Name: Zibeier Official

Platform: Bilibili

Number of followers: 148,000

Streaming time: 2 years

Name: Shisi_official

Platform: Douyin

Number of followers: 3,407

Streaming time: 2 years

Virtual YouTubers, also called Vtubers, originated in Japan. A Virtual YouTuber is an online content creator who uses a virtual animated avatar to do the livestreams on platforms such as YouTuber and Bilibili. This concept broke out in late 2016, when the official first VTuber went viral under the name Kizuna AI. Kizuna AI was the first to coin and use the term “Virtual YouTuber,” with her diverse and continuously evolving content, including gaming, chatting, music, etc. Now Kizuan AI has 2.98 million subscribers on YouTube and the average views of her videos are over 100,000.

From the beginning, due to avatars mostly using anime elements, VTubers attracted the community who love anime and manga, which is also called the otaku in Japan. The term is used to describe people with specific interests in anime, manga and video games. The audience base of otaku was quick to embrace Vtubers, leading to a wide range of viral content.

During the pandemic era, the views of live streaming and videos surged to a high level both in Japan and globally, which has helped VTubers attract different communities and gain more fans. Take Japan as an example, according to Playboard, a site that collects statistics on YouTube, VTubers’ overall revenue in 2020 was five times higher than in 2019. At that time, the highest earner was VTuber Kiryu Koko (桐生ココ), who had more than 880,000 YouTube followers at the time, earning up to over HK$7 million.

In 2024, the top VTuber who earns the most is Koyori Ch with a yearly earning of HK$42 million, and the second is Chloe with a yearly earning of HK$33 million, according to Playboard.

Influenced by Japanese culture, China also has a large amount of Virtual YouTubers that are popular with young groups like animation. Platforms like Bilibili and Douyin are the top two options for Vtubers, and a few of the others use Huya, Douyu, and Kuaishou.  Bilibili is the first and best choice for Vtubers in China now, because it is a popular video-sharing site centered around “ACG culture” in China, meaning anime, comics, and games, attracting young audiences. One of the popular Chinese VTubers is Luo Tianyi, a virtual singer incubated by Bilibili, with around 3.7 million followers in Bilibili. 

With the rise of the concept of meta-universe, the virtual anchor industry in China has gained a lot of attention. According to a study in 2022 by IResearch, an organization focusing on research in China’s internet industry, China’s virtual anchor market size was about 300 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year growth of 103.1%, as the industry entered a rapid growth stage. As it is estimated, during 2022-2024, the explosive growth in hardware and software as well as content output will drive the industry even higher. At the same time, relying on the already relatively complete live broadcast market, the virtual anchor ecology will rapidly mature. Considering that the industry penetration has not yet peaked, and the possible popularity of VR/AR hardware, it is expected that China’s virtual anchor market will still maintain a high growth rate in the next three years.

Tianfeng Securities’ related research report pointed out that, according to Darkflame, in 2022, the monthly live income of the industry’s head virtual anchor in China ranged from 500,000 yuan to 2 million yuan, and the world’s highest-earning VTuber in 2020 earned about 8.4 million yuan.

However, the head of the virtual anchor’s ability to absorb money does not represent the ecology of the whole industry, as the commercial realisation of the virtual anchor is still polarized. Public data shows that as of August 2021, among the more than 3,000 virtual anchors with relative attention on Bilibili, 1,827 of them had a revenue of 0 yuan in that month.

According to research by IResearch, most Vtubers in China earn 3,000 to 15,000 yuan monthly, with only 12.4% reaching over 15,000 yuan.

Technology like 3D modelling, motion capture and natural language processing is the foundation of virtual lifestreaming. As one of the most important techniques behind the career, motion capture would apply to most VTubers.

In China, Bilibili Vups mostly use VTube Studio, and Vseeface for face capture, which provide accurate control over the Live2D model, including eye-tracking and winking. Now VTube Studio also supports hand tracking, which meets the needs of most virtual YouTubers.

Advanced VTubers and motion capture are closely related. For VTubers, motion capture means that their facial expressions, gestures, and body movements are captured in real-time and translated onto their virtual character.

Junyu Ma is a motion capture actor in Guangzhou. He has been doing this job for 2 years. Junyu used to be a martial arts actor. He realized being a motion capture actor would be his dream job after he worked in the motion capture industry, because he sees it as more challenging and exciting. 

 Except for motion capture, the technical principles behind VTubers also include artificial intelligence technology and 3D modelling. Artificial intelligence technology is used to generate the voice, expressions and movements of virtual anchors so that they can be synchronised with the human behind the virtual YouTubers, while  3D modeling technology serves to create virtual images, enhancing their vividness and diversity.

With bugs constantly occurring when live streaming, issues like image freezing and unnatural gestures on the screen can cause problems for Vtubers. Significant costs is required when they reach out for technological assistance. 

Furthermore, many well-known VTubers attract audiences from all over the world, creating challenges related to language barriers and localization. The translation and localization of content, subtitles, and real-time interactions can be technically demanding, particularly when multiple languages are involved simultaneously.

Yuanning, a fan of VTubers, mentioned that the foreign VTuber Vox Akuma enjoys significant global popularity. His inaugural live stream on Bilibili generated over a million dollars within two hours. However, due to language barriers, some fans do not fully understand English and may depend on translations, which can affect their sense of engagement during the live stream.

As Chinese VTubers, they may have common challenges in this industry.

"Anyone who does live streaming is likely to be disturbed by fans' messages," said Zi Beier. "There was a time when a fan cursed me daily during my live streams for three to four months and even privately messaged my fans, urging them to unfollow me."

Another Vup Shisi_official noted that some viewers, believing they are well-informed about VTubers, express disdain for the animated avatars used by VTubers.

In terms of salary, it is divided into two kinds of VTubers, one is contracted VTubers, another is individual VTubers. Zi Beier is a contracted VTuber, so she has a basic salary if she does live stream for a certain number of hours a month. The basic salary could be vary among different companies, with the range between 2,000 to 11,000 yuan. But if they are individual VTubers such as Shisi, Annian and Huaijin, they don’t have guaranteed wages from companies. Their income mostly relies on the gifts from live streaming. Shisi said if a fan sent him a 70 yuan gift, he would get 7 yuan. The reasons why they choose to be individual VTubers are because there are fewer live content restrictions and no company splits.

According to the above, the Vtuber industry seems to be a promising industry in China at present and in the next few years, despite all the challenges to overcome. 

A Vtuber can earn a fortune if he does it right, but he can also fail and end up with nothing. With the uncertainty of ending up in paradise or with struggle, many would still take their future as a bet.

Knowing the challenges, would you consider becoming a Vtuber in China?

The End

   Authors:

Bai Yueyuchen,

He Manting

Advisor:

Yolanda Ma

Special thanks to:

Motion capturer Ma Junyun and the Vtubers