[Virtual Human 2.0] Virtual Humans as Show Hosts and Top Models... 680 Trillion Won Market by 2030

Virtual Human Influencers with Over 10,000 Followers
From 9 in 2014 to 200 in 2022, Rapid Growth
Live News Appearances and MC Hosting Included

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] The virtual human market is rapidly growing. Although the production cost of virtual humans reaches tens of billions of won, once created, they neither age nor get tired. When used as advertising models, there are no privacy issues such as scandals. Awareness of virtual humans is also different from before. Virtual humans surpassing famous celebrities are appearing one by one, and virtual humans have become an essential element of corporate marketing activities.

200 Virtual Influencers Worldwide... Advertising Costs That Make You Say 'Wow'

According to market research firm Emergen Research, the global virtual human market, which was worth 13 trillion won in 2020, is expected to grow more than 50 times to 680 trillion won by 2030.

The virtual human market is rapidly growing as companies increase their influencer marketing expenses. The U.S. market research firm Business Insider projected that corporate influencer marketing costs will nearly double from $8 billion in 2019 to $15 billion in 2022, with virtual influencers expected to lead this growth.

The number of virtual influencers registered on the U.S. virtual human information site VirtualHumans reaches a total of 200. This number has increased more than 20 times from 9 in 2014 to 188 last year, with 12 additional influencers added within one year. An influencer is defined as having more than 10,000 followers on their Instagram account. Among them, South Korea has 12 virtual influencers.

Virtual Humans Without Controversy, Able to Work 24 Hours

One of the fields that domestic and foreign companies have recently been eager to develop is virtual humans. Initially, development was pursued for the symbolism of virtual humans, but now they have become a key marketing tool. Even if the initial investment cost reaches tens of billions of won, it has now reached a stage where such investment can be recovered, and due to rapid technological growth, the initial investment cost is also rapidly decreasing recently.

Samsung Electronics collaborated with the virtual influencer 'Lu do Magalu' to target the Brazilian market alongside the launch of the 'Galaxy Z Flip4' last month. Lu do Magalu has the highest number of followers among virtual influencers worldwide, with 6 million followers, and is one of the most popular influencers in Brazil. The industry estimates that advertising fees typically reach 20 million won when followers exceed 1 million, so Lu do Magalu's advertising fees are expected to exceed hundreds of millions of won. It is known that Lu do Magalu earns at least $10,000 (approximately 13 million won) per post.

In China, virtual humans have also appeared in live commerce. On August 22, the virtual human 'Kiko' from Tianyu Digital Technology conducted a live commerce broadcast to support local farmers. During the broadcast, a total of 193,000 viewers watched, 3,256 boxes of peaches were sold, and the total sales amount reached 170,000 yuan (approximately 33.05 million won) on the day. Kiko directly introduced products and sang songs during the broadcast, attracting viewers' attention.

An advertising industry official explained, "The biggest advantage of using virtual humans in marketing is that companies can accept any requirements at any time they want," adding, "Virtual humans are free from various scandals, so there is no risk factor for companies in marketing."

Virtual human K-pop idol 'Eternity's Jane was invited to the 'CMS 2022' event and is hosting the live broadcast as MC.

Idols, Streamers, Analysts... Boundaries Are Blurring

In South Korea, virtual humans have begun to be used in various fields beyond marketing.

Jane, a member of Pulse9's virtual K-pop idol group 'Eternity,' appeared last month as a guest on a visual radio and live news broadcast, and also appeared as a live MC. Jane's live broadcast appearance was realized through Pulse9's 'DeepReal Live.' DeepReal Live is a technology that synthesizes the faces of virtual humans in real time using a GAN (Generative Adversarial Networks) algorithm trained on hundreds of thousands of facial data images.

Starting with Jane, virtual humans' entry into live broadcasting is becoming active. 'Hanari' from Onmind, a subsidiary of Neptune under Kakao, conducted the first live talk concert by a domestic virtual human at the 'Seoul Popcon' event last month. Hanari plans to continue activities as a streamer on the streaming platform Twitch.

Samsung Securities developed a virtual human 'Virtual Analyst' and introduced YouTube content utilizing it. This is the first domestic case of using a virtual human created by replicating a real analyst to deliver investment information.