Tag: VTubers

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Project Kavvaii, the VTuber arm of airasia, has announced that its remaining VTuber talents, Airi Gwynevere and Mikazuki Mai, will be retiring their online activities on March 31. The announcement was made officially via the VTuber project’s official X (Twitter) account.

According to the announcement, both talents will effectively strop streaming content by April 1, with their respective YouTube memberships and Streamlabs pages closed immediately as well. It is also worth noting however that their recently-released webtoon series titled “Lunetide Bewitched” will continue to release new episodes up until it is finished by end of season.

In an exclusive conversation with MARKETECH APAC, Project Kavvaii said that the decision was made by airasia to not renew the talent’s contracts due to changes in the company’s direction.

“The team will continue with other IP development projects. However, Project Kavvaii will not be so active, and we do not foresee taking in any additional talents anytime soon,” Project Kavvaii stated.

Despite the departure of the talents behind these VTubers, the agency said that their IP will remain in the Project Kavvaii ecosystem. Its team will continue working on projects outside of the VTuber project initiative, hinting that the initiative will not shut down completely.

With this, airasia’s Project Kavvaii would no longer have active VTuber talents in its roster. Its first-ever talent, Aozora Kurumi, ceased her VTubing activities in August 2022. Airi Gwynevere and Mikazuki Mai debuted as part of the agency’s Lunetide generation in April 2022.

The recent announcement is a far cry from the optimism airasia had back then when they started the Project Kavvaii initiative. In an exclusive interview with then-chief brand officer Rudy Khaw, he stated how VTubers had allowed them to tap into a new demographic that could potentially be new customers.

“As a digital company, the constant change in the way people consume online content drives us to explore cross-industry innovations with Project Kavvaii to stay relevant and ahead of trends,” Khaw stated back then.

Moreover, this new update comes in line with significant changes in the airasia ecosystem, with its airasia MOVE offering now offering a rebranded look, as well as its low-cost airline company Capital A announcing a business combination agreement with Aetherium Acquisition to enter listing in the United States.

Amidst a growing competition amongst regional and local e-commerce players in Indonesia, Tokopedia managed to rise from other players during the 12.12 sale period. How did they do it? The Indonesian e-commerce giant tapped Kobo Kanaeru, a virtual YouTuber (VTuber) under the Hololive agency, and Internet personality/music producer Heiakim to produce a one-minute jingle ahead of the sale period.

What resulted was a significant success for Tokopedia, who not only put more focus on the platform in contrast to other players but also caught the attention of both local and international VTuber fans who showed interest in the collaboration through fan engagement endeavours such as fan arts and even meme edits.

For MARKETECH APAC’s first Top Story of the year, we spoke exclusively once again with Jonathan Locanawan, senior lead for social media at Tokopedia to learn more about the brand’s insights on creating authentic campaigns that not only resonated with niche fan groups but also speaking to the diverse Indonesian community.

Always appealing to specific audiences

Setting aside this specific 12.12 campaign featuring Kobo Kanaeru and Heiakim, Tokopedia has long been known to appeal to a wide range of audiences, whether it is Tokopedia posting online of their mascot ‘Toped’ jokingly making a prayer circle to summon their favourite Genshin Impact character or ‘Toped’ attending a popular Indonesian pop culture convention cosplaying as the character Gojo Satoru of the Jujutsu Kaisen series.

When asked how they can juggle many communities to appeal to, Locanawan points directly to better understanding the behaviour of various demographics, researching about the group, and strategising on how to approach them best.

The 12.12 campaign jingle from Tokopedia, co-created by popular Indonesian VTuber Kobo Kanaeru from Hololive and popular music producer Heiakim

“Tokopedia always tries to provide new ways to cater the ever-evolving preferences of Indonesian consumers, one of them is by doing research and understanding the persona of each target audience that we would like to engage with many of our campaigns,” he said.

He added, “After doing enough research, we then tailor and introduce various campaigns, aside from WAR Diskon (the local name of the campaign), to appeal to more specific communities.”

Locanawan then listed a wide array of special campaigns for very specific audiences, ranging from beauty products to fashion, and automotive parts, and even allowing local sellers to sell directly their food and beverage products on the platform.

“There are many other campaigns on Tokopedia that we continuously fine-tune to ensure that the products curated are always aligned with the needs,” he said.

Locanawan also notes the importance of relevancy across platforms but specifies that despite always keeping up to date with their diverse demographic, what is most important for them is to always stay true to their brand ethos: consumer centricity as the guiding star.

“Appealing to the various audiences is how Tokopedia tries to stay relevant. However, we also try to keep our distinctiveness. Amongst the sea of heavy promotions from the entire industry, we always try to come up with something special to really stand out from the crowd yet still maintain the local authenticity, sensibility and voice of ‘Tokopedia’,” he added.

Upholding the ‘focus on consumer’ value

When MARKETECH APAC previously spoke with Locanawan exclusively on the launch of their 12.12 campaign, he said, “Regardless of whatever strategy is used, consumer centricity has always been our guiding star—how we can ensure our consumers can benefit from the products, services and partnerships provided. That is what Tokopedia will always do to keep winning the hearts of Indonesians.”

In this instance, he added, “For example, whatever we do, we always try to put ourselves in the shoes of our user and understand their perspective—what pain points they face, what can help solve those challenges, what they like and don’t like. At Tokopedia, we always ask, is what we are doing relevant to our consumers?”

One of the many fan arts created following the collaboration between Tokopedia and Kobo Kanaeru

Locanawan is right: the Tokopedia 12.12 campaign proved to be a huge success, as it resonated well with its target audiences. Within a week of the jingle’s release, the brand garnered more than 7.5 million impressions across social media platforms (Twitter, TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube). It also achieved over 780k engagements, generated more than 5k fan video edits and fan art, and even attracted 1.7k viewers eagerly awaiting the premiere of our one-hour loop video.

“By upholding our ‘Focus on Consumer’ value, this is how we were able to come up with various campaigns that cater to different audiences, from Tokopedia Beauty, Tokopedia Tekno to Tokopedia NYAM! and many more,” he said, about the multiple campaigns they do for various demographics.

Lastly, when asked how Tokopedia can be ‘all over the place’ in launching demographic-specific campaigns without sounding forced, Locanawan had this to say.

“We also never want to stick to only one idea, even if the idea itself sounds comfortable. We always try to see that the only thing constant is change. We see gaps in a problem as opportunities or interesting challenges to overcome, with helping Indonesian consumers as Tokopedia’s end-goal,” he concluded.

Jakarta, Indonesia – As part of the hype during the popular 12.12 sale period across online e-commerce players, popular Indonesian e-commerce player Tokopedia has engaged with Kobo Kanaeru, the biggest Indonesian virtual YouTuber (VTuber) in terms of subscriber count; and popular online music creator Harry Citradi, also known as Heiakim, to create the platform’s latest 12.12 campaign jingle. First uploaded on Tokopedia’s Instagram and X (Twitter) accounts, the jingle proved to be a viral success, prompting the company as well to upload a 1-hour version on its YouTube channel.

While campaign jingles are pretty common, this was the first time Tokopedia tapped a VTuber for its own campaign. Despite the fact that the jingle borrows cues from popular Japanese pop culture trends like anime and VTubers, it is also worth noting that the company took into consideration its roots of local culture relevance to create the new jingle. In turn, this made the campaign more popular especially to the younger consumer demographic while still rooted to be relevant across Indonesians.

MARKETECH APAC caught up exclusively with Jonathan Locanawan, senior lead for social media at Tokopedia, to learn more about the campaign’s creative process, as well as hear his insights on how brands can be authentic in tapping the younger demographic.

Understanding the roots of Tokopedia’s “Waktu Indonesia Belanja (WIB)” campaign

To fully understand how Tokopedia came up with the new Jingle, Locanawan notes that it is worth noting to understand how its yearly 12.12 campaign came to life.

In 2020, the company introduced the monthly shopping festival, “Waktu Indonesia Belanja” (WIB) or Indonesian Shopping Time. Since Waktu Indonesia Belanja was launched to be an inclusive shopping campaign for all Indonesians across the country, they created the WIB campaign jingle with tunes that took major inspiration from ‘Ampar Ampar Pisang’, a South Kalimantan traditional song that would resonate with most Indonesian people.

“The Waktu Indonesia Belanja campaign and its campaign jingle itself were met with high enthusiasm. This became the impetus for Tokopedia’s continued innovation into providing new ways that cater to the ever-evolving preferences of Indonesian consumers. For example, we continuously try to develop a more ‘personal’ approach between Tokopedia and the audience through social media,” he explained.

And while they believe that the monthly campaign was a success, they believed they need to penetrate the much younger audiences, especially those who are active online in social media. This is where the Tokopedia team found out how fans of Japanese pop culture are one of the most active demographics in Indonesia, and yet remains untapped by the market.

“We saw that Japanese popular culture represents a big yet untapped market in Indonesia, especially in the social media sphere. We also learned that Kobo Kanaeru—a female Indonesian
VTuber or virtual content creator who uses an animated avatar—and Harry Citradi or popularly known as Heiakim, are one of the biggest and well-known content creators in Japanese pop culture in Indonesia, especially amongst younger generations including millennials and Gen Z,” he added.

Why collaborating with Kobo Kanaeru and Heiakim is the correct step for the brand’s authenticity

When asked how the jingle came to life, they said that this was done in-house, alongside active participation with Kobo Kanaeru and Heiakim. It is worth noting as well that while they were the ones that provided that initial ideas, the co-creation of the jingle was mostly done by the duo. For Locanawan, this speaks on their mission of always tapping into these collaborations, providing trust to its consumer base.

“Tokopedia always believes that collaboration with partners, including content creators, always goes beyond the numbers of likes and followers. Tokopedia is a business of trust, so to maintain business continuity, maintaining the trust of Indonesians is the most important thing,” he said.

The new 12.12 campaign jingle from Tokopedia, co-created by popular Indonesian VTuber Kobo Kanaeru from Hololive and popular music producer Heiakim

Moreover, it is also worth noting that Tokopedia wanted a fresher take on its campaigns, hence the brand is willing to explore more niche cultural trends to bring colour and life to its campaigns.

“Appealing to the younger audience is definitely one of the main drivers for this collaboration as we continuously try to stay relevant with the Indonesian consumers. However, we were also aiming for distinctiveness. Amongst the sea of heavy promotions from the entire industry, we knew we needed to come up with something special to really stand out from the crowd yet still maintain the local authenticity, sensibility and voice of ‘Tokopedia’, he explained.

Advice on brands on how to ride niche cultural brands to stay authentic

Tokopedia believes that tapping creators that share the same brand value to the company and creative positive influence to the Indonesian society help them create authentic campaigns while also at the same time being at the top of mind of the younger demographic.

According to Locanawan, with Tokopedia willing to explore unique yet relevant niches, the brand has seen greater increase on positive brand mentions, higher views on its social media
accounts, like TikTok; and even noted an increase in better engagement with their audience through Tokopedia’s social media accounts.

“As brand marketers, we need to always be sensitive with the ever changing trends in pop culture to remain relevant. By fully immersing ourselves in the culture and by having the campaign co-created together with the creators, we were able to launch content that effectively rides the wave while maintaining the authenticity and voice of ‘Tokopedia’,” he explained.

Lastly, when asked what should brands do in terms of exuding authenticity to its consumers, Locanawan had this to say: “Regardless of whatever strategy is used, consumer centricity has always been our guiding star—how we can ensure our consumers can benefit from the products, services and partnerships provided. That is what Tokopedia will always do to keep winning the hearts of Indonesians.”

Hong Kong – In a bid to promote its recently-launched Octopus Mastercard offering to teens in Hong Kong, smart card company Octopus has tapped local virtual YouTubers or VTubers to promote it in a 4-week long campaign through engaging video content by these VTubers, who amass an accumulated subscriber base of almost 100,000 people. 

The campaign has enlisted four popular VTubers, Mya, Rumi Ikisaragi, Tsukishima Cross and Hasuki Aoi, all creators of engaging video content for the teen target audience.

Conceptualised alongside DDB Group Hong Kong, the campaign promotes the ability to use the card for any and all online purchases, connecting with target consumers in the digital world they are so accustomed to, yet can have a hard time spending in.

The agency notes that while using VTubers as a marketing channel is not entirely new, never before has a campaign so comprehensively included curated VTuber livestream content, tailormade merchandise and ecommerce offers. 

Each VTuber will introduce and promote the Octopus Mastercard via their weekly live streams, directing them to online shopping platform Flying Milktea, where exclusive products will be available for Octopus Mastercard users, as well as 10% discount on all other purchases.

Rita Li, sales and marketing director at Octopus Hong Kong, said, “Hong Kong teens have grown up with Octopus and Octopus Mastercard will enable another online payment option for them.  We are excited to be offering this prepaid Mastercard for Gen-Z users as they gain increasing financial independence through their teens.” 

Meanwhile, Felix Fong, head of digital at DDB Group Hong Kong, commented, “It is always exciting to take brands to new digital environments, and we knew that for both this audience and this product we needed to be online. It was important to find a way to show them the benefits of this virtual card, without encroaching too much on their time, space or enjoyment. I think partnering with the VTubers and Flying Milktea felt a really new and interesting proposition and yet, a natural fit for all.” 

Brands integrating VTubers into their campaign are not new, with global brands such as Kelloggs, Crunchyroll, and Netfix all having their own VTubers. In Asia, airasia has launched its own VTuber project called Project Kavvaii.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Project Kavvaii, the VTuber project of airasia, recently celebrated the sixth-monthsary of its Lunetide generation, including a recent tie-up with Santan, the restaurant brand under airasia.

The Lunetide generation of Project Kavvaii consists of talents Airi Gwynevere and Mikazuki Mai, who debuted in April this year.

Fans can buy Santan Lunetide meal bundles, which includes Chicken Bites with Korean Sweet & Spicy Sauce, Sweet Potato Fries and Sirap Bandung. They also come with a Lunetide sticker sheet with illustrations by Gwyn and Mai.

The Santan tie up starts on October 30 to November 30 and will be only available in Malaysia, around the Klang Valley including IOI Mall Puchong, KL East Mall, Kompleks PKNS, NU Sentral, Setia City Mall, Sunway Pyramid and Wisma Tune.

In addition, fans can also get a chance to win Project Kavvaii’s exclusive merchandise collections by simply taking a screenshot of receipt purchases,

The Lunetide milestone celebration also sees the launch of exclusive Lunetide merchandise on airasia Super App’s Travelmall this November. They include enamel pins, acrylic keychains, magic mug, sticker sheet and tote bags.

Project Kavvaii also recently held an online event for its fans, including the launch of a server on the popular game Minecraft.

The celebration comes months after its first-ever talent, Aozora Kurumi, ceased activities on August 7.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Aozora Kurumi, the first virtual YouTuber (VTuber) under airasias’s VTuber arm Project Kavvaii, is set to retire from her online activities on 7 August this year. It should be recalled that the VTuber just recently came back from a one-month hiatus.

In a statement released by Project Kavvaii, her content within her YouTube channel and social media channels will remain a part of the airasia ecosystem.

“Although this announcement comes so soon after Kurumi’s return from her hiatus, she wishes to spend her remaining month with all of her friends and fans with joy and happy tears. The team respects her decision and expresses its gratitude for her amazing work. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours,” the agency stated.

They have also recognised her achievements during her year-long role as a VTuber for the agency, noting her growth as a content creator and building connections with members of the VTuber community.

Kurumi is the first VTuber under Project Kavvaii, where she first debuted on May 8, 2021. In an interview made by MARKETECH APAC to Rudy Khaw, chief brand officer at airasia, he noted VTubers like Kurumi are just as impactful as normal influencers.

“[There is] the ability to engage with a fan base [or] followers through similar interests and also because it is also so driven by personality, which is the core of what attracts a following,” he stated.

Project Kavvaii first announced auditions in March 2021, and a second wave in November 2021. At the moment, the agency also has its Lunetide generation, consisting of talents Airi Gwynevere and Mikazuki Mai.

If there is one facet of marketing that is seeing more growth than ever, it would be influencer marketing. The latest data from Statista notes that the market has reached US$13.8b in market size as of 2021, compared to just US$6.5b in 2019. This is all thanks to the rise of the content creator economy, primarily banking on interactions and purchasing powers from their fanbases.

It is no wonder why various forms of influencer marketing have popped up, ranging from real-life influencers like gamers and beauty gurus to virtual ones such as Rozy and Rae. But there is one facet that is considered the middle ground between human and virtual influencers–these so-called virtual YouTubers or ‘VTubers’.

What started out as a niche industry in Japan, VTubing, in general, gained popularity in 2019 as various agencies and brands ramped up in debuting new VTubers into the scene. It is no wonder why global brands such as Crunchyroll, Netflix, MSI, and Suntory have their own VTubers, primarily used to engage with their online fanbase and create new avenues for brands to engage with.

This is the case for the multinational company airasia, which announced the launch of their VTuber project called ‘Project Kavvaii’ in March 2021. Months later, they debuted their first-ever talent Aozora Kurumi in May 2021. Since then, Kurumi has completed over 150 streams and amassed more than 22,000 subscribers and over 1.2 million views on YouTube.

As she recently celebrated her one-year anniversary, MARKETECH APAC’s The Inner State spoke with Rudy Khaw, group chief brand officer at airasia Super App, to learn more about what they have learned dealing with VTubers and how their existence plays out in the influencer marketing scene.

How airasia has worked with influencers in general

Being a multinational company, airasia believes in the importance of representing diversity across their platforms, more specifically in how they tap into influencers to promote their brand. One of those examples was their latest launch of the ‘Red Radio’ in a bid to promote Asian artists on air, and their record label ‘RedRecords’ which has signed artists such as Jannine Weigel and Airliftz.

Khaw found out that with influencers, there wasn’t anything they could really own. It should be noted that there is a difference between a virtual influencer and a VTuber. While a virtual influencer is a computer-generated ‘persona’ that uses AI to shape its personality, a VTuber has a real person behind a digitally-drawn avatar, rigged by a face-tracking software to move the model.

“We also saw some limitations with virtual influencers as it didn’t feel genuine enough for two-way engagement,” he stated.

Khaw was referring to airasia’s previous venture into virtual influencers with the launch of their virtual influencer called Miss AVA. Said influencer was modelled after their chatbot named AirAsia Virtual Allstar (AVA).

He then noted that with their venture to VTubers, they have seen an opportunity to connect with a new online avenue across their followers online.

“When we explored the VTuber space, what we loved most about it is the genuine interaction and community-building opportunity it offers,” he added.

This reflects Project Kavvaii initial vision for their VTuber endeavour, which aligns airasia’s transition from an airline company to a lifestyle brand with the airasia super app, including a focus on the importance of content creators such as VTubers. In addition, the project aims to fast-track airasia’s growth by leveraging its digital capabilities, such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition.

On Aozora Kurumi’s impact as a VTuber and influencer

With Aozora Kurumi officially celebrating her one year anniversary, Khaw stressed out Kurumi’s importance in the online scene, as it allowed them to tap into a new demographic that could potentially be new customers.

“Kurumi’s following has grown healthily over the past few months and it’s definitely created a new set of audience for us. More recently, Kurumi has been exploring pre-recorded content, which is the beginning of more offline content to come,” he stated.

Aside from the typical type of content Kurumi streams such as gaming and karaoke ones, she is also involved in several brand activations for airasia, including a large giveaway stream, done in celebration of airasia’s 20th anniversary.

When asked how is VTubing just as impactful as normal influencers, Khaw said, “[There is] the ability to engage with a fan base [or] followers through similar interests and also because it is also so driven by personality, which is the core of what attracts a following.”

He also stated that while Project Kavvaii is a fairly new initiative that is unlike any of their previous endeavours, Kurumi’s presence brings value to their airasia Super App.

“Project Kavvaii is a part of airasia Super App; the value that Kurumi or the Vtuber space, in general, brings to the Super App is content. It opens up doors for us to explore more content opportunities in the future and develop our ideas to engage consumers beyond the transactional space.”

Brand advice to entities tapping into the VTuber space

When asked about what brands should keep in their mind in launching their own VTubers, Khaw said that they always put the talent first, not the brand, in order to create much more genuine traction for both the brand and the talent from their new audience.

“Don’t go into it like you would with influencers or other typical advertising projects. It’s a different space altogether and it’s really about fostering a community. It’s also important to remember that it’s not always about putting your brand out there from the get-go or all the time. The fan base will gather and latch onto your brand organically, don’t force it,” he stated.

Khaw’s advice mirrors his previous statement upon Kurumi’s debut, where he stated that they foresee the project to be a game-changer in the future of streaming content in the ASEAN region. 

“As a digital company, the constant change in the way people consume online content drives us to explore cross-industry innovations with Project Kavvaii to stay relevant and ahead of trends. We hope to see Aozora Kurumi taking the content world by storm very soon,” he said.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Project Kavvaii, the virtual YouTuber (VTuber) endeavour of airasia, has announced the debut of two new VTubers namely Airi Gwynevere and Mikazuki Mai. Together, Gwynevere and Mai form the agency’s ‘Lunetide’ generation.

The new VTuber debut comes after Project Kavvaii announced a second round of VTuber auditions in November 2021. In addition, the debut also follows the success of its first-ever VTuber Aozora Kurumi, who debuted on 8 May 2021. At the moment, Kurumi has completed over 150 streams and amassed more than 22,000 subscribers and over 1.2 million views on YouTube.

Speaking about the new talents, Rudy Khaw, group chief brand officer at airasia Super App, said, “We are very happy with how our first virtual idol, Aozora Kurumi has taken off one year into airasia Super App’s content streaming journey. Our long term goal is to have Project Kavvaii develop into a virtual talent arm that provides entertainment and engagement opportunities for fans, brands and communities.”

He added, “We remain steadfast in our stand that people consume online content differently today, and we want to push the envelope of innovation to stay relevant with online communities and market trends.”

Gwynevere’s debut will be held on 23 April, while Mai’s debut will be held on 24 April on their respective YouTube channels.

Project Kavvaii was launched in March 2021 by airasia to discover and develop virtual idols in Southeast Asia. In an interview with MARKETECH APAC for its airasia and pixiv fan art initiative, Izal Azlee, senior manager for content strategy at airasia, noted that there has been a positive relationship that they have observed between fans and the brand themselves, viewed on the gradual reception of these communities to the brand in focus.

“For brands, we would say learn about the community first to see what it’s all about and understand what this would mean, not just to the brand but to the community. It isn’t a walk in the park, so there’s a lot of learning. From our experience the best way to excel here is to listen to the community and VTubers,” Azlee told MARKETECH APAC.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Multinational low-cost airline and superapp airasia, with the aid of their recent VTuber agency Project Kavvaii, and online art community Pixiv have joined forces in officially kicking off a fan art contest dedicated to Project Kavvaii’s first-ever VTuber Aozora Kurumi.

Said contest kicked off last 9 September and will conclude by 24 October this year.

The fan art contest was previously announced by airasia during Aozora Kurumi’s media announcement last May of this year, which was also her debut month, in which she was introduced last 8 May.

Top winners of the said contest will receive a variety of prizes from airasia and Pixiv, including Wacom drawing tablets; hotel accommodations for use in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, as well as CabinZero backpacks. The other consecutive winners will receive 20,000 BIG points from airasia, which is from BIGLIFE, airasia’s loyalty management subsidiary.

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Izal Azlee, senior manager for content strategy at airasia, said the four months that they have shared with their first-ever virtual idol was at first unexpected, but they have totally loved it, adding the reason of how together and tight knit the community is, from fellow VTubers in the online community, to other VTuber agencies, as well all the way to the fans and viewers themselves.

“Doing what we do in airasia, we are in total awe of the community. We as a company have always aimed to embrace the various communities across the region and we are just getting started with the VTubing community. And the best part about this whole thing is how much we (the talent and agency) are learning a lot of things together on this journey. The fact that it’s collaborative makes it all that more exciting,” Azlee stated.

For the team at Project Kavvaii, the contest is not about making it resonate with the brand but rather showing their gratitude and appreciation to Kurumi’s fanbase that have welcomed not only their talent but them as an agency as well four months ago.

“We just want to show our appreciation and hopefully we can continue on this journey for a long long time. Ultimately, our bigger goal is to bring the creativity in the region into the spotlight. This is one of the small ways we can achieve that,” Azlee added.

Such positive relationship of fans and the brand themselves, according to Azlee, is best observed when looking at the gradual reception of these communities to the brand in focus.

“For brands, we would say learn about the community first to see what it’s all about and understand what this would mean, not just to the brand but to the community. It isn’t a walk in the park, so there’s a lot of learning. From our experience the best way to excel here is to listen to the community and VTubers,” he concluded.

Aozora Kurumi, who speaks multiple languages namely English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Korean as well as some Bahasa Malaysia and Japanese, now currently holds 11.8k subscribers on her official YouTube channel as of this writing, and has made multiple collaborations within the VTuber space, with the larger majority concentrated in the Southeast Asian region like Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Tokyo, Japan – In the newest stride of big brands tapping into the virtual talent scene, music label Sony Music Japan has announced the launch of its newest VTuber project called ‘VEE’ and are also pushing the call for around 50 new talents to join their V-Tuber project.

According to the project’s website, in addition to creating virtual media distribution and video production, they will be involved in music, voice acting, creative work, and other activities to make the talents ‘dreams’ come true. 

Sony Music Group in Japan, which has developed a wide range of entertainment businesses, will support the activities of the virtual talents by making the most of its know-how and solutions.

Requirements stated by the project side involve that the talent must be over 16 years old and of any nationality and gender, however they must be resident at the moment in Japan. Contracts for accepted talents are slated for a commitment of one year with the agency.

Registration for the VEE Project is now open, albeit the registration form is only available in Japanese, despite the project’s official site being officially available in English and Chinese. The registration opens from 20 July to 30 September this year.

The rate of corporate-backed VTubers is not slowing down, with more and more online users now rallying in support of these virtual idols. More recently, Hololive, a virtual talent agency owned by Japan-based tech entertainment company Cover Corporation, recently debuted its newest talent IRyS, a ‘virtual singer’ under its newest branch ‘Project:HOPE’ last 11 July.

Furthermore, brands who are not previously affiliated with VTubers in the mid of their corporate background are also getting involved with these virtual talents, including of AirAsia’s newest virtual idol, Aozora Kurumi of the agency Project Kavvaii, who debuted last 8 May, two months after AirAsia launched Project Kavvaii in search for the talent behind their first-ever virtual talent.