accept," you reach the video template list. The first dozen or so templates at the top are all sexual actions, one is called "Undress," and 117 more follow.

The store says "permanently not adult," but clicking through the website lands you on an adult site. This is the main reason the app can make money.

The numbers: barely moved for the first two weeks, then up sevenfold in two days

For over two weeks after launch, installs stayed stuck around three thousand. Then on 11-01 and 11-02, they suddenly jumped by more than twenty thousand, and afterward fell back to two or three thousand a day. This shape doesn't look like organic word of mouth. It looks more like someone concentrated a sum of money into those two days (inference). Play install counts refresh in batches, so don't take single-day figures too seriously; look at the shape.

Three weeks after launch, the rating count has stayed at 0, and there isn't a single review. 35k people installed it, and not one left a rating. Apps that grow organically rarely look like this.

The Top Grossing charts are more telling. On 11-06, AsterLoop ranked #32 on France's photography Top Grossing chart, #39 in Indonesia, #47 in Mexico, #53 in the UK, and #60 in India (Google Play category chart, 11-06). On the France chart it has stayed between #32 and #34 since 10-31. Right next to it at #33 is LumaSprig, also one of its own apps. By the position on France's photography Top Grossing chart, daily revenue is roughly a few hundred dollars (estimate). Getting that figure from 35k installs means the paying rate per install is far higher than comparable apps.

It's actually four apps

Searching Play with the support email [email protected] turns up four packages. The store descriptions are nearly word-for-word identical, in-app purchases are each $1.99 to $99.99, the version numbers are all 1.0.0, and all were published over the three days of October 14 to 16:

The four together have roughly 200k installs, with nearly 150k new in one week. Several packages jumped on the same day: 10-31 FrameBloom and LumaSprig each gained more than twenty thousand; 11-02 AsterLoop, FrameBloom, and LumaSprig all gained one to three thousand at once. This suggests the same ad account raised budgets for several packages on the same day (inference). Two accounts, one under a pizza shop name and one with a document tool and a Pakistani phone number, look like purchased or borrowed developer accounts (inference). If one account gets banned, the remaining ones can keep collecting money.

Where the money comes from: the web version already worked

Cling AI itself is a browser-based adult AI tool site that turns photos into videos, generates images, swaps outfits, and swaps faces. Its name differs from Kuaishou's Kling by only one letter, and searching "cling ai" mostly returns Kling content. The site's pricing is VIP $59.99 per year, "first month 2X," and its terms of service were 10-03 recently updated, requiring users to be 18 or older (cling-ai.com, 11-06).

So AsterLoop didn't need to validate anything from scratch. The template library, diamond-based billing, VIP, and users willing to pay all already existed on the web. The Play package is just one more entry point for this backend, one that collects payment through Google Play and can run install ads.

Its privacy policy states that it integrates Adjust to "attribute installs," and sends back events such as registration, starting generation, starting payment, and successful payment along with amounts. It processes advertising identifiers for "advertising-source attribution" (asterloop.proeai.com/privacypolicy.html). Only apps buying user acquisition and adjusting budgets by payback rate typically need to send back paid events like this. What the app can actually generate was not verified by installing it. Having the official site and support both point to Cling, then using server-side switches to unlock more content later or redirect users to the web, is a common approach for these shells (inference).

Where users come from: only paid acquisition is visible

• Paid acquisition: The privacy policy says attribution is integrated, several packages scaled up on the same day, and 35k installs with zero ratings all point to paid acquisition. Which channels it runs on, Google, Meta, or elsewhere, doesn't match any advertiser in the public ad transparency pages, so it may run through agency accounts (unverified).
• Multiple packages holding chart spots: All four packages use clean generic names like "AI Photo Motion" and "AI Photo Stories" to sit in the photography category. On the France chart, AsterLoop and LumaSprig occupy 32 and 33 respectively, so one party holds two spots.
• Traffic from the parent site: The Cling AI website has Discord, sign-up credits, and a number of landing pages riding on terms like "undress" and "X alternative." Existing web users being directed to pay inside the app could explain why it gets few installs but high revenue (inference).
• Content spread: none. Searching TikTok for asterloop or cling ai app returns no related videos, and X has had zero discussion in the past two months.

Who it's competing with

Functionally, AsterLoop has nothing that others don't. Story Mode, which strings one character into a multi-scene story, is a small selling point, but PixVerse and Kling have similar features. Its only difference is that behind it is an unguarded adult site, in front is a Play shell labeled SFW, and four are launched at once.

Only the structure is worth learning

Validate the templates and pricing on the web first, then package the same backend into several differently named store apps under different developer accounts. Connect attribution, send back paid events, and raise budgets by payback rate. Take placements on photography Top Grossing charts in lower-barrier countries like France, Indonesia, and Mexico. This structure itself is neutral, and plenty of legitimate tool makers do the same.

But AsterLoop collected money from the top 35 in France within three weeks by relying on exactly the part you can't copy: non-consensual undressing and face-swapping content like "Undress," which Google Play policy explicitly prohibits and which is illegal in many countries. Its store says "permanent SFW" while the website is an adult site one click away, which is gaming the review process. The Wyoming shell company, the Pakistani phone number, and the pizza shop account were all arranged so the money could keep flowing even after a ban.

If it were you

One-line verdict: Don't follow it. This isn't a product opportunity; it's regulatory arbitrage, and every dollar it earns depends on the review process not catching it yet.

Who it suits: Nobody. Even if you already make adult content, using an SFW-labeled store shell to host non-consensual templates carries platform and legal risks far larger than the return.

Who it doesn't suit: Every indie developer or small team that wants to build products long term, keep their developer account, and avoid having payouts frozen.

If you really want to take something from this: Take the structure, not the content. Build a clean photo-animation template app (hugs, dancing, reviving old photos, pets talking), validate which templates people pay for on the web first, then package two or three store versions by country and language, connect attribution, and target photography Top Grossing charts in France, Indonesia, Mexico, and Turkey. Acquire users through legitimate paid ads and short-video templates. Be clear-eyed, though: that clean path is already held by rivals like PixVerse, Hailuo, and HubX with tens of millions of installs, and none of AsterLoop's money-making factors apply to you.

Before what window?: There is no window to rush. Shells like this typically last only weeks (inference).

What would mean I misread it: If in three months AsterLoop and its three siblings are still listed and still on the charts, and installing the app confirms it really only has clean content, then it's just an ordinary template app that benefits from old adult-site users, and its ad and multi-package approach is worth revisiting. If all four packages disappear within a few weeks, that confirms this path never worked in the first place.