The Rise of VTubers as Social Media Influencers, Explained

I'm excited to welcome Devin Mancuso, Senior Design Strategist at Google, to share his findings from deep research into the Virtual YouTuber industry. Back in 2018, Devin was the UX Lead for a team at YouTube focused on looking at the emerging phenomenon of virtual influencers appearing on YouTube, culturally referred to as "VTubers".

Key insight: When both sides of the fan-creator relationship fulfill their end of the contract, an emotional fidelity is achieved that is incredibly captivating for audiences. In exchange for remaining emotionally faithful, audiences get to feel something real, something they know is real because it originated from inside them: joy, jealousy, admiration, pride.

All the best,

Christopher Travers