Many in the licensing industry have long been pointing to the number of brands in South East Asia, that have yet to break into ‘the west’, as a huge opportunity for growth. We have already covered the growth in anime and manga, and how when combined with the collectibles category they are at the forefront of the kidult trend driving the toy business.
However it’s not just brands that have yet to break outside of Asia that offer up opportunities in the licensing space. Influencers, and in particular VTubers, are growing incredibly quickly and building communities and fandoms with a desire for branded products - digital and physical.
But let’s back up a moment - what even is a VTuber? A VTuber is a YouTuber, but instead of showing themselves in their videos they use a virtual avatar. This avatar is often created using real-time motion capture software such as Live2D. The VTuber's avatar is created by a webcam and their chosen software, which capture the streamer's motions, expressions, and mouth movements, and maps them to a 2D or 3D model.
The trend started in Japan in the mid-2010s, but has become an international online phenomenon over the past few years. By 2020, there were more than 10,000 active VTubers and although the term is an allusion to YouTube, they also use platforms such as Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, and Bilibili.
By using digital avatars VTubers are not bound by physical limitations, and can express themselves in ways that are unconstrained by their real-world identity, and can use their avatars as a means to better reflect their preferred presentation to their audience.
VTubers are usually associated with Japanese popular culture and style, such as anime and manga, with human or non-human traits. Some VTubers use anthropomorphic avatars, i.e. non-human characters, usually animals.
VTubers often portray themselves as a kayfabe character, the convention of presenting staged performances as genuine or authentic, not unlike professional wrestling. Mace, a WWE wrestler who himself began streaming on Twitch as a VTuber in 2021, remarked that the two professions were "literally the same thing".
In late 2016, Kizuna AI, one of the first VTubers to achieve breakout popularity, debuted on YouTube and was the first to coin and use the term "virtual YouTuber" to describe herself. Kizuna AI created a sense of "real intimacy" with fans, by being incredibly responsive to fans’ questions and in less than a year had racked up over two million subscribers. She was so popular that she also became a cultural ambassador of the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Kizuna AI, and other VTuber’s, popularity can probably be attributed to the over-saturation of traditional YouTubers. By not being themselves and playing more of a character VTubers can lean into the outrageous and unexpected. In the case of Kizuna Al, despite her otherwise juvenile appearance, she often uses profanity in her videos when she gets frustrated while playing video games.
Akami Karubi is a female Japanese VTuber who mainly streams on Twitch but also shares edited videos on YouTube and is the #3 ranked VTuber. With red hair, cat-ears and eyes with sharp cat-like pupils she definitely personifies the VTuber anime/manga style with non-human traits. Last year she joined the professional e-sports organization Crazy Raccoon as a content creator, becoming its first female member and then went on to release her first music single and is signed to the Universal Music Japan record label. As well as playing video games she rahter unusally also does food reviews - with meat dishes being a particular favourite.
Like many VTubers Akami is incredibly popular and inspires a very loyal fanbase with huge levels of engagement with her streams, and also generates large amounts of fan art and other unofficial products. And these communities are only going to grow as they embark on brand partnerships and find other routes outside of streaming, such as music, to engage with new fans.
The fandoms that have been built up around VTubers are very intense and are hungry for digital and physical products that can show their passion for their favourite VTubers. This makes VTubers perfect for licensing partnerships, to both help VTubers expand their fandoms into new territories and help licensees to launch products in Asia.