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The virtual anchor quickly empowers other industries, and the business model may be more vital.

Look at business with perspective. Super perspective, cutting-edge observations from new business practitioners.

Text | Special Observer Cheng Weizhong

Edit | Cui Mindong

In the past few years, Zhongke Shenzhi has been focusing on serving the virtual idol and virtual anchor customers of the head, and also serving many well-known animation companies, providing them with motion capture and real-time animation technology, and getting a lot of actual dry goods from partners. As a serial entrepreneur in the IT, mobile Internet and e-commerce marketing industries, I also like to observe and think about the development of the virtual anchor market at home and abroad. I have some opinions to share with you.

I have a strong feeling after the Spring Festival this year. Due to the outbreak affecting everyone’s travel, online business has received much attention, and virtual anchor business has also received unprecedented attention. In most cases last year, we proactively contacted potential customers, but after this year, many companies took the initiative to contact us to learn about virtual live streaming. From February 10 to the present, we have worked overtime to assist these future partners to do various virtual anchor business tests.

I also found some interesting things in the communication. Everyone is generally very high when they come up. Even if they don’t have a lot of funds and resources, they want to quickly create a big IP, and then consider how to develop and monetize around the big IP. This idea is obviously influenced by the Japanese market and the anime boom in previous years. Of course, this road can go smoothly, of course, but the domestic market has its own characteristics. Catch these characteristics to quickly empower other industries. The business model may be more viable. In simple terms, the money may be faster.

From virtual idol to virtual anchor is an inevitable trend

Before virtual anchors and virtual live broadcasts became popular, the first to rise were virtual idols, which represented “Hatsune Miku”. An important reason why “Hatsune Miku” can be a hit and quickly become a big IP is the MMD (3D anime character dance editor) and the UGC community. Why talk about this? Because you can see the importance of user engagement and interaction.

Domestic native virtual idols, such as our customers sproutBears and silent sauces also pay special attention to operations and fan interaction. Although fan interaction is different from Japan, the core spirit of encouraging fan engagement and interaction is the same. Fans don’t want virtual idols to play like cartoons. They can only watch them stupidly. They have to participate, speak, and respond. They need virtual idols to be closer to the flesh and blood.

When communicating with domestic MCN agencies, they said that short videos have a similar situation. Many short videos came out, and fans liked it very much, like chasing dramas, but fans soon became dissatisfied with simply watching and reposting. They hope that the creators of short videos can come to the stage and become anchors, establish “strong relationship” links with fans, and accompany and warm fans. This interaction itself will stimulate a lot of video content creativity. Therefore, not only can it form a virtuous circle of content production, but it also strongly connects fans through the network, which greatly increases fan stickiness and activity. The charm of this live broadcast is hard to have with unidirectional short video playback.

The specially created virtual image can be carefully designed from the image to the talents according to the preferences of the target audience. Sometimes it is the cool game live master, sometimes it is the gentle wife in the otaku’s heart, to meet all the otaku’s fantasy, hit 90 The heart of the post-anime core crowd. At the same time, it does not lack timely user interaction like the virtual idol represented by “Hatsune Miku”. Each virtual anchor has a live actor (the person in the middle), which delivers a special tone, rich expressions and seductive limb movements to the audience in real time. Virtual anchor has become a person who has both personality and atmosphere, of course, it will soon become a new model of low-cost IP.

The emergence of virtual anchors is firstly driven by the fan needs mentioned above. Fans need virtual idols to respond to them anytime, anywhere, and secondly, it is the promotion of related technology applications. For virtual idols like Hatsune Miku, the main shows are produced using traditional CG animation techniques. Virtual anchor is an organic combination of virtual idol and live broadcast. To support live broadcast, there must be new technologies such as motion capture, expression capture, real-time rendering, etc., in order to drive virtual idol to perform and live broadcast through live performance.

With strong demand and innovative technological blessings, virtual anchors became popular as soon as they appeared. The earliest virtual anchor appeared on YouTube in Japan. Japan called the virtual anchor VTuber, which refers to the anchor who broadcasted on YouTube using a virtual image. At the end of 2016, the virtual anchor “trip love” was born, which opened the era of virtual anchor and virtual live broadcast. As the first virtual anchor in history, “Tie Ai” attracted much attention as soon as it appeared, and “her” YouTube channel fans quickly reached millions. With the success of “trip love”, many Japanese companies and individuals began to pay attention and enter the emerging market of “virtual anchor”.

Under the dual drive of commercial interests and personal interests, and the low threshold for business start-up, a large number of virtual anchors have sprung up in 2018. 2019 Japan VirtualThe prospective anchor and live broadcast markets are rapidly dividing, and professional institutions like NIJISANJI are gradually becoming the market leader. NIJISANJI became Japan’s largest virtual anchor group in a short period of time from 2017 to 2019. NIJISANJI means the combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional, and is called a rainbow club in China by fans. Caihongsha specializes in the field of highly interactive virtual anchors and live broadcasts. According to the anchors’ plan, they select live broadcast topics, mobilize resources to initiate multi-party cooperation, and commercialize the dual attributes of “anchor + animation IP” of virtual anchors. With the advantages of low cost, high output and high efficiency, it has built nearly 100 virtual anchors in 2 years. There are still many such specialized agencies in Japan, raising the threshold for virtual anchor and live broadcast services.

Japanese virtual anchor continues the star-making model of virtual idols

Just as virtual idols such as “Hatsune Miku” borrowed from Japanese anime IP models, the Japanese virtual anchor market has clearly continued the virtual idol star and big IP models. Before becoming a head-selling IP, virtual idols and virtual anchors lacked a monetization path. However, after becoming a head-selling IP, Japan’s long-established animation industry chain has actually prepared a relatively mature monetization chain for virtual anchors.

In the past, Japan ’s anime IP incubation basically did comics and anime first, and continuously updated the content to increase the popularity of IP and the number of fans. After the number of fans and IP popularity reaches a certain level, develop audio and video works, film and television works, games, and peripheral derivatives around IP. Among them, peripheral derivatives can be said to be the cornerstone of the Japanese animation industry. Due to the difficulty of developing peripheral derivatives Small, less investment, its importance is even more than extending the development of film and television works and games. If you need to refine the Japanese virtual anchor model, it is to quickly create the anchor IP through the virtual anchor content and interaction, and then use the anchors’ resonance to promote the derivative realization of IP.

Of course, any new business comes out, there will be innovation in the business model. For example, the main model of “Hatsune Miku” is a concert, and selling peripheral derivatives around the concert site, maximizing money from the core fan pocket. After the virtual anchor came out, on the one hand, it borrowed from the business models of the virtual idol and animation industry, on the other hand, it also made a lot of new attempts, including:

· The use of the image of a virtual anchor is used on the packaging of goods or promotional gifts. This is a mature IP monetization channel in the Japanese animation industry.

· Use virtual anchor to develop special products. Especially all kinds of toys and items, and then sell them through various online and offline channels such as doll machines, capsule machines, etc. This is also a very traditional way to monetize anime in Japan.

· Use the popular virtual anchor to develop offline entertainment activities and products. This aspect isFor the success of “Hatsune Miku” concerts and audiovisual works, basically every virtual host of the singer category wants to try.

· The combination of character design and popular Japanese entertainment activities creates an innovative business. The most representative is Qiu Yuankang’s cross-dimensional female group model. The “idol + seiyuu” development model created by new virtual live broadcast technology. When Qiu Yuankang created the “22/7” cross-dimensional women’s group for Sony, he proposed the concept of 2.5 dimensions. Unlike other virtual anchors, the person chosen by Qiu Yuankang is also a real idol, and the real idol is used to drive the virtual idol. This method of creating explosive IP and monetization is actually a big game, and generally entrepreneurial teams can’t really do it.

· Use virtual anchors and live broadcasts to build specialized communities, such as Cluster. Cluster is a virtual entertainment service platform that combines virtual anchor and VR technology to create a multi-party gathering in VR space. In addition to allowing users to freely create 3D virtual avatars and virtual scenes on the platform, it also works with virtual idols and virtual idols. The concert company cooperates to organize VR concerts and other paid events online. Whether Cluster can be popular depends on how many head virtual host IPs it can attract. For virtual hosts, there is an additional monetization channel.

· Provide virtual anchor marketing services for enterprises and governments. Many enterprises and governments have been authorized to use the well-known virtual anchor IPs, and there are also many virtual hosts that are built and operated by enterprises and governments. For example, Suntory Beverage Company’s official VTuber “Suntory Nomu” is very popular with young people. Not only has it released singles, but it has also started to combine Suntory products with limited sales. The most typical case of the government is Ibaraki Prefecture, which first introduced the official VTuber. In August 2018, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan officially launched the official VTuber “Ibara Hiyori” as the anchor of Ibaraki TV. The content of the program is mostly related to Ibaraki Prefecture, in order to increase the popularity of Ibaraki Prefecture and attract tourists to sightseeing.

Of course, there are various other business model attempts for the Japanese virtual anchor business, but most of them seem to be big tricks. You must first bury your head in building a big IP, and then think about how to monetize.

Japanese star-making and big IP models are facing the challenge of monetization

Although the Japanese virtual anchor and live broadcast industry desperately realized their ideas, from the current actual results, they have not been particularly successful, and they have not even heard of the high profitability of “Hatsune Miku”. There are several reasons for my personal analysis:

First, compared with traditional animation IP and head virtual idol IPs such as “Hatsune Miku”, virtual anchors have become popular in a shorter period of time. Rainbow Club has created more than 100 virtual anchors. Not many are popular in Japan, and even less famous internationally. In fact, this phenomenon also exists in the field of live broadcasting. The advantage of the live broadcast business is that the time for interactive fans is high, but the quality of the content is still very different from the traditional animation and virtual anchor professional production content, so it is very difficult to maintain fan popularity for a long time. The existence of this phenomenon makes it difficult for traditional Japanese animation IP monetization channels to play a role in the field of virtual anchors.

Second, the technology used is relatively backward and often only supports specific virtual live broadcast functions. Because Japan uses a low-cost star-making model, and rarely uses the same anime image to push virtual live broadcasts and virtual idol short videos at the same time, Japan ’s virtual live broadcast technology is not high in content, and most of them use the open source Live2D software. And mobile phone makers free face-to-face technology. Because the technology is C-level game-level, the cost of virtual live broadcast is low, and virtual anchors can be pushed in batches, which is the advantage of the Japanese model. However, it has also caused cross-border difficulties that are common among Japanese virtual anchors. Virtual anchor companies rarely have the ability to push animated content other than live broadcast, such as the simultaneous launch of Rigen ’s virtual idol short videos and virtual anchors. For domestic customers we serve, even small teams, as long as they use relatively high-end technology, they can do not only virtual idol short videos, but also virtual anchor live broadcast, both advantages can be accounted for.

Third, the Japanese animation IP monetization market itself is shrinking. According to the data obtained by Sanwen Entertainment’s “Japanese Animation Industry Report”, the size of the Japanese character goods retail market in 2018 was 1,533 billion yen (equivalent to approximately 98.1 billion yuan), a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%. This is the fourth consecutive year of decline. As the overall retail market for character goods continues to shrink, in 2018 the Japanese anime character goods market also fell 4.4% year-on-year to 500.3 billion yen. This is a new low in 11 years since 2008. The entire market is weak, and will definitely give greater priority to big animation IP, rather than favoring the new virtual anchor IP.

As far as commercial operations are concerned, IP and popularity alone do not have the ability to realize cash, which is also a long-term problem. Under the pressure of profit, many virtual anchor companies in Japan have even started to try the porn market recently.

Domestic virtual anchors need to grow in empowering other industries

Creating an IP through a virtual host, and then realizing the idea, if it can be done quickly, it is certainly very good. In fact, as soon as the Japanese virtual anchor business appeared, it began to enter the Chinese market. For example, in April 2019, Rainbow Society launched a “VirtuaReal” joint promotion activity with Station B. Hololive, another well-known virtual anchor group in Japan, is also well-known in China. Fans at station B have reached 100,000 orders of magnitude, which is more than double the number of “her” Japanese fans. So many teams in China are affectedThe influence of the sun tide is also to talk about building IP first.

However, just like the Japanese animation market has a complete industrial chain, the domestic market also has its own advantages and characteristics. The biggest advantage and characteristic is that China has all-round e-commerce, and has formed a complete monetization process around e-commerce. Countries have e-commerce, but whether in Europe, America or Japan, their e-commerce does not have the grass-roots and vitality of Chinese e-commerce. Of course, there are still huge game products and huge various industries in China. Let’s just talk about e-commerce here, and describe its characteristics:

First, the professional division of domestic e-commerce is extremely detailed and in place, and there are many merchants. Every day, tens of thousands of e-commerce businesses are looking for traffic. As long as you have traffic, you can turn into money in minutes.

Second, there are many types of e-commerce platforms, including JD.com, Tmall, and Taobao, as well as Pinduoduo, Wechat, Douyin E-commerce, and Quick Flash E-commerce. This needs to consider virtual anchors monetized through e-commerce, and consider how to integrate their business with different platforms. Some platforms may require live live and virtual anchor interactive live delivery, and some platforms may require virtual idol short videos and virtual anchor live broadcast interactive circles.

Third, IP is played out in the actual battle to make money. Instead of having a large IP before considering monetization, it is making IP while making money. From this point, domestic virtual anchors are far closer to money than Japan. . Right now, whether it is big coffee Weiya or Li Jiaqi who carries goods live, they all become IP because they can carry goods and make more money. It can be said that, while empowering e-commerce, while doing IP, this should be inspiration for many domestic virtual anchors.

Through cross-border empowerment, rolling the circle and increasing the activity of fans to form a traffic accumulation and directly convert into monetization. This path is not only feasible for e-commerce, but also for game distribution and animation announcement. Now develop a game and animation works, one year or two years. The main virtual images of these games or animations can be used to make virtual idols or virtual anchors to accumulate traffic and enable future game and animation distribution. Kuaishou recently launched a live companion, which is said to want to support virtual game anchors. This type of virtual anchor can accumulate traffic for future games and also easily become popular with the game and become a virtual anchor IP.

In addition to the above, there is also a marketing interactive live broadcast. You can create an online conference through virtual live broadcast to introduce the latest products to the audience. Zhongke Shenzhi and its partners have created a virtual anchor “Hazard” for Harbin Beer. The same model can also be used for virtual live marketing of cars. Virtual anchors can introduce the latest car performance and test drive effects. Our client, Brilliant and Good Pregnant, said that they also use virtual live broadcast for the education industry, in fact, they have quietly created IP among their target user groups.

These examples show that it is not necessary for the domestic market to follow the path of Japan’s big IP to build a way. In the process of empowering the industry, it is also a good way to leverage these industries in the opposite direction and grow as they grow.

Domestic virtual anchor selection technology should be more forward-lookingSex

Because domestic businesses need to consider cross-platform operations and cross-industry empowerment, technology choices must be more forward-looking. Many companies have taken a detour in this area, so much that they have made repeated investments in art assets and technology. Japanese companies especially like to spend money and time on fine arts, but the technology used is relatively sloppy, many are C-side game console technology or even open source technology, and do some simple integration. These technologies are still suitable for live broadcast, but it is more difficult to make animations, and the business is not scalable. After getting to the back, a small company often has to deal with many kinds of patchwork technologies, and originally wanted to save money, but in the end it not only cost money but also delayed things.

The preferences of domestic virtual anchor fans and Japanese fans are also different. Whether it is a character or an animal, even a cartoon one, domestic virtual anchors will pursue truth in detail. For example, domestic virtual live broadcasts pay more attention to detailed expressions of expressions and fingers, which requires more accurate expression capture and gesture capture technology. Many Japanese companies do not even use gesture capture technology, and virtual live broadcasts are still hot, which is difficult in China.

In our product development, I gave the team several “must”: optical capture must be implemented at low cost to ensure capture accuracy and cross-business needs, to avoid customers’ repeated investment; one-click calibration must be implemented to reduce the threshold for live broadcast ; Must realize the docking of various engines and platforms, plug and play; must provide one-stop services, can not require customers to have professional animation capabilities.

Our ideas come from the actual situation of the domestic market, and we cannot be superstitious about the experience of Japan or other countries.

The “Super Opinion” column is now launching the “Special Observer Settlement” program, inviting entrepreneurs from various race tracks, leaders of large company business lines, and other front-line business practitioners to share your entrepreneurial insights, dry goods, and methodologies. , Your industry insight, trend judgment, and look forward to hearing your voice from the forefront.

Welcome to contact us, WeChat: cuiyandong66; Email: guanchayuan@36kr.com.

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