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**Rapid Expansion and Future Prospects of the Vtuber Market in Japan**
As the Vtuber market continues to expand, Japan’s two most prominent agencies, ‘Rainbow Agency’ and ‘Hololive’s parent company, respectively went public last year and this year. Different industries have also begun to expand their Vtuber commercial operations. A recent market research report published by a Japanese market research company provides insight into the current state of the Vtuber market.
According to a recent survey by Yano Economic Research Institute, the 2022 Japanese Vtuber market is divided into ‘Peripherals’, ‘Live Streaming’, ‘B2B’, and ‘Events’. Among these, peripherals (which include merchandise and digital downloads such as voice packs or music) constitute over half of the total revenue (about 51.3%), totaling 26.7 billion yen. Live streaming (including advertising revenue, super thanks, and membership fees) accounted for 26.0% at 13.5 billion yen, B2B (commercial advertising, IP licensing, merchandise licensing, etc.) was 7.8 billion yen (15.0%), and events (including live performances, concerts, and other paid events) were 4.0 billion yen (7.7%).
The total revenue for Vtuber-related businesses in 2022 was about 52 billion yen [369 million USD]. The Yano Economic Research Institute believes the Vtuber market is still growing and projects that the overall market revenue will increase by 153.8% in 2023, reaching 80 billion yen. This is equivalent to the size of the otaku subculture markets for dojinshi (self-published works, retail value in 2021 was 80 billion yen) and trading card games (the manufacturers shipped 79.2 billion yen in 2021), indicating the industry scale of Vtubing has grown to be comparable to dojinshi and trading card games.
The unique characteristic of Vtubers is that they combine the features of an IP (Intellectual Property) and an internet celebrity. This differentiates them from other occupations such as YouTubers and voice actors. As Vtubers operate through animated character avatars, they can participate in IP licensing, such as making merchandise based on their character designs or appearing in video games or animation productions. Moreover, as Vtubers are not purely animated characters but performers playing characters, they can influence corporate advertising collaborations with their unique “real voices”.
The Yano Economic Research Institute believes that following the listing of prominent Vtuber agency parent companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Vtuber popularity is spreading overseas. To attract fans from overseas, large corporations are establishing Vtuber agencies in other countries. Additionally, as Vtubers operate using animated characters and have a significant influence in the digital world, they are expected to resonate with the metaverse, and investment by operating companies is likely to become more active.
https://today.line.me/tw/v2/article/1DqLogE
https://today.line.me/tw/v2/article/1DqLogE