The author | Mia
At the end of the year, if you want to look back at the hottest outlet in 2021, it is not the "meta-universe".
The entertainment circle is also swept by this wave, from games to stars to movies, is fully embracing the meta-universe: recently, Tianxiaxiu launched the first domestic meta-universe game "Rainbow Universe" with hot virtual real estate; Lin Junjie purchased three virtual plots for $123,000 on the virtual world platform Decentraland;
"Spider-Man: Heroes Of No Return" and "The Matrix 4: Rebirth" have launched NFT collections, and Wong Kar-wai's first film NFT work "Fancy Years - A Moment" was sold for HK$4.284 million in Sotheby's "Modern Art Evening Auction", setting a new high for wong Kar-wai's personal works and Asian film NFT works.
The virtual person field closely related to the metacosm is also very lively: the virtual internet celebrity "Fish Too Idle" in the rainbow universe is sought after, and players need to queue for several hours to take photos with it; virtual beauty blogger "Liu Yexi" vibrato exploded, rising by 4 million fans in seven days; at the end of November, "which moment makes you realize that virtual people are around" was on the hot search, and the reading volume exceeded 210 million; the first domestic virtual idol girl group A-SOUL held a "meta-universe live broadcast" to celebrate the first anniversary at 8 pm on December 11, with unprecedented popularity. How exactly did virtual idols become the "key keys" to the metaverse? Let's take a closer look.
Why is virtual idol the key to the metaverse?
According to incomplete statistics, from September to November 2021, there were 63 meta-universe-related investment and financing events of more than 10 million yuan at home and abroad, and roblox, the "first stock of meta-universe" listed this year, has a recent market value of up to 73 billion US dollars, and the valuation has soared 18 times compared with more than a year ago. With the peak of mobile Internet traffic, the development of AR/VR, 5G and other technologies has brought more imagination, and the meta-universe will become the key to the future development of the Internet, and domestic and foreign cultural and entertainment giants are competing to seize the meta-universe track.
Metacosm means that the real world and the virtual world are connected, and everyone will have a virtual image. As a pioneer in exploring virtual images, virtual idols are the best entry point and "key drop" to enter the metaverse and test technology, betting on the possibility of virtual life for all people in the future. The metacosm is promoting the large-scale out of the circle of virtual idols, and the first year of domestic virtual idols is really coming.
In the first half of 2020 alone, there were about 4,000 virtual anchors on Station B every month. Compared with virtual anchors, virtual idols are more difficult to operate. At present, there are two main ways to play virtual idol landing, one is to hold virtual concerts for real idols, such as Ariana Grande's virtual concert in "Fortnite"; the other is the virtual idol "virtual and real combination", so the former A-SOUL and Zhu Jingxi jointly perform "Red Ling".
The annual live broadcast of A-SOUL allows us to see the new heights and possibilities of virtual idols. The warm-up stage has been described as "comparable to the momentum of the tenth anniversary", the warm-up light show, the large screen is lit in the cities of Guangzhou, Hangzhou in the north, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, and users spontaneously participate in a large number of pictures, videos, songs, games, stories and so on. On the day of the live broadcast, the number of reservations exceeded 120,000, and the popularity of the whole B station remained above 10 million, and the peak reached 12 million, and the live broadcast popularity reached the top of the live broadcast ranking of the whole station that night, once surpassing the LPL All-Star Game.
The entire live broadcast scene is presented in the dreamlike 3D map of the Heavenly Palace, which is divided into five chapters: "Entering the Dream", "Peering", "Going to the Appointment", "Riding the Wind" and "Chasing the Light", from the flying of the Royal Sword, the dancing of the Moon Palace, the rafting in the sky, to the rise of countless Kong Ming lanterns, the drifting of lotus lanterns in the river, all of which are rich in classical Chinese beauty.
The five people have different national style shapes, or engraved cloud patterns, or wearing light veils, Jiaran disguised rabbit ear special effects are super cute, to the evening "A Laugh in the Sea" to present Rap strength, Nai Lin held up the umbrella to dance, Jia Le appeared in the silhouette of the moon, Bella in "囍" in the dance skills of the four stunning seats, the whole process has a large number of props interaction, each SOLO stage and the integrated stage are beautiful.
The national style elements that run through the whole process also echo the release of the new group song "The World of Legends" and the launch of the full version of the single on the music platform on Friday. Ten years apart, Xu Songfang Wenshan's two ancient style talents have joined hands again to create "The World of Legends", which has been on the hot search, and the lyrics "The world of legends, with you accompanying, two-way crossing, every wind and snow, red dust I am not tired, I do not chase the end of the world, and I know more than a few of them" Describes the two-way rush between A-SOUL and the fan group "a soul".
Different from the one-click face change, artificial intelligence and other "less difficult, easy to wear" and lack of real sense of substitution technology, A-SOUL uses a more difficult real-time motion capture technology, live broadcast, multi-person screen 3D rendering technology fluency, the real subtle changes in body expressions, has been presented in a subtle way.
Virtual idols were originally a niche subculture, but now they are gradually out of the circle due to the promotion of A-SOUL, covering a wide range of pan-quadratic circles including the game circle and the anime circle, and 3DM and other media discuss the A-SOUL phenomenon with nearly 30,000 words of "serious academic papers". From the game live broadcast room, V circle, Douban, Douyin, Tieba and other different circles of the group, in the A-SOUL comment area to achieve unprecedented harmony, the well-known media "Youyan Agency" called it a "network subculture of Babel Tower", they themselves to create stems, spontaneous "drainage", do their best to the network Amway A-SOUL, with the "highest quality in the circle" of the rich two creation to build A-SOUL unique star powder ecology, promote the network subculture to break the circle, and create an exclusive subculture, in fact, Some fans are "in the pit" because of interesting second creations.
(Fan Creation)
Beijing Youth Daily, China Daily (English edition), Shanghai Daily, TechNode and many other influential authoritative media at home and abroad have noted the cultural influence of A-SOUL, the strength of virtual technology represented, and the future development potential, and compete to report on A-SOUL. The attention and praise of the media support the degree of A-SOUL's circle from the side.
The virtual idol industry enters the 2.0 era: when the rise of national V is underway
Turning the clock back to 2007, the world's first virtual kame Hatsune Mirai was born, and since 2012, domestic virtual idols such as Luo Tianyi, Yan He, and Le Zheng Aya have been born. The development of the secondary element industry and related technological progress have promoted the continuous expansion of its market. Ai Media predicts that the surrounding market size driven by virtual idols will reach 107.49 billion yuan this year.
Here, it is necessary to clarify the relevant concepts such as Vtuber: Vtuber originally referred to the video owner whose avatar is active on YouTube, and now expands to virtual anchors, virtual idols and other virtual avatars played by real people who carry out activities in the virtual or real world. The V circle is composed of Vtubers and fans, and the national V refers to the domestic virtual idols and their fans.
Previously, hololive withdrew from China due to inappropriate remarks, and recently the "originator of Vtuber" stumbled out of the circle, which means that the focus of the future V circle will shift from overseas to local. Compared with Luo Tianyi, Hatsune Mirai and other predecessors, the new generation of virtual idol girl group A-SOUL presents a more distinct and rich personality, with a sense of reality and a sense of substitution, and has realized the 2.0 iteration of the virtual idol field.
Among the virtual anchors of station B, the 5 virtual anchors with the most "number of captains" (monthly pass mechanism developed by station b, the anchor can get props and are linked to popularity) are all from A-SOUL. In the fifth month of its debut, A-SOUL achieved the fourth place in the total revenue of all Vup labels in Station B.
The above achievements are inseparable from the rich and three-dimensional personality charm of the five members, and a large number of fans who were not optimistic about National V were "from black to pink", and their counterattack process itself was full of enthusiasm and inspiration.
A-SOUL is set in the virtual city of Zhijiang, five girls with very different personalities, who strive together to become idols, and will be broadcast live on the B station every week, involving various fields such as song and dance, games, and miscellaneous conversations, and will also produce small theaters. With labels such as "proud and petite" and "pulling crotch", Xiang Wan, recently playing guitar, adding a "talented girl" label, fans are attracted by the "innocence" under the appearance of the "Great Devil King"; Jiaran even danced twenty house dances, and then reproduced this famous scene at the birthday party, which was also known as "Miracle Night" on the same day, with strength and hard work to get everyone's recognition, because of its gentleness and even won the name of "Saint Jiaran";
Naelin has a high emotional intelligence, is good at picking up stems and creating stems, with a hot atmosphere; Bella, who serves as the captain, has sung different songs in eight Chinese, allowing everyone to randomly order a list of 117 dances, super strong; in order to bring better performances and interactions, the members are extremely strict with themselves: "Little Wolf Princess" Jia Le was once locked up in the "Little Black House" for a month of closed live training to better integrate into the idol ecology. The more I learned more about these five girls, the more I understood their multi-layered cuteness, and even some fans said: "You are real idols, we are virtual fans." ”
The status of A-SOUL's "first girl group" and "top stream" is not only reflected in the data of tens of millions of fans on the whole network, but also reflected through online and offline popularity. Its daily live broadcast is basically ranked in the top of the B station live broadcast area, and even surpassed the LPL event at one time. BML's VR concert, A-SOUL performance period popularity of more than 20 million; douyin wonderful day live broadcast, A-SOUL performance period cumulative number of viewers exceeded 20 million. BilibiliWorld performed more than 1,000+ audience interactions every day, and the online live broadcast room was 3.5 million+ in popularity, becoming one of the most popular booths.
The debut single "Quiet" has been played more than one million times on various platforms, breaking the record for the debut single of a virtual idol, and jointly launching the #Transform into Super A Idol # challenge with Douyin to expose more than 200 million. The birthday party of the members continues to refresh the record of "ten thousand ships" at Station B. From the perspective of fans, growth potential, stickiness, etc., they are not inferior to well-known girl groups such as SNH48 and AKB48 after only one year of debut.
The fans who accompanied the five girls to grow up together also created a new type of intimate and healthy star fan relationship with them: both sides are equal to each other, ridicule and encourage each other, have deep emotional stickiness, oppose blind kryptonite, and are full of positive energy. According to the members they like, fans call themselves "Imperial Knights", "Top Bowl People", "Jiaxin Candy", "Beiji Star", "Milk Qilin", etc., and star fans are like old friends, playing jokes that only they understand.
Based on this, it is not difficult to deduce the future development direction of virtual idols, and under the inspiration of A-SOUL's success, the industry will emphasize more authenticity and interaction. In addition to the beautiful image created by the painter, "personality charm" is the root cause of attracting fans. Compared with Japan, which developed earlier, there may be reverse export potential for future country V.
The entertainment industry has entered the "end of the game", what imagination has the virtual girl group that never collapses bring?
Looking at the overall entertainment industry environment this year, it can be seen that with the suspension of the talent show, the idol industry may usher in a "low temperature period", coupled with the continuous overturning accidents of star artists due to moral problems, and affect the image of cooperative brands, the entire entertainment industry has entered the "end of the game".
Compared with real idols, the advantage of virtual idols is that they "never collapse", the promotion cost is relatively lower, there is no risk of moral hazard, and the life cycle is longer, which can always maintain the best state on the stage, thus releasing greater spiritual energy and commercial value.
This year is undoubtedly a year of A-SOUL's commercial value explosion, they have cooperated with Keep, KFC, L'Oréal Men, Ele.me, Xiaolongkan, etc., and the results are remarkable. Captain Bella served as Keep's "sports star pusher", customized the joint course and 7-day running challenge limited-time activities for fans, attracting more than 300,000 people to practice after the launch; after becoming L'Oréal's first cross-dimensional recommendation officer, linked new songs, live broadcasts, interactions, brought skin care teaching, and promoted it to the Double Eleven TOP list; linked with KFC e-sports theme stores, covering 37 stores across the country, triggering a punch card boom, and the traffic rose sharply to support S11.
In the increasingly fierce marketing war, major brands are trying to seize the Z generation market with high growth potential, combined with the fan "one soul" portrait, most of them are the main population of the Z generation of 18-25 years old, the activity is as high as 85%, with high education, high loyalty and other commonalities, effectively enhance brand favorability, promote brand rejuvenation differentiation, increase personality recognition. In addition, virtual idols can cross the dimensional wall, enter the heavens and the earth, get rid of the limitations of time and space, and will give brand cooperation with great creative space.
In the live broadcast, the five girls repeatedly emphasized dreams, beauty, and paid attention to the guidance of positive energy values to inject spiritual energy into fans. Compared with traditional artists, the sense of companionship brought by long-term live broadcasting has enabled them to establish a deep emotional connection with fans. These positive emotional values are the fundamental reason why A-SOUL has been able to lead the virtual idol industry.
The tide of the metaverse continues to sweep, and the circle-breaking posture of the unrestricted A-SOUL in the mainstream vision will remain unstoppable. In addition to brand endorsement and commercial performances, the development possibilities of N fields such as e-commerce anchors, education counseling, and tourism promotion have been further generated.
"The A-SOUL era, boiling expectations." At the first anniversary celebration, A-SOUL and fans made a promise of "the next 10th anniversary", setting a promise for future concerts for 10,000 people. And this day, it will not be too far away.