/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Can someone explain to me what's the point of chuuber agencies like Zig? (zig-inc.com)
Why someone would want to be part of them?

All they provide is an effortless and streamlined birth, as they take care of character design, show how to use FaceRig, rent ASMR mics, provide feedback on streams, etc. but this is only useful at the very start of a chuuber career (it's also within the realm of doing it yourself), those agencies don't seem to provide many benefits after the start, in fact they seem to have a negative effect afterwards.

I'm talking about Zig in particular here. My understanding is that they own the character design, perhaps even the character itself regardless of the design, they own YouTube and Twitch accounts, don't let chuubers do anything that wasn't approved by them, don't even allow to use Twtter DMs - if you send a DM you will get a reply from the staff, some of Zig chuubers even apologized that they can't use DMs to communicate. Since they are the ones who own the YouTube account, they are also the ones who get all the YouTube revenue including ads and superchats. Oh, and all donations must go directly to the agency, you are not allowed to donate anything directly to the chuuber in any way, not they are allowed to create personal Patreons and stuff. To my knowledge this hasn't happened yet as they are rather new, but they will likely shut down unpopular chuubers like it happened with Kiki. Also, since they own the copyright on characters and own YouTube and Twitter accs, it's very likely that they will not let the chuubers go independent or switch to some other company, Zig would just hold them hostage. It's a for-profit business for them and they will try to squeeze all the money they can from their chuubers, who in turn get it from their fans. I feel like it's some dead end trap for chuubers, and while I like some of Zig's chuubers and wouldn't mind supporting them, I don't and won't support them as it would let this Zig cancer proliferate. Me supporting them would mean that I would contribute to their success, increasing the chance of them becoming popular and getting Zig-locked. If I don't support them, I would increase the chance of them not gaining popularity, Zig shutting them down and then being Zig-free, perhaps starting new vtuber personas independently, taking all they have learned, or perhaps avoiding vtuber scene altogether now – still better than being Zig-locked.

It would be some much better if there were vtuber bootcamps/schools, where you could learn using OBS, FaceRig, streaming on YouTube, etc. by the end of which your involvement with them would end, without selling your soul for this and becoming their slave.