Remember the cheap human labor that annotates AI with data? They are known as "people who work for artificial intelligence", and are also described by practitioners as "Foxconn workers of artificial intelligence" and "new textile women workers" in the AI era Today's brightly packaged "virtual Idol" is also more and more like a new data textile manufacturing machine
Just like those who do data tagging, they simply can't imagine how much wealth the algorithm they participate in training is creating, and the people behind virtual idols don't experience the happiness brought by "idols" - although they are often the real favorite objects of fans.
What's worse, in the business of virtual idol, it seems that no one is really benefiting from it. Everything is "virtual".
Idols live worse than fans
Virtual idols that never collapse and never fall in love, AI women's troupe that runs 24 hours a day, the first virtual vtuber with 3D live broadcast and real-time action capture, trainees from the largest artist company who are people in the middle (real actors behind the virtual image), byte beats that master the password of the largest traffic on the Internet today, and endorsements... Virtual idol group a-soul has attracted the attention of many people since its birth.
A-soul did break the circle in May this year. However, it is not for these reasons that a-soul broke the circle, but a-soul became the protagonist of the largest "house collapse" event of domestic virtual idols.
Du Hua and a-soul, source: Du Hua microblog
Jiale, a member of a-soul, was declared "live sleep" by the operator.
Strictly speaking, using "collapsed house" to describe the virtual idol group a-soul is not very accurate. Unlike the situation caused by the collapse of its public image and artificial design caused by the scandals and scandals of entertainment stars and artists in the past, in the eyes of many fans, the perpetrator of this "collapsed house" incident is not the virtual idol group a-soul or the people behind it, but the company behind it.
The fuse is the news that a group member withdrew from the official account of a-soul on the afternoon of May 10. The news said that one of the members of a-soul group, team vocal, will stop daily live broadcasting (including unicast and group broadcasting) and most idol activities from this week and enter "live broadcasting sleep" due to physical and academic problems.
Source: station B a-soul official
Just ten minutes after the announcement was released, a comment was raised at the bottom: "it's very euphemistic. Those who have chased the women's League know that such words are tantamount to never coming back". This does mean that Jiale will completely withdraw from the group, but it is difficult for fans to accept the withdrawal of important members of the group without warning and do not buy the official explanation of "physical and academic problems".
Source: a-soul member Jiale
In order to find the answer, someone soon dug out the personal social platform account of the person behind the yoga. In their personal dynamics, fans pieced together the real life state behind the person - the workplace full of PUA, the occupational diseases that no one cares about, the endless excessive overtime, the dance that needs to be studied at their own expense, and some living expenses also need family support
Source: Netease cloud
Source: Netease cloud
Then, some netizens exposed in the Forum: "the internal status of a-soul members in the planning is very low. The salary has always been only 7K. The later operation proposed to raise the salary to 11K, the base salary + 1% of the live broadcast revenue Commission, but the salary increase condition is that the members must renew the contract."
Jiale was the strongest captain of station B in 2021 (the anchor of station B who received the most captain gifts in the whole year). There were 12000 gift ships with 138 yuan reward from fans. However, even if calculated by higher 11K base salary + 1% commission on live revenue, station B will be divided into 50%. When Jiale received a captain worth 138 yuan from fans, only 69 cents were actually received. The strongest captain of station B was 12000 in the whole year, Only 8280 yuan is really available to the people behind Jiale.
Source: station B
Although it is rumored that "sol-a" members still hide all the details of their monthly salary + live broadcast in the early morning of the 11th, and then they continue to hide all the details of their salary + live broadcast on the social network. Although it is rumored that "sol-a" members continue to hide all the details of their monthly salary + live broadcast in the early morning of the 11th.
In the eyes of fans, the microblog account of a-soul's most popular group pet jiaran was also picked out. Fans found that the mobile phone used for microblogging was oppo reno5, a medium and low-end model released a few years ago. Through Taobao map, they found that they loved to wear less than 100 pieces of small skirts and 39 pieces of plastic necklaces; Another member often eats instant noodles at night. The switch handle is ineffective and often drifts, but he is reluctant to change it for half a year. He starts with the old man ring (Alden method ring) and returns quickly because of dizziness 3D
Source: screenshot of microblog. Chicken breast - a corpse that tastes stiff, stiff and soulless
All this points to an extremely absurd but true conclusion - the people behind a-soul, which earns tens of millions of live broadcast rewards throughout the year, may live worse than fans Fans lamented that the captain saved from their 996 meals of instant noodles gave it to the idol. As a result, the people behind the "Idol" can't escape the fate of those who stay up late and work overtime. It's all reincarnation.
So, where's the money?
"We" are all part of model innovation
If we must give a conclusion, who makes a profit in the planning of virtual idol a-soul, the answer may be different from the imagination that capital ruthlessly squeezes digital workers and finally makes a lot of money. In fact, the operator is also losing money for investment.
Su Shi, the planning director of a-soul and the head of Chaoxi Lightyear Jiangnan studio, said in his reply to fans that a-soul's investment in technology and operation is very high, which is far higher than the revenue that virtual idols can get at present. In addition, a-soul's revenue is divided into Lehua, station B and byte jump. The R & D and art costs of a-soul's planning are very high, so the whole project is in a state of large losses.
The cost of 3D live broadcast plus real-time motion capture is really high. Nokov, a domestic motion capture equipment provider, said: "the capture effects of different motion capture systems are different, and the price range is also large, ranging from thousands to millions." The virtual human technology provider suiqu shows on its official website that the full set of high-end motion capture systems used in some films can even reach hundreds of millions of yuan.
Source: Zhihu
In addition to the cost of fixed assets such as motion capture equipment in the early stage, the subsequent operation also needs the support of artificial intelligence technology, the cultivation of Chinese people, art design, 3D modeling and the distribution of traffic and channels. According to public information, in October last year, Liu Yexi, who exploded with the concept of meta universe and virtual digital man, had a single video cost of about 1 million, including 400000 video production and 600000 channel investment, and more than 160 people were serving her behind this IP. Although the operator of a-soul did not disclose the specific operating cost, it can be compared with this. The number of its operating team is absolutely large, and the expenditure cost must not be a small number.
The actors in Avatar are wearing mobile capture equipment
The production and operation cost of virtual idol is high, but its commercialization ability is limited. In its prospectus, Lehua entertainment said it would increase investment in the operation and commercial development of virtual artists, create more profit space through live streaming media, virtual concerts and endorsement derivatives . In other words, in addition to live broadcasting, a-soul wants to rely on endorsement and derivative cultural innovation in terms of profit.
Figure source: prospectus of Lehua Entertainment
However, the effect of virtual idol endorsement has not been fully trusted by the market, and the product categories that can be endorsed are limited. At present, it is still in the stage of exploring and testing the water.
Virtual people can't "tell the truth". A virtual idol Ling once endorsed a lipstick product to promote "moisturizing and not dry", but netizens complained that it couldn't convey the real consumption experience and finally withdrew the promotion. The derivative cultural and creative market has been tepid, not to mention that live broadcasting is still the main revenue source of virtual idols.
This obviously can't support the income of virtual idols. Luo Tianyi, the ancestor of domestic virtual idols, took six years to start making profits. A-soul is still losing money after achieving the top of virtual idols. Liu Yexi is breaking the circle. But do you know Ling Yuan, Yousa, Hanser, Duoduo POI, rock sugar IO and other virtual idols? Most of these virtual idols that explode in the small circle layer are not known to most people. From the perspective of the cost of the project and the person in charge of the project, Soul-A is likely to have a huge loss.
The emergence of virtual idols is the result of the popularity of concepts loved by the capital market, such as AI technological progress, metauniverse and virtual digital man. Whether it can continue to exist under huge losses largely depends on whether the capital buys it or not: compared with the good fortune and misfortune of the people concerned, it obviously emphasizes the story of "investing heavily in mobile capture and AI technology to build the threshold of the 'virtual' part and finally win the market", It is more in line with the "human design" that all parties have been building for the business of "virtual Idol".
Maybe the future meta universe will change the entertainment ecology, but at present, the impact of "virtual idols" who can't make money and can't stop investing on people may just be creating new data textile workers.
Who needs such an idol.