Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

Although in the era of e-commerce live broadcast, "everything can be sold, anyone can broadcast", but in the KOL, stars, entrepreneurs and other live sales, AI virtual idol live selling still looks unique.

Recently, the news of live sales of domestic well-known virtual singers Luo Tianyi and Le Zhengya has attracted the attention of many "Jin Yiwei" and two-dimensional culture lovers. On the day of the live broadcast, in just one hour, the number of online viewers rose to 2.7 million, and nearly 2 million people appreciated the interaction, which can be called Li Jiaqi of the AI virtual idol world.

Another news revealed that "one Zen Little Monk" and "Dog Brother Jack Sue" are preparing for live broadcast with goods, indicating that the tide of live broadcast with goods from AI virtual idols is coming. At that time, the AI virtual idol market may once again attract capital attention, and usher in a fierce battle of "fighting for each other".

Is the live broadcast of AI virtual idol popular?

The popularity of live streaming of AI virtual idols such as Luo Tianyi and Le Zhengya is due to consumers' three-minute popularity due to freshness, or is it because AI virtual idol live streaming is better than live live streaming? Market analysis results are more inclined to the former.

On the one hand, the live broadcast of AI virtual idol is more like a fan carnival, which increases the channels of brand communication and commodity sales to some extent, but AI virtual idol has considerable genetic defects in the presentation of commodity value.

And the well-known virtual idol has commercial value, so the possibility of AI virtual idol taking goods on a large scale is small. It is reported that virtual singer Luo Tianyi has accumulated 4.59 million and 1.82 million followers on Weibo and bilibili respectively. The first Zen monk is IP incubated by MCN organization Dayu, with more than 46 million followers on Douyin. Dog Jack Su is also one of the top accounts of Douyin.

Second, unlike Li Jiaqi and Weiya's household names and department stores, the sale of AI virtual idols only covers new groups such as post-1995 and post-00s who pay attention to the secondary field, which also means that there will be sales only if they recommend products that are suitable for new groups.

Of course, it does not rule out that some brands just want to "show their face" in the new group, so as to increase the awareness of the brand in the new group, it does not matter whether the goods can be sold or not. On the other hand, the AI virtual idol can not only meet the "appearance" needs of brands, but also meet the concerns of new groups, and the two launched a campaign of "brand promotion in the name of live broadcast with goods".

Third, e-commerce live broadcast is in the tuyere. Apart from anchors, entrepreneurs, county magistrates and stars have come to get a piece of the pie, suffering from the commercial dilemma of AI virtual idol to bring goods to the next live broadcast is also expected. After all, AI virtual idol is omnipotent. He is good at singing, dancing and hosting everything, and it is not impossible to test the waters to bring goods, but it is difficult to achieve sustainable development.

No matter what the purpose, the live streaming of AI virtual idols has become popular among the newborn group, which means that the wave of AI virtual characters is coming again.

Capital chasing Dream AI Virtual Idol

In 2007, the Japanese virtual idol Chuyin was born in the future, which led to the development of the virtual idol industry on its own, and this market trend quickly spread to China, followed by the birth of Luo Tianyi and other virtual characters, and boarded the stage of CCTV, Hunan Satellite TV and Jiangsu Satellite TV in a short time, and the virtual idol market was very popular.

In recent years, with the maturity and wide application of AI, VR, holography and other technologies, entrepreneurs and Internet giants pay more and more attention to virtual idols.

Tencent launched the "Infinite King of Kings" AI virtual male group based on the game characters in "Arena of Valor". Like a real-life idol, the "Infinite King" AI virtual boy team released albums, held events, shot covers and other commercial activities one by one, broadening the Tencent virtual idol business market.

In addition, iqiyi's virtual band "RichBoom" in "I am a singer-songwriter", "China New Rap", "Youth has you 2" and other popular variety shows, but also endorses Tsing Tao Beer, Nongfu Spring, Sprite and other brands, the commercial value is getting higher and higher.

As a mecca for giving birth to two-dimensional culture, bilibili has been in the field of virtual idols for a long time. In addition to launching virtual idols of 2233 Niang and bringing together more than 6000 virtual anchors, she has also invested in two-dimensional virtual idols and Vtuber of Chinese and Japanese heads such as Luo Tianyi and Rainbow Society, and has held many virtual idol concerts and other activities.

In addition, Internet companies such as KuGou, A Station and Huya have dabbled in the virtual idol market, while start-ups focusing on virtual IP have also received capital attention. On May 6, McGee Technology announced that it had received tens of millions of yuan in round B financing led by Bo General Capital, while McGee Technology's MCN Magic Mutual Entertainment focuses on the virtual IP business.

Virtual idols have exploded in the capital market, and the group of fans of virtual idols continues to expand.

According to incomplete statistics from Beijing Business Daily, there are now more than 30 virtual idols who have made their debut. According to bilibili statistics, there are tens of thousands of "UP masters" around the "virtual song Ji" to create and spread. Take Luo Tianyi as an example, bilibili has more than 10000 original music works, and masterpieces such as "ordinary Disco" and "Power over the World" can get tens of thousands of hits in bilibili.

In short, there is an uphill battle in the AI virtual idol market.

The value of AI virtual characters is prominent, and the blue sea is vast.

To some extent, AI virtual idol can make up for the deficiency of people's normal activities or add icing on the cake for the activities, which is also the value of its existence.

On the one hand, AI virtual idol is an integration of a number of Internet technologies, with a strong plastic nature. For example, providing AI virtual characters with the "strongest brain" can efficiently collect information and store a large amount of content, which can meet the needs of normal communication and interaction between virtual idols and consumers.

And can create a versatile, perfect appearance, voice changeable image, to meet all the fantasies of fans on the idol. In the case of co-hosting a live show, virtual idols can make up for the lack of real-life hosting talent, and have high-tech visual effects, whether "face fans" or "technology fans" can be turned into fans.

On the other hand, compared with real-life idols, AI virtual idols do not have emotional troubles and will not be tired by high-intensity work, which ensures the efficiency and frequency of work, and also means that there is more time to make a lot of money. Of course, the important thing is that during the working process, AI virtual characters can maintain a relatively stable working state and ensure the standard and quality of the performance.

Not only the AI virtual idol, the secondary industry is becoming more and more intelligent and digital products, which will also drive the development of other new industries. For example, more and more AI virtual hosts, AI virtual lawyers, AI teachers and so on.

Of course, the penetration of AI virtual characters into various industries must be because there is demand in the market and is affirmed by consumers. Nowadays, the post-1995 and post-00s groups who support the second culture are growing, and with the passage of time, the new generation of users will become the backbone of the consumer market. It is expected that AI virtual characters still have a lot of room for business development.

Next process: disintegration of technology, cost dilemma

Driven by the growth of consumer demand of the new generation of users, there is no doubt that AI virtual idols will be popular.

According to relevant statistics, the total number of generation Z (people born between 1995 and 2009) is about 260 million, and the second dimension is one of the representatives of the circle in generation Z. The total output value of China's secondary industry is estimated to be about 200 billion yuan in 2019 and will exceed 220 billion yuan by 2020.

But at present, the cost and technical requirements arising from the production and shaping of AI virtual idol IP are still difficult for the major platforms.

It is reported that the cost of inviting Luo Tianyi to broadcast live is 900000, which is much higher than the quotation of 320000 for Li Jiaqi and 180000 for Weiya, which are higher than the market revelations. The appearance fee of AI virtual idol is high because the technical requirements of AI virtual idol performance are very high, which also means that it needs to invest a huge cost for technical research and product maintenance.

At the same time, trapped in the dilemma of technology and cost, it is difficult for the platform to mass produce AI virtual idol, and even if the AI virtual idol is developed, it also needs to help AI virtual idol out of the circle to have commercial value, which requires high marketing costs.

Therefore, only by solving the problems of cost and technology at the same time is it possible to further expand the AI virtual idol industry.

All in all, in the vast blue sea of virtual IP market, in addition to resisting attacks from their peers, the differentiated creation and innovation of their own AI virtual characters should also keep pace with the development of artificial intelligence technology.

(official account of Liu Kuang / tr. by Phil Newell) ID:liukuang110

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.