Metaverse Virtual Fire Burns and Virtual Characters Come to Life

On January 6, ByteDance invested in 'Rewake'. This "Li Weike" is a character, not a real person.

It is also the first virtual currency for the new year 2022. According to data from Tianyancha, IP "Li Weike" belongs to Hangzhou Li Weike Co., Ltd., which was established six months ago.

The virtual character itself is not a new concept, it's a song that has continued in the entertainment industry for the first time in 15 years since the debut of the first virtual singer 'Hatsune Miku' in 2007. However , with the development of AR and VR technology, two-dimensional virtual characters began to become more triangular and realistic.

For example, Luo Tianyi appeared at the 2021 Spring Festival gala, and "Liu Yexi" relied on two-minute films to become popular almost overnight and garnered 4.5 million subscribers from day to day. the following day.

Using virtual characters doesn't stop at fun. Recently, the genuine student Hua Zhibing joined the Tsinghua University campus, and Microsoft's fake behavior Xiaobing N Xiaohei can broadcast "Daily News" for 70 days together. . CCTV also announced that it will use a virtual anchor to cover the Winter Olympics. News.

In particular, when the fire of the metaverse heats up, virtual people suddenly pour out into the real world.

when the circle is broken

The biggest virtual character development is in the fun idols on the ground. In 2007, the first virtual singer "Hatsune Miku" was born.

At the time, the basis of the virtual idol was text-to-speech software, so you can see many Hatsune Miku characters and images, but for older fans, the sound stands out the most.

Hatsune Miku has split two faces of fans around the world since her first event, and concerts in many countries have filled up. Most people don't know this, but they do know that the song 'Song of the Shaking Dos', which broke records at the time, has over 10 million views on Japanese site Niconico daily.

The power of these two girl faces is no less than that of a real idol. Hatsune Miku has traveled to China several times. The latest "Hatsune Miku GALAXY LIVE" tour series toured Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities. Hatsune Miku currently has 600 million fans worldwide and is worth over 10 billion yen.

The success of Hatsune Miku made the country want to create virtual idols in the same way. In July 2012, Luo Tianyi was released. Like Hatsune, he was also an avatar-based VOCALOID family text-to-speech engine, and his post-debut development also focused on singing and songwriting. In 2016, she appeared on the stage of the Honam New Year concert and appeared for the first time in a major vision. Announced at the spring 2021 gala, it enhances its notoriety.

Luo Tianyi and Ma Ke reunite on the New Year's stage

Over time, virtual idols also come up with new ways. Using face capture and animation technology, real people are immersed in virtual reality images, and every movement, smile and conversation of on-screen characters is truly human.

He is still the hottest genre right now, and among fans, the avatar is clearly called "holster", and the actor behind it is "the middle man". Abroad, it only appeared as a vtuber (virtual anchor) group, and after spreading in China, it gradually began to industrialize and formed an idol group.

An example is the virtual girl 'A-SOUL' in Lehua Entertainment.

A-SOUL was unveiled in November 2020 under the title "Lehua Entertainment's First Group Performance", the members have 5 virtual girls, each photo with a special Zhongzhi number behind.

The five members had over a million followers on Weibo and Station B within 10 months of their event. At the time of the birth announcement on July 16, 2021, Bella, the captain of the fleet, had completed 10,000 ships, setting the record for first place in the virtual anchorage area and second in the history of the station B. With ten thousand officers.

On December 11 last year, A-SOUL announced the news to commemorate the 1st anniversary of its establishment of Station B. The energy of the warm-up event is comparable to that of the star car. Bustling halls in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou were set up on large screens, and videos of the five girls were seen on the runways. On the day of the announcement, the number of reservations exceeded 120,000, and throughout the process, the Port B location collected over 10 million, closing the high of 12 million. at all stations.

Annual A-SOUL City Lights Show

Virtual idols are also gaining popularity among short videos. On October 31 Halloween, virtual beauty blogger Liu Yexi announced the first Douyin video. The number of followers rose to 4 million in 7 days, sparking controversy around a virtual idol like KOL.

Whether in the media, in short films or over time, virtual idols are increasingly appearing in the public eye.

Try the company first

In the current situation, the business model of virtual idol marketing is constantly being tested. Currently, most virtual image monetization channels are live-only and in collaboration modes.

During the 12-year celebration of Bilibili, CEO Chen Rui said that more than 32,000 virtual buses were launched in Bilibili last year, up 40% from last year. The Virtual Anchors have become the biggest live band. Media coverage in Bilibili.

Station manager B costs 198 yuan per month, and the monthly fee is 138 yuan. The value of real-money giveaways can positively impact fan count and anchor cost as the machine releases. According to data collected by secondary metadata platform vtbs.moe, virtual idol subscription rewards for B Station users last year increased by 350% compared to the same period last year.

On July 16 last year, Captain Bella of A-SOUL announced his birthday on Station B. At that time, it had only been six months since the former members of A-SOUL announced on Place B. and Bella only has 250,000 subscribers. However, on the evening of the anniversary, thousands of fans came to the media room to kryptonize gold like crazy, and Bella herself completed 10,000 ships, which equals one of 25 disciples. who paid Bella. Captain.

According to statistics from the relevant site, Bella alone received 2.33 million awards in nearly three hours of advertising.

It should be noted that there are currently only 4 cruise ships that have completed 10,000 ships in port B, of which 2 are occupied by virtual idols. The first two positions among thousands of passenger anchors are also secured by virtual anchors at the same time.

It also highlights the potential of virtual idols in terms of brand involvement.

Veteran virtual idol Luo Tianyi will appear on Taobao Live announced in 2020 to bring gifts to 2.7 million viewers and nearly 2 million people who will benefit and interact. According to participating traders, the cost of a well can reach up to 900 thousand. The stand price of a modern anchor with the current inventory is usually from several tens to several hundred thousand dollars. On the other hand, Luo Tianyi is already considered the most important for freight transport - Luo Yonghao's first performance at the price of only 600,000.

Big names see virtual idols as golden symbols. The KFC guy turned into a virtual "cool man" and captured the hearts of 1.37 million fans.

Nai Xue's Tea National Tea launched virtual image ambassador "NAYUKI" to promote the product by advertising in virtual image format. Teahouses all over the country almost a week..

The popularity of virtual idols has also made the river of all commercial channels go up and down. It is understood that some research and technology companies have focused on capture devices, and AI technology will create a financial wave in 2021. In addition to ByteDance, players Famous companies such as bilibili, Red Shirt Capital and Rank Capital are vying for entry into the sport.

According to iiMedia Research, the core business of Chinese virtual idols will reach 6.22 billion yuan by 2021, raising the business environment size to 107.4 billion yuan.

Many large companies also ship outdoor entertainment. In November 2021, CCTV's first-language AI anchor was announced. It will be broadcast to the deaf throughout the year, starting with the 2022 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Real-time movement, time translation and no pause, this is the most important part of virtual characters for real work. This CCTV virtual transport is provided by Baidu Intelligent Cloud's "Digital Star Operation Platform" to provide support and assistance.

Vanke also gave the best of the year award last year to Cui Xiaopan, its first digital entrepreneur. This virtual worker was "shared" on February 1, 2021. With the blessing of process algorithms, he learned to quickly find problems in processes and data, and solve many problems with performance thousands of times faster. than before. Submitted/late submissions and performance reviews are a valuable asset. The delinquency rate for prepayments and loans reached 91.44%, as it is called.

The market value of virtual people is still slowly approaching, and all the foreigners are trying to create new capabilities in the market.

The real problem with virtual idols

The development of virtual idols seems to be successful, but there are still limitations and problems behind them.

At the offline comic expo held at Station B this year, the A-SOUL booth was full of people, and fans cheered and sang along with on-screen idols, shouting "The next stop is a bird's nest". Being able to climb a mountain bird's nest means it is truly recognized.

However, A-SOUL, who performed on the same stage with real transportation stars such as Wang Yibo and Yui Yi at the Ruhwa Family Concert on July 17, chided the audience, saying, "I'm ashamed " and "Keep it".

Most viewers don't seem to think too much about the villain who can sing and dance on screen. A-SOUL fans are angry, embarrassed and a bit frustrated, and are beginning to realize that there is still a difference in public perception and acceptance.

It is undeniable that virtual idols are still used today, but there remain significant questions of public acceptance and exchange fans.

The cost of creating and managing virtual idols is more than most people think.

According to iiMedia Research Information and Internal Industry, in an interview with 36kr, the cost of producing a virtual idol in China is 2 million yuan, and the cost of a virtual hologram concert is about 20 million yuan. . In comparison, Xue Zhiqian once reported that a song on the program would cost around 1 million to produce, a modern bird's nest stadium lease would cost 4.5 million, and a holographic virtual concert would last four days. .

Although most virtual idols are backed by big companies such as ByteDance and Tencent's "Infinite Kings Group" after A-SOUL... But these expensive designs also make slight major barriers to entry and exit.

Also, don't virtual idols really explode?

Youzai-kun (pseudonym) is an artist and an old man in a double circle. He told Zinc Financial that the current popularity of virtual idols is due to the reality behind them.

"Actually, I'm tired and I always have time to talk about luggage. Is there anyone around me who can talk all the time, anywhere? Although yes, I'm shy to say it. The leather jacket is a real person, you can get honest advice."

Jia Ran read the people reading the script and turned around and cried.

Virtual reality like this is created by the person behind it, but it can explode as long as one person sets it up.

Probably the best house collapsed in memory of a two-star man like Youzai-kun is the case of Japanese virtual idol group Holov, which insults China.

In September 2020, Hololive-hosted vtubers Akai Shin and Kiryu Coco featured Taiwan as a country on their live show. Then, all Japanese virtual idols at Station B were banned for a month.

In the apology that followed, HoloLive's behavior was insincere, and there was even "provocation" on the replay. This caused most of the Chinese fans, and the team's subtitles also removed the subtitles and withdrew from the circle. Youzai-kun said at the time that many people gave up all of their virtual idols because their house was broken and not going back to the pit.

Virtual idols should always be aware of the risk of being "killed" with inappropriate language that harms their behavior. When you remove the mask, the familiarity with the audience disappears. If the ratio is too high, you will get fan reaction. In Japan, there are many examples of uncles behind multiple virtual girls.

It also leads to other deeper thoughts. Can the audience accept the recurrence of the person in the middle? It's still an unresolved problem to this day, and it's still a real problem that all virtual machines need to explore.

Virtual idols may be big, but they're not at the top level yet. Damage levels, costs and property damage are all issues that cannot be ignored. At least for now, it's just the electronic melody that many fans dream of.