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The Development of the Metaverse: VTuber’s Fan Economy

By Tony Wei, Scott Chen, Anita Chen, Elsie Chu


 

With the public’s increasing interest in the metaverse, the boundaries between reality and fantasy can be blurred through the advancement of technology. The virtual influencers, with endless energy and everlasting youth, seem to be altering the universal definition of reality.


The Driver of the Metaverse Popularization: Entertainment Industry

It is likely that we could meet the untouchable VTuber and the celebrities or the family members who had passed away long ago in this virtual space. From the above expectations, it is apparent that one of the most important mechanisms in the metaverse world is interactions. Through the interactions between the participants, the metaverse then starts to be active, vivid, and affecting.

In order to rapidly create interactions between the participants, the metaverse mainly relies on the entertainment industry. The professionals believe that there is a high possibility that virtual concerts, virtual KTV, and virtual idols will be first applied in the metaverse field. For instance, on account of the anticipation of standing side by side with the idols, many fans are pleased with creating their own digital identities. Moreover, some of them are even willing to spend their money on VR headsets in the hope of clapping and chatting with their idols in certain scenes of the virtual world. Thanks to the upward trend of VTuber, many young fans are devoting themselves to metaverse development.


The VTuber Industry: A Considerable Business Scale

With the gradual maturity of metaverse technology, Vtuber has become a brand-new business opportunity. It is said that the profits that VTuber earns might be even higher than what a super idol earns in real life. The profits not only come from the advertising dividends on YouTube, but also from the audiences’ donations through the communication software, such as Super Chat.

According to the data analytics website for the YouTube channel, Playboard, the VTuber who got first place in profits earned in 2020 was Kiryu Coco from Japan. She had more than 880,000 fans on YouTube, and she even earned up to 1.5 billion JPY on Super Chat. Based on the above, it is strongly believed that the VTuber’s overall income in 2020 would be five times higher than that in 2019, and the Vtuber’s overall income in 2021 will be even two times higher than that in 2020.


Better Interactive Technology Are Needed

Through current technology, it is still not an easy task to hold a virtual concert. The difficulty involves the synchronization of sounds and pictures. For instance, there must be a disparity in time when a physical human being wants to clap with a virtual idol.

Fortunately, not only Yahoo but also the new technology startup, XRSPACE, actively devote themselves to the technology development of the metaverse. It is said that the upcoming metaverse brings various opportunities for art creation. Therefore, a brand-new trend of metaverse entertainment enables anticipation for physical human beings walking into the metaverse and sharing the joy together with the virtual figures in the near future.



 

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