**Will this be the era of virtual humans?**
Recently, virtual humans are expanding their influence as influencers. For that reason, they are receiving attention socially and economically about the results they will produce in the future. However, there have been similar characters like this in the past. At first glance, it looks completely different than it was back then. Is it really different? In order to judge the success or not, it is first of all to summarize what the previous virtual characters were like.
Korea’s first cyber singer, ‘Adam’, released their 1st album ‘Genesis’ on December 12, 1997 and started their career as a singer. His performance was dazzling even though he was not a person. As a big hit of the title song, the rock ballad ‘No Love in the World’, the first album sold 200,000 copies.
He also appeared on the popular music ranking program ‘Gyo Top Ten’, as well as radio interviews with other broadcasters, as well as appearing on entertainment programs, and even attending the KAIST honorary student entrance ceremony video. Subsequently, he also had more than 8,000 fan club members, which helped him to appear in TV commercials. Due to their popularity, they even released their 2nd album ‘Exodus’ in 1999.
However, five months later, a female cyber singer appeared. In May 1998, Korea’s first cyber singer ‘Lusia’ came out with her 1st album ‘The Stream of Time’. The hit of ‘The Reason I Came To This World’ sold 30,000 copies of the album. If the English name is unraveled, the Chinese characters for willow (æ?³), first poem (å§?), and sprout (è?½) are used, and in pure Korean it also means sprout.
After the release of the album, she also worked as a catalog model for a clothing company, and she entered various character businesses. In particular, she has also worked as a cyber writer and has published poetry and novels. Her collection of poems, ‘Descent to the Ground’, went into reprint. It was popular enough to She also took part in a professional baseball pitch, and she received an annual salary of 100 million won as a public relations director for a venture company. She had a video interview with Millennium Democratic Party candidate Koh Kun in 1998 when she was running for Seoul mayor at the time.
Like her Adam, her 2nd album ‘AD2015’ was also released in April 1999. Then, in June 1998, her third cyber singer, Cyda, made her debut. She comes up with a very sensual concept. If you look at these activities of her, they look great compared to today.
However, this cyber singer suddenly disappears after two years. She was also the world’s first cyber singer, Date Kyoko of Japan. Why? First of all, it cost a lot of money. A lot of human resources were also required for the time and effort that went into making their short video. Moreover, communication with the fans was not smooth. The lack of humanistic rapport was a big part of the failure.
There are quite a few differences between these cyber-humans and today’s virtual humans. It was just a start, but artificial intelligence technology was applied based on a lot of relevant data. Virtual human characters are not created according to the taste of some developers. We plan and design a virtual human based on character data preferred by as many people as possible. So there is a lot of room for more people to like it. The realistic dislike for characters like Uncanny Valley has also been greatly reduced with the advancement of technology.
Above all, the active space is mobile, and specifically, it is based on SNS. You can communicate with people through social media. Therefore, it cannot be compared with the number of fan club members in the 90s. In the 1990s, cyber-humans were mainly based on old media or legacy media. It was the irony of cyber-humans who advocated cutting-edge digital technology.
In terms of interaction, the virtual humans of today are much more upgraded than the cyber-humans of the past. Perhaps for this reason, virtual humans appear simultaneously. Oddly enough, male cyber singers came out first in the 1990s, but in the 21st century, female virtual humans came first, and male virtual humans did not appear at all. Is it because virtual humans only like women? The clue to understand this lies in Lil Michela, who is very popular around the world.
Virtual Influencer Lil Miquela has 3 million followers and earns 13 billion won a year in Korean money. However, this Lil Michela cannot be said to be a great beauty. Although she lives in LA, she is from Brazil. Her face has her freckles or blemishes on her face, and her teeth are not even and her front teeth are spaced apart. Her face is far from white jade-like skin. She emphasizes her 19-year-old teenage look.
However, virtual human beings in Korea are all proud of their excellent body and beauty. She is far from the typical performance of a teenager. She is generally oriented towards a white-faced, white body. If she goes overseas with such a character, will she be able to gain popularity? When BTS had less fans in Korea because they didn’t look good, they were very enthusiastic about them abroad.
The reason was not superiority in appearance. Is it really that they represent the fans? Even in Korea, the main characters of dramas enjoyed by the younger generation often have substandard appearances. The body is not sensual, but close to that of an elementary school student. The success of virtual humans now depends on how well they represent someone. This is why it is necessary to set the direction of the virtual human character in Korea well.
I can’t help but think of the “Red Queen Effect”. Today’s virtual human characters pride themselves on making some progress, but in reality they are there. Just because we overcame the lack of cyber-humans in the past cannot be said to have been in line with the changing times. Today, they use so-called stealth tactics that can’t tell if they’re real or not.
It’s only a matter of time before you realize that not everyone is human. In today’s generation, it’s enough to achieve what you want even if you know it’s fake. It is not important to appear on broadcast, which is legacy media. In order for virtual humans to not disappear as suddenly as they did in the late 90s and to meet the needs of the public and customers, it is necessary to read the spirit of the times in the current character.
In particular, not only domestic but also global trends should be identified and reflected. This is because our characters now have to stand at the center of it, not at the edge.
http://www.newsway.co.kr/news/view?ud=2022050121054099117