/vt/ - Virtual Youtubers

This...
This right here is what it's all about.
Unity is a lovely thing. Cherish it, and keep on moving for a better future.
There will always be problems and sadness down the line. But when they come, remember things like this, and understand how much more valuable the good is, and how transient everything else is.
Even when the Earth, the Moon, and even the Sun have disappeared, these memories will still exist as long as even one person still lives to remember them. So keep on living, to remember these good times, and pass them down so that others may know, and strive for happiness like this.
Unity love. Hololive love.

>>3561453
I mean, that doesn't detract from you being a newfag, because everyone that's a native to this thread knows about Soraposter. He always posts with filename related, about Cover's financials and related stuff. But before that, he serve as the one of the thread's rallying points against the SEAniggers trying to shit up the thread.

What I'm saying is that Soraposter deserved a spot at the legends table, alone with gawr goyla, damascus, rratman and the ame megaphone.

I've been looking into COVER more as a company, and I want to say, there's been some interesting stuff lately. It isn't as substantial as the interview with BI from last time, but I did catch some useful stuff.
First off, Yagoo posted a "note" online recently, which was basically a pitch of their business structure and mission statement. It's worth noting that he said that he felt the company was just starting to expand beyond the place of being a small indie company, where he would be the one pushing forward, and that Cover is now on the path to growing as a business. But one incredibly interesting line was this, and I'll post it in both Japanese and English just in case anyone wants to double-check the translation:
>日本発でカルチャーを作り出すことに挑戦したいという意思をミッションに込めました。VTuberは日本だから生み出せた、日本ならではのカルチャーだと考えています。当社は、日本を代表するVTuber企業の一社として、今後はメタバースを始めとした事業に挑戦していき、新たなカルチャーを生み出していきたいと考えています。
>We believe that VTuber is a culture that can only be created in Japan, and is unique to Japan. As one of Japan's leading VTuber companies, we would like to take on the challenge of the Metaverse and other businesses and create a new culture.
I checked in a few different TL softwares; he did say "Metaverse." I wasn't sure what the fuck that meant, until I checked their hiring website, where I found some more stuff.
First thing's first about the hiring page: They're hiring fucking everywhere. JP, ID, EN, UI design, accountants (really got my interest), 3DCG, MV producers, animators, script writers, the works. They're rapidly expanding now, but we're just starting that phase.
Second, the hiring page confirmed once and for all exactly what I thought was true about the management narratives: They're all fucking bullshit. There are separate listings for two positions: One for "Talent Manager," and one for "Operations Director." Operations Director deals with the external business (collaborations, permissions, goals for the branches to work towards, communication with other branches' Op Directors), Talent Managers deal with internals (Talent motivation care, coordination between the Vtuber and the higher-ups, schedules, troubleshooting and misc. support). Side note: English talent managers are also required to live in Japan, but not to be Japanese; it's noted that all current English management staff is made up of non-Japanese members. The same requirement to live in Japan is true of the Indonesian managers.
Now that the rratbusting news section is done, there's a few sections that made me particularly excited, and I'll lay them out for you now:
>Server-Side Engineer
>Unity Engineer
>Goods/Product Planning Director
The Product Planner should be obvious as to why it would get someone excited, that means Cover is looking to expand their merchandising ability. But the other two are also extremely interesting for different reasons.
The Server Engineer was asked in the job description to work on a few specific services:
>Development of in-house services for: Spam Detection App, Delivery Schedule Management App
So that means Cover is actively working on developing both a centralized planning service, and a spam detection bot. It seems like they're working on the final nail in the coffin for the bugspam, which is a great thing to hear.
But finally, the most interesting thing to me, the Unity Engineer. This links back to the "Metaverse" that Yagoo brought up all the way at the beginning. This is the relevant part of the job description:
>The media mix project is about to start. We are looking for engineers to play a key role in the content development.
>People who want to create a new culture with VTubers! People who want to take on exciting new challenges! People who want to test their abilities in new content creation!
>Job Description: Online game development for new business
>Required Skills: Experience in game development using Unity. Experience in 3D game development.
So, Cover is actively looking to create a Hololive video game of some kind. And not just a sprite gacha, but a 3D game. That was entirely unexpected, but it's a welcome surprise.
Oh, and one last note: On their job listings, Cover is listed as having 154 active employees. If we assume the Hololive/Holostars talent is on that list, that's 1/3rd of the staff accounted for, and another 1/3rd of the staff for personal talent managers, give or take a dozen to account for overlap. That leaves about 50-60 staff that isn't directly related to talent, many of which are probably upper-level management/directors. So that's a decent insight into Cover, I think.

OK, the interview with YAGOO is over. It was a four part interview, and I went through it all with a BI JP Prime account to read the parts that were cordoned off. Here's my rundown for the sake of giving accurate information to people, so that they can't be led astray by narratives. And for my own dignity's sake, I'm going to just call him by his name, Tanigo, because that's what the article uses. Be warned: this is going to be a long post, so I'll need to split it into two parts.
First off, t he second section starts talking about Tanigo's time at Imagineer. This section is light on stuff we care about, but I'll go over it. He learned his business strategies and understandings from interactions with staff there, as well as a partner company, Sanrio. Those are the Hello Kitty guys, if you didn't know.
He was involved in Imagineer's "closed internet" service, where they sold internet access to mobile phone users in the early 2000s, in partnership with businesses who would create sites for them to use. However, Tanigo doubted that it would be capable of competing for long, as the open internet was really taking off at this point. This is when, for our purposes, "Web 2.0" was starting for real. So he went independent and tried to be an entrepreneur in the online space.
The first thing he tried was a foodie app where people could gather and discuss/share good eating spots. It worked out for a bit, but it couldn't grow after the initial iPhone boom, and Tanigo said he learned a lesson from that.
>I started my business without considering whether it would be a viable business, whether I would be good at it, or whether it would be useful to the world. That was my regret.
He then says the lesson learned from this is:
>"In the end, no matter how much good you try to do, if you can't produce results, there is nothing left. You can give back to the world if you work hard at what you are good at, instead of doing something very good."
This is when he leaves to start Cover. One year and seven months remain until the Hololive Productions subsidiary is formed.

The third section starts talking about Cover's time as a VR development company for games. It goes into the Table Tennis game. Apparently they spent about 10,000,000 yen trying to make it fun, but it didn't work out.
After that, Tanigo discovered the fact that moving a character in VR was itself interesting. So he changed course to develop tracking technology for the second round of funding.
From there, they talk about the debut of Sora. The Knights of the Round Table are brought up and the founding legend is discussed. It's noted that Cover was actually the pioneer of Live-Streaming Vtuber content, as the market was dominated by planned videos at the time, while they were working on stream content since Sora's time, although they still created planned content. In 2017, they made the leap from NND to Youtube. Now this next phrase, I want to quote in full.
>The popularity of Hololive gradually expanded, and powerful individuals such as「Suisei Hoshimachi」 joined. Cover also opens its own audition and discovers talent. By incorporating the "soul" of the distributor into the characters created by popular illustrators, a new exclusive VTuber was born.
It's also noted that they developed their Live2D themselves, cramming technology that would require "millions of yen" into a single smartphone.
Then they talk about the expansion of Hololive, and take time to note Gura, "Holo-EN's 'Shark,'" has achieved breakout success, being the third Vtuber in the world to "gain the Golden Shield" (Gold play button as they refer to it).
They also note that this rapid expansion was not expected in the slightest, and that their business started to become strained, via lack of control and unexpected incidents. This is the lead into the Final Section, with the question:
>「How can a company called Cover and VTuber become a public institution of society?」

>>1795349
So the Cover Business Insider interview, it's pretty enlightening on a few things, and I'd like to take some time to go over it. First things first, they gave numbers, a particular number, that being the Holofes legal view number. Apologies for the machine translation.
>A two-day paid online live "Beyond the Stage" of the VTuber group "Hololive" held by "Hololive Production", one of the largest VTuber offices in the industry.
>Approximately 50,000 fans watched 28 VTubers singing and dancing with all their heart in real time via online broadcasting.
50,000 fans, assuming the broadcast was filled solely with the cheapest option of two-day tickets, being $110 dollars if I remember correctly. Pre-adjustments for tax and cuts, that means Beyond the Stage made an absolute minimum of $5.5 million in gross income.
>It is said that 10,000 VTubers have been born in the entire industry so far. Various distributors are active every day, regardless of whether they are individuals or companies.
>On the other hand, several offices started up during this period, but withdrew. Many "souls of V" disappeared from the sea of electrons, though they were regretted.
This is completely irrelevant to my businessfagging but I'm going to start using that phrase all the time because "Souls of V" is too fucking good to pass up
>A white fox girl who talks about her deep love for special effects and anime, a pirate captain who designs her own album cover with outstanding illustration power, a high-tension rabbit girl who captivates viewers with addictive laughter and endings, etc.
These are the "Faces of Hololive" for the normalfag JPs, it would seem to confirm. Fubuki, Marine, and Pekora are front and center. Makes sense, but useful to confirm.
The next thing of note is that Yagoo, obviously refered to by his real name, Tanigo throughout the interview because it's a legitimate magazine, worked as a Business Producer for Imagineer Games before joining the Venture Capital rat race. Interesting stuff. That means he probably was the producer in charge of games such as "Quest 64," among many US-to-JP ports of games.
One very important thing to me is his background: Engineering and a passion for games, wanting to be a developer but also working on production. I think this explains a lot about Cover Corporation, and why they have succeeded as a company where others fail. Instead of Tanigo coming in from the Venture Capital scene, where riding high on margin and going boom or bust is a fact of life, he has an education in factory production and management, which would prioritize stability, small-but-sustainable profit growth, and always balancing the books to make sure you're in the black. Running a defecit in order to live beyond your means is considered standard practice in the Venture Capital world, but Cover bucks the trend by continuing to run their company in a low-cost, sustainable way, with the boom times they find themselves in not getting to their head, like a lottery winner who goes bankrupt. That's a valuable mindset to have, and I'm glad it seems to be working.
There will be a part 2 of this interview tomorrow, that should really go into the Hololive side of his career. I'm eagerly awaiting that article now, and will update you on my analysis when I get the time to sit down and read it. Hopefully there will be a lot more to sink my teeth into, like the last interview, where it revealed their financial solvency is good enough to last for years with no income if that were to happen.

>become god tier artist
>stream your work
>give birth to many vtubers
>get contracted by cover
>participate in chat
>now you can talk to them
See op, its easy
You dont have to be a holo vtuber

OK, for everyone asking about taxation and shit, I'm going to give you the general rundown. I can't afford to give you a full on lecture or anything, but I can explain the big questions that were being asked last thread.
>What is Youtube's new taxation policy?
Transactions involving the United States and other countries involve different tax regulations. Previously, these were not taken notice of. Now, for citizens/businesses not of US origin, the previously ignored tax burden will be applied.
>How will this affect Cover Corporation and Hololive Productions?
Short answer: It won't. Long answer: Cover Corporation, as the owner of the channels, will most likely file paperwork regarding this and update their tax documents, meaning they will be subject to the US/Japan tax treaty in terms of what will be charged. Japan and the US have a treaty which is structured to avoid all instances of double taxation wherever possible, so the change on Cover's revenue will be nothing.
>But the talents aren't Cover, they're paid by Cover as employees, and are given a portion of revenue generated as a payment that is, in taxation terms, equivalent to a wage or salary. How will this change affect their income?
It won't. Because the Japanese/US treaty avoids double taxation, and the resulting change will simply apply said tax treaties to their revenue sources, it will not result in anything different. Their income will be paid out as it had been paid out before, with no changes resulting from the new tax model.
>That makes sense for JP talent, but what about girls that are operating in other countries, such as the IDs or ENs? Does their country of origin have different taxation laws that will cause this to affect them, due to their channels being operated in other countries?
No. The girls may operate in other countries, such as Indonesia, Canada and America, but that does not change their situation under this new tax policy. Go to the ID or EN girl's Youtube About pages, and notice their locations. They are all channels located in Japan. This is because Cover owns their channels directly. Although they once claimed independent contractor status applied, the Holocaust only came about because it was proven to not be the case. The talent's income will be treated as it was before the new tax policy, where they will be paid their earnings by Cover Corporation after the generation of revenue for the company has already taken place as an employee, and those wages will be taxed as is appropriate between Japan and their country of origin. So again, this new situation does not change their status or income.
>All I'm hearing is that nothing changes. Well, what does change? Obviously Youtube wouldn't make a big deal of this if it resulted in no benefit for them.
Correct. This change will only affect countries who have different tax treaties with the United States, who deduct a portion of the transaction between borders as a tax. Luckily, Japan and the United States are strong economic partners, and their relationship will not be harmed. If there was another country involved, there may have been complications, but due to this situation, there will be no direct or indirect impact of this new policy on Cover Corporation as a whole, or your favorite talent in particular.
>So I can continue to support my favorite Hololive talent without worrying about my support being siphoned off by another source?
Correct. Anyone who attempts to tell you otherwise is peddling a misinformed narrative; pay them no heed.
Main source of information for tax information regarding Japan and the United States: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/international-businesses/japan-tax-treaty-documents

>>1077706
No

Please watch Sora sing "KING" for you.
She is worth your time. Always.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Gqht8POm4

>>529673
Maybe we can try the next time Sora releases an original