VTuber (Virtual YouTuber), commonly known as virtual idol or virtual anchor, has gradually come into the public's attention in recent years. Many people in Taiwan may still be unfamiliar with the term “VTuber”, but from the billboard of the pop-up store with VTuber “さくらみこ ” in Xinmenting, or the VTuber-themed cafes that have sprung up in Taiwan recently, the impact of VTuber’s is not a topic that we can ignored anymore. So, what is VTuber? As a brand, how can we drive on VTuber craze? Let CAPSULE tell you with these 5 questions!
1. What is VTuber? How big is the market size?
VTuber is a creator who uploads videos and broadcasts live on online video platforms (mainly YouTube) in the form of a virtual character that looks like an anime character, with a real person's voice and performance behind the scenes.
Began from Japan, Anycolor and Cover these two companies are leading the whole VTuber industry with so many languages such as: English, Indonesian to swept to global market. And the most popular VTuber "Gawr Gura"(mainly in the English-speaking market) has already had more than 4.35 million subscribers on Youtube. According to the survey done by a well-known consulting firm, there are at least thousands of active VTuber all around the world with hundreds of millions viewers, and the top 50 VTuber's monthly "YouTube Super Chat" amount exceeds 35 million NTD (Source: Playboard). Also pointing out that the global VTuber market scale will reach more than 500 billion NTD in 2028 (Source: Playboard) demonstrating an astonishing growth rate.
2. Is VTuber a big market trend in Taiwan? How many people are following VTuber?
Do Taiwanese follow VTuber? According to CAPSULE’s observation, the audience of VTuber has been highly overlap with ACG (Anime, Comics, Games) fans, and Taiwan always had a large ACG audience with even ranking 4th in the world in terms of the number of animation rights sold in Japan in 2022, with a total of close to 200 titles, showing the market's unlimited potential.
Otherwise, according to Google Trends, the search volume of VTuber in Taiwan has been on the rise for the past five years, and it's easy to see VTuber culture has been flourishing in Taiwan. As a result, more and more VTuber IPs including Anycolor and Cover, have begun to launch their events in Taiwan. Among them, there is a pop-up cafe created by CAPSULE and hololive EN (the name of Cover's VTuber group) has won great attention from VTuber fans.
hololive English and CAPSULE has launched a pop-up theme cafe "hololive EN cafe" in March this year. In addition to producing a series of limited edition merchandise, the event also launched several meals and drinks based on the characteristics of each member in hololive English, create over 25 media reports with more than 10 KOL videos, and the official Facebook + Twitter page of hololive English cafe has gained 10,000 followers in a short period of time. Compared to other countries such as Korea and Singapore, the high engagement, stickiness, and consuming power of Taiwanese fans made this event the top sales record for hololive cafe around the world, shows the high popularity of VTuber IP in Taiwan.
3. What is the difference between VTuber and a real idol? What kind of needs does VTuber fulfill?
“VTuber gives fans a lot of imagination, and most of them have their own interesting characterizations (e.g., a vampire, an angel were doing research of humans, a bard who likes to travel, or even an orc). In addition, VTuber combines the glamor of idols and also the easy personalities of YouTube creators, and they often engage with their fans through live streams that can last for five or six hours.
For many fans, VTuber is like a favorite idol who is always there for them during meals, after work, or whenever they need. That's why people are willing to donate, buy merchandise, attend events, and support their favorite VTuber in any way they can.” said by Joanne Chang, VP of CAPSULE.
4. What kind of brands should consider to collaborate with VTuber? Is there any success case?
CAPSULE believes that brands should not reflexively collaborate with VTuber for the reason they want is only to “reach young TAs”, instead, they should consider and compare VTuber and other influencers, YouTube creators, KOLs, KOCs to find out the best choice. Before collaborating with VTuber, brand should still follow their marketing plan and confirm the marketing objectives, TA, positioning, etc., and take into consideration the differences in the characters and audiences of different VTubers to find out the points that can resonate with the audience and to create a synergy effect.
Monica Kao, SVP of CAPSULE also shared the success case collaborating with VTuber of Taiwan market: "CAPSULE has assisted a game client to promote the game by combining with VTuber, including Taiwan VTuber covering the theme song, and Japan VTuber live broadcasting to play the game, which has brought more than 7,000 viewers during broadcasting.
In addition to the gaming industry, brands in all fields also have the potential to collaborate with VTuber. For example, dot st, a Japanese fashion brand with a sub-brand focusing on younger generation, once approached VTuber to collaborate on a co-branded project and set up a collection of items selected by VTubers in a physical store, which was sold out immediately on the live event.
Reference: https://www.dot-st.com/cp/st2023ss-nijisanji
5. What kind of brands should consider building up their own VTuber IP? What are the pros and cons?
Peihan Lo, VP of CAPSULE suggests that when brands are thinking about this issue, the direction of consideration should be the same as "whether or not to cultivate their own artists and creators": "Although owning one's own VTuber has a higher degree of mastery and the right of more flexible usage, the relative costs, risks, and responsibilities to be borne are also greater too; no matter whether it's an artist, singer, creator or a VTuber, if they fail to gain favor and awareness in the market, they are likely fail to earn the corresponding revenue. Among them, just to ask the artist to produce the visual assets of VTuber, NTD $30,000~50,000 is already a very basic cost, not to mention commissioning a well-known artist may double the price; and other costs from the manpower due to the software and hardware construction, social media management, marketing etc. Otherwise, how to build VTuber into a well-known IP management, is also quite a difficult test of the brand team's ability."
In the fast-changing and fragmented world of new media industry, VTuber has gradually become part of Generation Z entertainment, full of endless possibilities. No matter what type of brand or industry, a partnership with VTuber will bring more attention to the brand and build a stronger relationship with the new generation of consumers. Would you like to know more about VTuber's collaboration and results? Do you want to know how to create your own VTuber IP? Please feel free to contact us and let the most professional content marketing team CAPSULE to create a unique marketing proposal for your brand: https://contentmarketing-en.capsuleinc.co/