Economic Observer Network reporter Ren Xiaoning On May 11, the virtual idol Jiale appeared in the live broadcast room for the last time. She sat on the sofa and chatted with fans for 70 minutes, and the most spoken sentence was “You ignore me.”
Jia Le’s appearance this time was supposed to be on May 20. According to the statement of the A-SOUL production committee, Jiale entered the state of “live broadcast dormancy” on May 10, and held the “Jiale Dormant Concert” on May 20. However, because the fans were dissatisfied with the “hibernation”, the concert originally scheduled to be held on the 20th could not be held, and Jiale appeared in advance on May 11.
“Hibernation means that no one will come out with Jiale’s skin in the future. I will never see her again.” A fan who sang and jumped into the pit of Jiale after watching “Mang Seed” in March last year told the Economic Observer Network reporter . He said that he was shocked when he heard the news of hibernation.
In the next few days, more revelations about the real life of the person in Jiale (the real person behind the virtual idol) were revealed in A-SOUL Chaohua and Jiale Chaohua, and fans became angry, and they accused A-SOUL of where The company squeezed its employees, and the people in the middle were treated unfairly. So there is this chat of Jiale in the live broadcast room on May 11.
Fans were not satisfied with the live broadcast. They believed that Jiale read the words according to the script and was threatened by the company. Although Jiale in the live broadcast room tried hard to tell his own mental journey in the past few days, no one listened carefully. It’s fake”, thousands of “Don’t go to the Bird’s Nest, let’s go home” barrage floated through the live broadcast room. Bird’s Nest is a stalk of the A-SOUL team. They had a dream before that they wanted to hold a concert in the Bird’s Nest. Unexpectedly, the team members were already “dormant” before the concert.
On May 15, A-SOUL ranked No. 1 in Weibo’s hot search, with more than 300 million views. Many people who have not heard this name ask around, what is A-SOUL and who is Jiale.
A-SOUL, where Jiale is located, is an idol girl group. The five members of the team are all virtual idols. They were born at the end of 2020. Because of the use of real-time motion capture technology and full 3D rendering, and the interpretation of people in the middle, in 2021 It became popular in 2010, and currently has 20 million fans on the entire network, becoming the “Light of National V” (V is Vtuber, which refers to the anchor who uses virtual images to submit articles on video websites). Previously, A-SOUL has been popular in the two-dimensional circle, this time, because Jiale “dormant”, it has attracted attention in the public circle.
After the controversy broke out, fans reported it to regulators. On May 17, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Binjiang District, Hangzhou City responded to the incident on the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government website, saying that the problem was caused by the change of the Jiale brokerage contract. The investigation did not find any deductions from wages and forced labor contracts. the situation of the contract.
Kale is dormant
After the shock, the above-mentioned Jiale fans have been in a state of confusion and anger. He can’t accept Jiale’s “dormancy”. Since he fell in love with Jiale in March last year, he has watched almost every live broadcast of Jiale. “When I’m very tired from work, I look at her, I’m very happy”, “She is very happy to For me, it’s a beautiful existence.”
As a virtual idol, Jiale has a contrasting cuteness. Her avatar image is a very sassy, very mature and cold royal sister, but after the interpretation of the person behind her, she is a bit stupid in the live broadcast, very sensitive, and loves to cry. At the same time, she has very strong business ability and is good at singing and dancing. She is the second virtual anchor of station B to break the ten thousand ships. The fans’ favorite “Red High Heels” has exceeded 5 million views. In another dance, “Across the Shore”, fans praised her “Awakening of bloodline, earthy and trendy.”
The Jiale fan group was very surprised about “hibernation”. On April 22, Jiale just released a single, with 2 million plays on station B. A-SOUL has never heard rumors of disbanding before. At the end of last year, it even found Xu Song and Fang Wenshan to create a group single, why did it suddenly “dormant”?
The reasons for “dormancy” given by the A-SOUL production committee are: due to academic and physical reasons. After the “dormancy” announcement was issued, the NetEase Cloud Music account suspected of being a person in Jiale was exposed. The account records that she practiced dancing until she vomited, her left leg was slashed halfway through her passive capture suit, her throat was injured, and her thoracic spine pain had a great impact on dancing. She experienced various occupational diseases such as loss of voice and deafness that had not been seen in the past 20 years. . She said, “It’s very sad, I hope I can stop thinking about it when I’m busy,” and “don’t sacrifice your health for work.” Regarding the content of the account, the A-SOUL production committee did not refute rumors in several subsequent responses.
In the live broadcast room, Jiale is a cheerful girl with strong business ability, good singing and dancing, and can earn more than 2 million yuan in a live broadcast. In reality, the person in the middle is a migrant worker who often stays up late until the early morning and suffers frequent injuries.
Mikako, the UP owner with 400,000 fans at Station B, described the people in A-SOUL as “cyber idols”. Sing and dance more than a dozen songs, live broadcast until the early morning, and finally get a salary that is not as good as that of a courier. Angry fans can’t bear the gap and separation between reality and dreams.
“I really didn’t expect that the top of the V circle would not make as much money as me as a wage earner.” Some people sighed in the super chat on Jiale Weibo.
On May 11, after the “hibernation” turmoil broke out, Jiale made a live broadcast to chat with fans about how she spent the past few days, and how she comforted her with friends and relatives in real life, but fans They don’t listen to her anymore, they think what she’s saying now is false.
On May 14th, A-SOUL’s Weibo was the most searched. From the 16th to the 17th, the topic was still hot. A-SOUL’s official account at station B lost 60,000 followers a day. This incident was regarded as a two-dimensional event. struggle.
“Virtual idols are front-end digital modeling to construct the shape, and the back-end real people drive the injection of content. Fans’ appreciation of virtual idols is essentially their appreciation of the overall performance formed by the front and back ends. If the capital side ignores the fans’ perception of behind-the-scenes-driven idol performances and performances. The aesthetic dependence of voice actors simply thinks that a virtual idol is an IP, then this capitalist is not a qualified capitalist, at least he is not a capitalist who really understands the payer.” Du Hongchao, independent director of Canaan Technology and founder of Yuantuoshe tell reporters.
The Joys and Worries of “People in the Middle”
Jiale was born in December 2020 and became popular in 2021. Currently, it has 510,000 fans at station B and 360,000 fans on Douyin. At the end of last year, it was rated as one of the top 100 UP masters at station B.
As a virtual idol, Jiale is a member of a girl group. The full name of the girl group is A-SOUL, and the five artists are all virtual idols, namely Bella, the captain and dancer, Jiaran, the foodie, Nailin, the game player, and the lead singer Jiale. A-SOUL was created by Lehua Entertainment, which is good at making idols and successfully launched Wang Yibo and Meng Meiqi. It is also the first original virtual idol girl group launched by a local head artist agency. In terms of virtual technology, technology and operations are provided by Zhaoxi Guangnian, a subsidiary of ByteDance.
Unlike the virtual idols Hatsune Miku and Luo Tianyi who became famous earlier and better known to the public, A-SOUL, where Jiale is located, has a real person behind every virtual idol. Their every move, every song and dance, every expression. Actions are played by real people and captured by technology. These real people are called “people in the middle”.
The person in the middle is regarded as the soul of A-SOUL by the fan base. “Everyone supports virtual idols for their dreams, not for technology and art.” “Wandering Toad”, the great writer of China Literature Group, also paid attention to this incident, he commented.
The above-mentioned Jiale fans recalled that at the beginning, Jiale’s personality was not what it is now. The company’s initial personality for her was high and cold, which did not attract fans very much. Instead, the people in the middle showed their own personality characteristics. , This kind of contrast makes Jiale popular. He likes to watch the interaction between Jiale and the other 4 girls. In the live broadcast room, the 5 people have a good relationship, and there are many funny and loving stories. These interactions, only real people can show.
“The current AI technology can only produce mentally retarded idols. Things like fun and humor cannot be done with current AI technology.” The above-mentioned fan told reporters that this is a virtual idol he likes to have in the middle. s reason.
But at the same time, there are real people behind virtual idols, which also means uncertainty. On May 14, the A-SOUL production committee publicly responded that the A-SOUL production committee and actor XX had terminated the contract 14 months ahead of schedule. So-and-so is the person behind Jiale.
After fans expressed their dissatisfaction, A-SOUL planning director Su Shi wrote a letter to fans to respond. He said that at the beginning of the project, they didn’t know much about Chinese people, but they just felt that AI and interactive live broadcasts were very promising, so they chose this two-dimensional project. The original intention of their establishment of the project is to do artistic and technical exploration, including rendering technology, motion capture technology, live broadcast interactive technology, etc. As for A-SOUL’s goal, they thought it would be good to reach 100,000 followers.
Su Shi also mentioned that there are indeed many problems within the team. The income should be distributed to the live broadcast platform and Lehua Entertainment, and there are also more R&D and art costs. The single project is still in a state of large losses. The income of Zhongzhiren is temporarily incomparable to the popular live-action artists, but the team has been working hard to provide them with Competitive income and related benefits in the industry.
As a virtual idol, A-SOUL is not the only 5 girls in front of the screen. In addition to the people in China, there are also staffs such as script, technology, equipment, operation, venue, art, modeling, editing, guidance, planning, publicity, etc. At the beginning, A-SOUL’s selling point was real-time motion capture technology, full 3D Rendering and live streaming technology. Although fans expressed their dissatisfaction with the company, they also admitted that A-SOUL’s live broadcast technology has visibly slapped virtual anchors at home and abroad, even including the first emperor Kizunai.
According to the information disclosed by the A-SOUL production committee, the income structure of the people in A-SOUL is: monthly fixed income + nearly + 10% of the total live streaming. Previously, it was reported that the salary income of Zhongzhi was 11,000 yuan + 1% commission, but the A-SOUL production committee said it was not true.
The above-mentioned fans told reporters that in the V circle industry, the live broadcast income of Zhongzhiren is generally divided into about 30%, while A-SOUL only divides it into 10%, which is somewhat less. And, this 10% may be divided among 5 people, so it will be less. He believes that these incomes are far less than the efforts of the people in the middle, which is why the fan group stood up to express their dissatisfaction this time. They hope that through their own efforts, the people behind them can get better income returns.
On March 8 this year, Lehua Entertainment submitted a listing prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The prospectus shows that the pan-entertainment business revenue related to virtual artists has increased from 21.08 million yuan in 2020 to 37.87 million yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 79.6%, and the gross profit margin has increased from 56.5% to 77.7%. The growth is mainly attributed to the virtual girl group A-SOUL launched by Lehua in November 2020.
Zhang Lijin, a senior researcher at the Center for Big Data Mining and Social Computing at Communication University of China and the author of “Virtual Digital Man”, has been following this turmoil recently. Two days ago, she did a metaverse-themed live broadcast on Weibo, with hundreds of comments. Among them, more than half are asking questions about her virtual idol. She told reporters that there are no standards and conventions for the current labor treatment of Zhongzhiren. “Zhongzhiren is a new type of work after the birth of virtual idols. With the development of virtual people, more and more new types of work will appear. These Labor disputes for new types of work can only wait for the law to be perfected.”
The conflict between fans and the A-SOUL production committee this time, Zhang Lijin believes, the main reason is that some fans regard Zhongzhiren as virtual idols, “not only love you, but also love your soul”, fans and Zhongzhiren emotional The relationship is closely related, and once there is a change in the people in the middle, there will be conflicts with the company. However, this is not the original intention of making a virtual idol company. The current contradiction, she believes, is a process that the virtual idol industry must go through in the initial stage.
Du Hongchao believes that the occurrence of the Jiale incident is a wake-up call for the capital and operators of domestic virtual idol operations. “Both fans and behind-the-scenes actors tend to regard behind-the-scenes actors as an integral part of virtual idols. The capital side and the operator deal simply and rudely from the perspective of the brand side and the employer, which will inevitably cause a backlash in public opinion.”
After the controversy over the dormancy of Jiale, will it trigger some changes to better adjust the relationship between the people in the middle and the brokerage company? The reporter sent an interview outline to the A-SOUL production committee, but no response was received as of press time.
Will idols eventually wither?
Jiale is not the first virtual idol to have disputes because of people in the middle.
On February 26, 2022, after the virtual idol Kizuna Ai held his last concert “Hello, World 2022″, his activities will be suspended indefinitely. Produced by a Japanese company, this one has 3 million followers on YouTube. It is known as the “First Emperor of the V Circle”. He has served as a Japanese tourism promotion ambassador and is considered to be a virtual idol of the industry ceiling. It is also dying after 5 years of birth.
Kizuna Ai is also the person in the middle of the node from glory to decline. On May 25, 2019, Activ8, the company belonging to Kizuna Ai, launched the “Four Kizuna Ai” project. On the basis of the original people, three other people in the middle were found to play the role of Kizuna Ai together, which caused dissatisfaction among fans. After that, Kizuna Ai went downhill all the way, the video quality declined, the shipment of the figure was delayed, and the weekly live broadcast decreased.
In 2021, the virtual anchor “Super Chat No. 1” Runyu Lucia was also announced to terminate the contract because of Zhongzhiren’s personal problems. CCTV’s virtual idol Xinke Niang has replaced 4 people, and one of them was dismissed for falsifying academic qualifications.
The virtual idols in the live broadcast room can always be naive, always cute, always cute, never fat, and always full of vitality, but the people behind them can’t do that.
The rise of domestic virtual idols will start in 2021. In this year, stars collapsed and idols were disqualified frequently. Virtual idols became a paradise for heartbroken fans. When talking about the establishment of a virtual idol girl group at the annual meeting of Chinese business leaders, Lehua Entertainment CEO Du Hua said, “This way, no one will complain, because our girl group will never collapse, never fall in love, and always love. Duma’s.”
The ideal is very rich, but the reality is very skinny. Jiale’s “dormancy” has also poured cold water on the hot virtual idol industry.
“Why is there such a big controversy this time? The essence is that the industry is too early, and everything is in chaos, including practitioners’ understanding of virtual idols, some of which are also chaotic.” When Zhang Lijin wrote “Virtual Digital People”, she felt that virtual idols The phrase “Never Collapse the House” is wrong, “As long as there is a human factor, the house may collapse. It’s just that compared to the collapse of the real idol, the virtual idol’s collapsed house may be saved.” This time Jiale “dormant” The subsequent controversy also confirmed her previous judgment.
Compared with real idols, there are technical parties, operators, copyright owners and other links behind virtual idols. Who should belong to a successful virtual idol and who will be responsible for the virtual idol that collapsed? It is still unclear in the market. in blurred boundaries.
After this turmoil, it was a wake-up call for virtual idol practitioners. For the company, since it is a virtual idol economic business, it is necessary to analyze the problems encountered in operating real idols, because virtual idols will also encounter similar problems, and they need to realize that the problems of virtual idols may be more serious. It is complicated, because it is not the most direct relationship between stars and fans, but there are more links such as people and technology.
For fans, it can also grow from this event. “Why Jiale always broadcasts live in the middle of the night may also have something to do with fans’ work and rest time. Fans can also think more about their relationship with people in the middle. If fans want virtual idols to live broadcast 24 hours a day, they must also allow 3 people in the back. Three shifts.” Zhang Lijin suggested that virtual idols are a new thing, and they are still in their infancy. Fans can grow together with virtual idols, define and create a culture that is different from the previous rice circle culture, and a better fan. culture.
“This incident has a certain milestone value for the development of the virtual idol market.” Du Hongchao told reporters that whether the virtual idol market can grow healthily for a long time must be a balance of multi-party games. Zhang Lijin feels that it is not yet the time of great chaos. When the industry develops very fast, more problems will emerge, and the industry will also move forward in the outbreak of conflicts and problem solving.
On May 9, iiMedia Research released the “Research Report on the Development of China’s Virtual Human Industry in 2022”, showing that in 2021, the overall market size and core market size driven by virtual idols will be 107.49 billion yuan and 6.22 billion yuan respectively. They reached 186.61 billion yuan and 12.08 billion yuan respectively. This industry is still growing, and Du Hongchao believes that in the future, dramas like A-SOUL will continue to be staged. Investors and operators in the virtual idol market should learn from the A-SOUL incident and find a digital brand operation model that suits them as soon as possible.
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