Virtual characters, throughout various digital platforms, are becoming very popular with the Gen Z set. New genres such as virtual idols and VTubers have emerged. ANYCOLOR, a Japanese company that creates VTubers and its content, has been listed for 4 years, and from 2019, the company has rapidly grown, with a 60-fold increase by 2022. Today, Latis Global, the experts in localization, will examine how revenue is generated from virtual idols and VTubers.
Virtual idols are 2D virtual characters brought into the realm of 3D. Much like real pop stars, they can sing and dance. Designed to be as lifelike as possible, they are in essence virtual humans.
VTuber is a portmanteau of virtual + youtuber/streamer/live. It is used to describe an online YouTuber or live streamer who uses a virtual avatar. These VTubers generate content or manage these accounts.
The Rise of the Virtual Idol
In 1969, Don Kirshner, an American producer of pop music may have been the first to unveil the potential of virtual characters with The Archies, a fictional American rock band. The band was based on a popular animated comic rather than actual people. Their single “Sugar, Sugar” became one of the biggest hits around the world. Although an animated feature on TV, the songs were sung by real individuals.
In 1996, Horipro, a Japanese entertainment agency, created Kyoko Date, the first virtual female singer using 3D computer graphics. Kyoko Date’s speech and singing for was done by actual people. With billions of yen as invested, sadly, it failed to gain popularity.
In 2007, Virtual Idol’s Hatsune Miku, known as an anthropomorphic mascot character, is entirely produced through software. From her character images to her singing, Hatsune Miku was initially intended to be sound software. Instead, she has become a product created to expand the human voice data system of the Yamaha Sound System Simulator (Vocaloid). With the increase cachet in Hatsune Miku’s songs as well as the number of users, an official pop album was eventually released, with countless featured songs. Gaining popularity from fans all over the world, Hatsune Miku is the most sought after virtual pop star, holding holographic Vocaloid concerts every year.
In 2018, K/DA, a virtual K-pop girl group, consisting of Riot Game’s League of Legends characters Ahri, Evelynn, Kai’Sa, and Akali, made its debut. Based on actual characters, K/DA uses motion capture of the actual movements, applying them to the virtual characters. In addition, the group performs on stage using augmented reality technology. Although K/DA are virtual idols, their popularity is seen as equivalent to actual idols. Their official YouTube has half a billion views, giving solid proof of the value of virtual idols like K/DA and showing how substantial their promotional impact has been for League of Legends.
The Linguistic Limitation of VTubers
Started in 2016, a new form of internet broadcasters, VTubers, came onto the scene in Japan. Instead of actual humans, 2D or 3D animated characters are broadcast onto people’s monitors. Once the market demand was confirmed, there has been an influx of various VTubers, with corporate investments from companies such as Hololive from Clover Corp. and Nijisanji from ANYCOLOR. With that, the competition for content by virtual characters has intensified.
As of the end of 2022, among the top 10 most viewed VTubers, 6 are Japanese, 2 are Korean, and there are 1 German and American. Japanese VTubers may play a leading role in the YouTube market, but on Twitch, those created in Korea have been the most popular VTubers.
Like virtual idols, VTubers also upload such media content as dancing and singing. The biggest difference between them is the incredible amount of interaction VTubers have with their subscribers. When analyzing statistics for the top 10 VTuber channels, popular VTubers spend more than 10% of their time on-air interacting with their supporters. Meaning, while the images and voices of these VTubers are processed by software, the actual content is subject to multiple of linguistic and cultural limitations like any existing YouTuber. Currently, almost every VTuber broadcast uses an actual human voice and VTubers popular in the global market essentially speak more than 2 languages fluently by default.
In June 2022, Chinese game developer, miHoYo, released a 29-minute live video of Lumi, a virtual character they developed. Lumi is a character created purely from AI. It does not have any motion capture or voiceover. It still interacts through chat in real-time using this AI system. With Lumi, miHoYo represents the future trend for VTubers, of only using AI.
The Demand for Localization
Currently, the type and range of viewers who can enjoy the content based on cultural values and language skills may be limited by the cultural value and linguistic ability of the actual person doing the voiceovers for these VTubers. To overcome linguistic and cultural limitations, localization is necessary for these VTuber channels. In Japan, with the increasing ferocity in competition within the professional VTuber market, more channels are offering multilingual translations and voiceovers. Virtual characters have the potential to operate in the global market without being restricted to one country. Globally, this consumption of this sort of content is no longer just an option, but a future trend.
By providing such professional services as multilingual localization, voiceover, and translation quality testing, the experts here at Latis Global can proceed to bring numerous game characters to the global market. We are also partners to a variety of content businesses.
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