Idols "collapsed houses" one after another, virtual idols become a magic weapon to break the circle

　　Recently, many idols and celebrities in the entertainment industry have seen negative news, which has caused many people to question "Is it true that real stars are dead".

According to iiMedia Consulting's data, the scale of China's virtual idol core industry is expected to reach 6.22 billion yuan in 2021.

With huge commercial value, virtual idol-related startups have also gained a lot of capital's favor.

　　On the one hand, the real idol "collapsed" due to private life, and on the other hand, the virtual idol will leave work as soon as the phone is disconnected. There is no worries about the future.

This has led to the deployment of virtual idols in various major factories, and the industry is becoming more and more optimistic about this potential market.

A quick password to break the circle of "Generation Z"

　　Virtual idols are based on algorithms, through painting, animation, CG technology, etc., to achieve non-real singing and dancing performances in virtual and real scenes.

Since the advent of the concept of virtual idols, the form has been updated and iterated several times. Today's virtual idols have become a product of the perfect combination of technology, commerce and culture.

　　When it comes to virtual idols, many people have heard of "Hatsune Miku", "Luo Tianyi" and so on.

These idol products with specific character settings, story backgrounds, and personal preferences are exactly like a real "human being".

As the originator of virtual idols, "Hatsune Miku" sits on 600 million fans worldwide and is worth tens of billions of yen.

How much money can "Hatsune Miku" make in a year?

It is said that the minimum volume of 600 million yen (about 40 million yuan) is similar to the average domestic first-line idol.

　　As an independent individual, real idols have their own thinking, "cooperation" and "loyalty" and other unstable factors. So when seeing the value of virtual idols, virtual idols began to break the circle in the true sense and were accepted by the markets of various countries. .

　　In 2012, China took the opportunity to launch the first virtual idol "Luo Tianyi".

Singing songs, holding concerts, and singing together with singers, "Luo Tianyi" has attracted the attention and pursuit of the young market.

Since then, virtual idols have officially started to appear in the Chinese market.

From individual idols to group combinations, they are all impacting the traditional entertainment market to varying degrees. How to create audiences of all ages and grasp the pain points of "Generation Z" (mostly the generation born between 1995 and 2009) young people , Let the "niche" successfully break the circle, and become the focus of new entertainment industry excavation.

Dachang lays out new ways to play in the entertainment industry

　　With the advancement of science and technology, holographic projection technology is constantly improving.

Virtual idols are no longer a new concept, but how to play tricks to find new breakthroughs has become the most important issue in the entertainment industry.

Tencent Video took the lead in launching the image of a young character "Hertz".

"Hertz" first appeared in the first season of "Tomorrow's Children" in 2017. The participation of virtual idols brought great topics to the show. In the end, "Hertz" successfully went out of the circle and advanced to the top eight in the country, and in 2020, "Tomorrow's Family" "Four Seasons Premiere Concert" to sing.

　　Immediately, Tencent Music Entertainment Group officially entered into a strategic cooperation with Wave, an interactive virtual performance company supported by star investors such as The Weeknd and Justin Bieber, which also indicates that the virtual idol market has won the "market crowd" optimistic.

　　Tencent took the lead, followed by iQiyi and Station B.

IQiyi launched "Cross-Dimensional Rising Stars", dedicated to creating a "cultivating idol talent show"; the VirtuaReal virtual artist project at station B, Nanako Nanako was ranked first on the live broadcast popularity list of station B; CCTV launched the country last year The talent show "Let's Go Online!"

"Hua Cai Youth", launched the virtual girl image Ling Ling.

　　Since then, IPs such as Reddi, Vince, Vila, and AYAYI have emerged, and more and more virtual people have opened personal accounts on online social platforms, proving that virtual idols have been recognized by the Chinese market.

　　From Watsons’ virtual spokesperson "Qu Chenxi" to Tmall’s avatar "Qianmiao" designed for Yi Yang Qianxi on Double Eleven, today’s virtual idols are no longer the first generation of "Hatsune Miku", but a new young trend. The cultural "spokesperson" is committed to creating an entertainment model that is close to young groups and reaches users.

Where does the virtual idol go in the future

　　Of course, every virtual idol has a clear personality, which places extremely high demands on the technical team behind it.

At present, the virtual idol market is not perfect, and there is no clear creation process.

　　A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily interviewed Xu Peng, CEO of Kunpeng Golden Wings, for his views on virtual idols. He bluntly said: “Social networks provide a basic scenario for the popularity of virtual people. To gain continuous attention and have more valuable monetization capabilities, many operations The company began to try more marketing methods. In addition to graphic and video communication, virtual humans are developing in a more three-dimensional direction closer to users. Participating in online activities, variety shows, large-scale evenings, etc. has become some virtual humans that quickly increase their exposure. way."

　　It can be seen that due to the high technical threshold, there are still some "pain points" that cannot be solved in virtual idols.

Secondly, in terms of training cost, the price of a virtual idol is much higher than that of a real idol. Generally, the cost of a virtual idol to produce a song is about 100,000 yuan; if combined with songs, dances and MV content, the cost can reach 1 million yuan; if you want to hold a special concert of virtual idols, the cost is as high as 20 million yuan.

As the technology matures, the production cost of virtual idols is also falling.

　　However, compared with real-life idols, virtual idols have incomparable advantages over real-life idols, such as plasticity, controllability, and more development possibilities. It allows idols not to be affected by time and space, and has great flexibility. Spend.

In the future, the issue of appearance will no longer be the main barrier in the field of virtual idols. What kind of competition will be launched by personality charm is also worth looking forward to.

Entertainment marketing expert Hu Yang told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter: “If virtual idol variety shows can focus on content production, technology upgrades, and ensure on-site deployment, it will be easier for virtual idols to take advantage of the advantages of virtual idols. With the help of 5G and large-screen projection, the success of virtual idols It's a matter of course."

　　Text/Reporter Wang Lei

　　Coordinator/Man Yi