The digital realm has given us an unlimited space and opportunities to share our interests and communicate with others who share the same interest, those who takes the lead to create contents for the wide audience are called “Internet influencer”. These influencers have their own communities, where content consumers and fans can communicate with each other, share their interests and express their support for the influencers. In 2016, a brand-new internet celebrity phenomenon called “VTubers”, short for “Virtual YouTubers” emerged and climbed the internet popularity list so fast that it is on par with normal content creators and even potentially on equal footing with traditional media entertainment. (O’Meara, 2021) I argue that “Virtual YouTubing” will become the most influential form of content creators in the near future.
Online identity, internet influencers and Community
Before heading to the topic of “VTuber”, I would like to first identity some key terms that will be used to better understand the concept of VTuber.
The first key term is Online identity. Identity is the concept of your very own being, it is gender, age, occupation and ethnicity that will be interpreted differently when interacting with different people. It can be positive or negative, people can improve their imagery but cannot physically change their identity. Online identity is different from traditional definition of identity, because there is simply no physical face-to-face interaction and the enormous freedom of customising your identity, there is no guarantee that all the user information is true, everyone has the ability to change what cannot be physically changed in the ordinary life, no one except the user knows the truth, anyone can be anyone, even fictional identities. (Marwick, 2013)
The second key term is Community. Community is a group of people with common traits, interests or share similar ideals. Humans as social beings have the need to be accepted and recognised, with those needs satisfied we will feel comforted, loved and accepted. Cyber communities are a new type of communities born out of the creation of internet, they can be a more personalised, for the benefit of ones’ self because you do not necessarily need to contribute in cyber communities, you can be a bystander. This cause virtual communities to be default decentralised, each member starting as an audience, but it is decentralisation that creates flexibility and more possibilities. (Delanty, 2018)
The third key term is Internet influencers. Crystal Abidin defines internet influencers are “every day, ordinary Internet users who accumulate a relatively large following on blogs and social media through the textual and visual narration of their personal lives and lifestyles, engage with their following in digital and physical spaces.” (Abidin, 2015, 1st paragraph) Platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are populated with these influencers, they generate contents everyday such as video gaming, fashion showcase, illustration and design, political discussions and social discussions etc, to satisfy the regular demand for contents from the existing fandom and attraction to potential new consumers.
Virtual YouTuber
A Virtual YouTuber (short form: VTuber) is a content creator that utilises digital generated anime or cartoon avatar with live motion capture technology to give a sense of physical interaction with the audience while masking the physical identity of the influencers. They focus on entertainments such as video gaming, singing, ASMR, chatting, stage performance and many more activities that can be performed in the digital realm. On paper, they are almost identical with normal streamers and other influencers alike that focuses on real time communication or entertainment production, and depends greatly on the support and loyalty of fans. (Kelts, 2021) But I argue they are not the same, more of a diverged form of content creation from normal digital influencers. VTubers enjoy privacy more than traditional media because of the fictional persona and digital model they present as VTubers, protecting them from potential identity leak or doxing and stalking, while enjoying the ability to be any character and the freedom to create any content. (Bredikhina, 2020) For fans, because of the constant emphasis on VTubers as Virtual beings, the characteristics and activities they experience with VTubers are inspired or directly taken out from the topics of anime, comics and video games. (Lu, Shen, Wigdor, Li, 2021) This allows VTubers to instantly capture the attention of consumers from these 3 interests, establishing their own decentralised small communities that pushes to create “VTuber norms” in the overall community, which will then inspire all the fans to spread awareness, in combination with VTubers’ constant appeasement through digital entertainment, allowing them to seize an impactful place on the internet.
It all started in 2016 when the very first official Virtual YouTuber debuted, her name is “Kizuna Ai” and she revolutionised the industry of streaming and pioneered the concept of a VTuber. (Kizuna Ai Inc., 2022) A lot of what is consider as norms in the VTuber industry, such as live or recorded 3D performances, scheduled streaming activities, regular singing and gaming streams, collaboration streams, utilisation of character model to show emotion, breakthrough from traditional language usage, relaxed atmosphere, encouraged audience involvements through chat function and donations, active communication with fans and community, different culture and language appreciation, involvement in professional industries such as advertisement for brands, events and organisations etc, are pioneered or inspired by her and her production team. Unfortunately, despite being in indefinite hiatus since the 26th of February 2022, (Amos, 2022) her last Live stream concert called “hello, world 2022” (Kizuna Ai, 2022) have over 2.9 million views on YouTube, the view number is solid evidence of just how appealing the idea of VTubers is to popular digital culture and should not underestimate its potential to influence the whole internet and the ordinary world.
There are two types of VTubers in the market currently: Corporate VTubers and Indie VTubers. Corporate VTubers are VTubers that are operating under an agency that offers professional supporting, managing and advertising team to the talents. Often selected by open audition, these talents are bounded by corporate law and contract, but also receive protection from company in case of any doxing and leak of real identification. (Colp, Deyo, 2020) The main leading virtual agencies in the market now are Hololive, Nijisanji and Virtual eSports Project which are mainly Japanese agencies, with Vshoujo and PRISM Project being the English agencies. All of them from the two regions have over millions of views, and with more than 10-20 talents constantly producing content for audiences. For indie VTubers, they are self-started and sustained with all aspect of operation belong to the sole content creator, they require much more time to generate a fanbase and viewership but enjoy much more freedom in what types of content to generate and no liability to corporate limitations. The number of active VTubers have reached 16000 by the October of 2021 (Panora VR Japan, 2021), it is not just Japanese and English VTubers in the market, but also content creators from all over the world such as Indonesia, Korea, China, The Philippines and Europe all contributed greatly in popularising VTubers and generating influence and awareness in their own regions.
The current number one VTuber of all time is Gawr Gura from Hololive EN (English), with over 3.8 million subscribers, 25.5 million total views, generated A$7,104 from Super Chat (Donations in YouTube) in the past 7 days, generated a total of A$1.3 million from Super Chat, and finally ranked 36th place in subscriber rank in YouTube Japan. (Playboard, 2022) A another VTuber from the English agency Vshoujo called Ironmouse also have become the top streamer in Twitch with 95k active subscribers and is the top subbed female streamer in the history of Twitch. (Miceli, 2022)
These evidences they help to prove the influential power VTubers by presenting directly evidence of overall growth in activities and industry size, and the revenue generated. The great amount of profit and popularity constantly generated every day challenge and influence traditional media interactions and concepts. There is a great emphasis on VTubers being such an unconventional form of influencer but achieve being the fastest growing internet communities of the 2000s and arguably one of the most influential digital communities and content creators now.
“Unprofessional”, Strong bond with fans, and A fresh industry
There is main three reasons why “Virtual YouTubing” will become the most influential form of content creators in the near future. They are Unprofessionalism, Strong bond with fans and A fresh industry.
When we look at any kind of mass audience entertainments like TV dramas or stage shows, we expect professionalism from all of these events, but for VTubers this is hardly the case. The sense of exclusively presenting a casual entertainment give VTubers a lot of freedom and flexibility in both operation and positive imagery for consumers while also offering the fans a sense of relatability to the “celebrities”. Using the VTuber Oozora Subaru from Hololive as example, she is often joked as a “duck” by the overall community and combining with her “Tomboyish” behaviours such as screaming and shouting during streams, she is breaking the cultural stereotype of female can only be feminine, she embraces the idea of an informal identity and utilise the flexibility and support to grow closer to fans by openly acknowledging their opinions and jokes, allowing her to appeal to the fans and spread influence with her usual activities.
In the field of entertainment, fans are the most important factor and the main source of income. For the VTuber industry, translators are one of the main driving forces in popularising these influencers. The extensive amount of translation of streams from Japanese to English in the form of highlight clips have given a chance for the overall community to catch up with the newest activities and spread awareness in and outside of the digital realm. The community of VTubers are constructed with positivity and open communication between the content creators and audiences, combining with the volunteer support from these fan translators in the community, VTubers have opened its way to become global. (Morrissy, 2020) There is also the matter of fans’ loyalty which leads to rewarding experiences. A recent example would be VTuber Ouro Kronii from Hololive EN appearing in one of the billboards in NY city Time square, it was Kronii’s birthday and fans booked a billboard for publicly displaying birthday cards, wishes and fan made videos to show affection to the influencer, then with Kronii openly acknowledging and thanking to the fans and community, greatly strengthen the bonds between them, expanding the compacity of the fandom and the capability to spread influence by physically appearing in ordinary life. (Busby, 2022)
VTuber is a relatively fresh industry, a lot of opportunities are still waiting to be innovated by these influencers, or further improvement of existing activates, such as offering more motion capture capability and showcase of more expressions through the digital models, bigger scale of 3D concerts and events, sponsorships, collaboration with official brands, workshops for fans or people interest in the industry and innovative goods and merchandises. One good example of utilise being a fresh industry to create more opportunities to spread awareness in the ordinary life is VTuber Yukihana Lamy from Hololive releasing her own premium brand of sake called Yuki-Yo-Zuki (雪夜月). It is a collaboration with renowned Japanese brewery Meiri Shurui (明利酒類), the sake uses the IWC2020 Gold winning “Fukushogun Daiginjo” as base, it is of the highest quality of sake that also comes custom packaging including an exclusive illustration of the VTuber and the unique light blue bottle to suit the blue colour scheme of the talent. (Moshi Moshi Nippon, 2021) Another noteworthy example would be two VTuber mascot of the professional Japanese baseball team Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Takamine Umi and Aritaka Hina. They have their own YouTube channel that holds commentary and live stream on official matches, and always advertising or encouraging the community to participate in the popular sport. (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, 2022) These two examples reflect on creative ways that VTubers can link themselves to the ordinary life, alcohol and sports are undoubtedly regular parts of daily life which connects and appeal to the audience through relatability with the mass, these official commercial sponsorships and representatives further enforce the idea that VTuber is already an official form of business and influential media.
These three explanations further develop that VTubers as not just any usual live streaming entertainment influencers or content creators, it is unique and powerful, it actively challenges stereotypes and create new ways or ideas to link itself with ordinary live activities. The industry or community strive to be recognised by the mass, barging into the ordinary live, utilising its direct relation to video games and digital pop culture, and itself being a native digital media to rapidly gain awareness and influence in both digital and physical world.
Conclusion
Through many examples presented, it is clear that VTuber aren’t just a type of video game streamers anymore, they represent the identity a brand-new type of contemporary influencers, one that explore itself out of the digital realm despite being a native digital medium. No one expects the whole of VTuber community would grow so large to be featured in traditional medias such as TV shows, radio broadcasts or even the large billboards in Times Square, but it is certain that this breakthrough from a small, unprofessional and unconventional form of influencer to millions of fans, creators, translators and producers from all over the world, will continue to grow even larger and influential to the ordinary world. Virtual YouTubing will become the most influential form of content creators in the near future, or maybe it already is the most influential form content creators.
Reference
O’Meara, G. (2021). The Rise of the VTuber. Gamesight. https://blog.gamesight.io/the-rise-of-the-vtuber/
Marwick, A. E. (2013). Online identity. A companion to new media dynamics, P.355-364. http://www.tiara.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Marwick_Online_Identity.pdf
Abidin, C. (2015a). Communicative ❤ intimacies: Influencers and perceived interconnectedness. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, & Technology. Advance online publication. https://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/
Delanty, G (2018). Virtual community: belonging as communication. G Delanty, Community (3# ed., pp. 200 – 224). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315158259/community-gerard-delanty
Kelts, R. (2021). Japan’s virtual YouTubers have millions of real subscribers — and make millions of real dollars: How the pandemic mainstreamed VTubers, Japan’s fictional YouTube celebrities. Rest of World. https://restofworld.org/2021/vtubers/
Bredikhina, L. (2020). Designing identity in VTuber era. Advance online Publication. http://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/63010301/Designing_identity_in_VTuber_Era20200419-76357-12og8r3-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1648656452&Signature=YHhOkFKeumWynrtBxEJOJ77wGkFXX1v14d0Jsm1njpjcdpolhd4cpyXQBa6r6dFYGR3LQ-1MCye6Mzk0RSFz1TcsJKaYjpARSYSxUmdHaLV~vcocGR6vy8~oMWTwE~9~mve3fy0gvQcafNvFIdtB5nyIqL1k5jMIdT3rmwVoOanWXplbaN0iNO30M0fEgvli0IHF-zhDojDlEAEVWmyIswSi~Ee5THObyU7d~Au74vfxKVFi81U6I4zFV3DT6b0F6sJOxtq6ARN1GOaNal7-r~37yfRkeGsfCxFqkXs-JZ3CZrMrBsmIlUANKhmIdt3IN~fDrVuUrweYAWvIhZvSQQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
Lu, Z., Shen, C., Li, J., Shen, H., & Wigdor, D. (2021 May 8–13). More kawaii than a real-person live streamer: understanding how the otaku community engages with and perceives virtual YouTubers. [Paper presentation]. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14), Yokohama. http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~luzhc/assets/pdf/CHI2021Vtuber.pdf
Kizuna Ai Inc. (2022). Kizuna Ai Official website. https://kizunaai.com/
Amos, A. (2022). Kizuna AI goes on “indefinite hiatus” after her The Last Live concert. Dexerto. https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/kizuna-ai-worlds-first-vtuber-indefinite-hiatus-1771512/
Kizuna Ai. (2022, February 26). Kizuna AI The Last Live “hello, world 2022” [Video]. YouTube
Colp, T. Deyo, Nico. (2020). The Vtuber Industry: Corporatization, Labor, and Kawaii
Why vtubers have become a hot investment vehicle, and why the space is already consolidating. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/akdj3z/the-vtuber-industry-corporatization-labor-and-kawaii
Panora Virtual Reality Japan. (2021). バーチャルYouTuberの1万6000人突破を発表 [Announcing the breakthrough of 16,000th virtual YouTuber]. Panora Virtual Reality Japan. https://panora.tokyo/archives/35440
Miceli, M. (2022). VTuber Ironmouse surpasses 95,000 Twitch subscribers, takes the throne for active subs on platform. Dot Esports. https://dotesports.com/streaming/news/vtuber-ironmouse-surpasses-95k-twitch-subscribers-most-active-subs-on-platform
Morrissy, K. (2020). How Fan Translators Made Virtual YouTubers a Global Phenomenon. Anime News Network. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2020-08-31/how-fan-translators-made-virtual-youtubers-a-global-phenomenon/.162925
Busby, J. (2022) Hololive’s Ouro Kronii blown away by Times Square billboard birthday present. Dexerto. https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/hololives-ouro-kronii-blown-away-by-times-square-billboard-birthday-present-1783784/
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Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. (2022). 福岡ソフトバンクホークスVTuber 鷹観音海、有鷹ひな紹介サイ[Fukuoka Softbank Hawks VTubers Takamine Umi , Aritaka Hina introduction site]. https://www.softbankhawks.co.jp/ex/vtuber/
PDF – Why “Virtual YouTubing” will become the most influential form of content creators in the near future
Great to see your paper posted Adrian? Can you envisage another type of new or upcoming technology that could have the same kind of influence in the future?
Andrea
Thank you very much for reading my paper, Andrea! I believe technologies such as Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality will have the same kind of influence or further empower the influence of VTuebrs. Consumers will have the ability to have physical face-to-face interaction with the influencers or even stretch further to promote an additional life or identity in the digital realm that you can physically move and speak to others. It will be very interesting to see what direction the VTuber industry will take in terms of those two technologies.
Some very interesting ideas here Adrian! Thanks for your reply.
Hi Adrian,
I was excited to see someone write up an article on this topic! The VR community has certainly exploded since 2016 and it is interesting to see how people have been able to make careers from it. For myself who doesn’t actively consume VR content I’m still able to recognise some of the VTubers you have mentioned. I think a rather large barrier to entry for creating VTubing content is the price and accessibility of the equipment is that correct? As technology advances and becomes more accessible to people do you think more people will adopt the technology and become more involved in the VR community both as a consumer and producer of content?
VTubing becoming commonplace on digital platforms is an exciting prospect and I hope it continues to grow and thrive!
Daniel
Thank you very much for reading my paper, Danial! The price and the accessibility of the equipment are definitely big factors in the VTuber industry, being a content creator is costly and mentally demanding. Digging more deeply into starting a VTuber career, I find that designing and creating the VTuber model is the most time and effort-consuming challenge, I have seen some VTubers stream about managing their model with the app Live2D and it is mind-blowing and very confusing. But I believe the Virtual YouTuber community is growing every day and more content creators will pioneer new ways to utilise the new technologies available to create content and influence.
I learned a new term from this paper. I didn’t know that people who did this were called VTubers. There is a ‘manosphere’ YouTube channel that does this called Taylor the Fiend (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJsy3nETXIKDauMOwv3pOUw), and it’s clearly a guy speaking into a microphone, about his dating frustrations, but the entire time that he’s talking, instead of seeing him, you see a sort of elven vampire character, whose lips only move when the host is speaking, as if he is the vampire himself.
Thank you so much for reading my paper!
This is a very interesting example of content creators on YouTube. It might be more related to PNGTubers but is part of the new “fictional content creators”, where there is no need to show the real identity to the audience. The content might also be different from what VTubers usually offer, like video game streaming. However, it is interesting to see how using a fictional identity to create content can grow and discover more ways to produce entertainment as technology also improves.
Hi Adrian,
Your paper presents a very interesting outlook on VTubers! I wasn’t aware of the huge brand deals that some of these VTubers had with other brands. Can you imagine buying a bottle of sake with your favourite VTuber’s face on it? The large VTubers could be considered virtual celebrities at this point. However, like you said in the paper, VTubers draw a lot of their content and personality from anime. Do you think it’ll extend past the typical anime-like 2D/3D art style one day?
Hi Natalie and thank you very much for reading my paper.
Personally, I think the anime art style for the models is one of the major factors that make the content creator a “Vtuber”, it is the biggest unique point that Vtuber has from other content creators, like a “tradition” that the audience can instantly recognise of a Vtuber. There’s also the point that much of the Vtuber industry is still dominated by the Japanese language and culture, which I don’t think Vtubers will cut off its ties from them in the near future as they inflect too much influence on the industry.
Hi Adrian,
This is a really interesting paper! I didn’t know VTuber existed until I read your post!
I am fascinated by the fact that virtual YouTubers use animation characters to talk in their own video!! I thought that this is a great chance and opportunity for people to showcase their real talent. In the world we are living now, I think that creativity is the most important key that one should have, and VTuber is the perfect example of it.
Though in my personal opinion, I doubt that VTuber will be the most influential form of content creation because of the long process of designing the avatar, effort in making the avatar movement, and equipment such as face sensors and streaming equipment, that one should have to produce content from it. Moreover, I think that some people prefer to show and see real faces when watching YouTube as it shows a more credible source of their content. What do you think of this? Thank you!
Hi Brenda and thank you very much for reading my paper.
Vtubers overall as an industry, community and form of digital entertainment is still relatively young. I believe that there are a lot more opportunities and fine-tuning required to make it “the most influence” content creator. But because it is also directly linked to traditional YouTubers that presents their real identities, it is nonetheless a source of mainstream digital entertainment and internet celebrities that should be on par with the traditional content creators.
Hi Adrian,
It is interesting to read your paper! Virtual YouTuber is a new term for me. Thank you for writing it!
Just before reading your paper, I was talking to a friend – she had just finished a day of work where she was doing a live online sales broadcast of an avatar for a live media outlet in China. I had never thought of avatars as an essential trend until I saw my friend’s day of sales outperforming the real ones, which shows that avatars are gaining popularity with consumers.
To your main argument – VTuber will become the most influential trend in the near future. I am also very bullish on this trend. At first, many people were conservative about technology like computers, mobile phones and the internet, but as we all know later, these have become an essential part of our lives. With VTubers, I think one of the big advantages they have is that they can build up a near-perfect image without having to worry about this avatar being influenced by gossip or bad news. What do you think?
If you are interested, please feel free to read my article, it’s about social media’s propagation of the perfect image of women’s appearance: https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2022/ioa/889/social-medias-propagation-of-the-perfect-image-of-womens-appearance-can-cause-womens-appearance-anxiety-and-lack-of-confidence/
Best,
Sining
Hi Sining and thank you very much for reading my paper.
The models of Vtubers are definitely one of their strongest points that makes them so popular. A Vtuber’s model is the primary impression to the audience, they can create any kind of identity that is designed for a specific group of audiences and easily gain their attention after all content creation requires discoverability and spreadability. There’s also the factor of communication with the audience to ensure loyalty. With the physical image already attracting the audience, interacting with and appealing to them is also much easier.