This piece argues that, as of 2022, Weibo (微博) is leaning into virtual idols as a strategic growth area, but that “virtual humans” and “virtual idols” are not automatically stable, low-risk businesses. It treats the surge of interest as partly amplified by “metaverse” rhetoric, while stressing that categories such as “virtual human” (虚拟人), “digital human” (数字人), and “virtual idol” (虚拟偶像) are not new, pointing back to Japanese origins in the late 1980s and a long, uneven development history rather than a sudden breakout.
The focal development is Weibo Anime (微博动漫) launching the “Super Meta Star Plan” (超元星计划), positioned as an incubation and support program for virtual idol IP. In the organizational matrix, Weibo Anime (微博动漫) is not a separate company; it is a Weibo (微博) content vertical and operating unit that can act as an organizer for themed initiatives and cross-category collaboration. The article describes a partner-based ecosystem model spanning operations and talent management, character and visual development, and enabling technology. It also describes a programmatic promotional layer designed for visibility inside Weibo (微博), including a “virtual idol summer charity concert” (虚拟偶像夏日公益歌会) that pairs virtual idols with celebrities and large creators via live call-ins and duets, treating the virtual–real hybrid stage format as an already-established variety and gala tactic in China.
The article explains why a platform like Weibo (微博) would do this: virtual idols are structurally suited to social interaction loops, and sustained interaction helps a character accumulate recognizable IP attributes that can be commercialized. As an illustrative case, it references the virtual girl group A-SOUL (A-SOUL), launched through cooperation between YH Entertainment (乐华娱乐) and ByteDance (字节跳动), with Weibo (微博) and Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) described as key engagement hubs. The point is that distribution plus community mechanics can accelerate fandom formation, which is essential for IP value, regardless of whether the “idol” is virtual or human.
It then extends Weibo’s motivations beyond incubating “native” virtual idols to enabling “virtual identities” for human celebrities, treating this as a parallel track that sits adjacent to, rather than identical with, VTuber-style idol operations. As an example, it cites Baidu (百度) producing an interactive, highly realistic digital version of Gong Jun (龚俊), describing how synthetic speech and related capabilities can allow a digital persona to speak and sing in an AI-generated voice. In the article’s framing, these ultra-realistic celebrity digital humans often function less like standalone idols and more like multifunctional brand-facing agents that can be deployed across customer service, marketing, publicity, and social engagement, especially when in-person appearances are limited.
At the same time, the article insists that Weibo’s deep “fan culture” does not guarantee that virtual idols can replicate the commercial and community success of human celebrities. It explicitly challenges the early promotional claim that virtual idols are “perfect” because they never have scandals and can work continuously, arguing that this framing has not held up. As evidence, it points to controversy around A-SOUL (A-SOUL) member Jiale (珈乐) entering a “livestream hiatus”, which triggered debate about the human performer behind the avatar and prompted some fans to direct dissatisfaction at ByteDance (字节跳动) and its games business unit Nuverse (朝夕光年) over perceived exploitation and working conditions.
This leads into the article’s core structural point: current virtual idol production still depends on a “person behind the avatar” plus scripts and operations staff, meaning the risk profile does not disappear; it relocates. Instead of scandals tied to a celebrity’s private life, instability can arise from labor arrangements, management decisions, continuity of performance, and the credibility of a character persona once audiences scrutinize the production system. For the article, the “never collapses” promise fails because the production reality is still human-intensive, and the fan emotional investment can transfer to concerns about treatment of the people making the performance possible.
The piece also ties the debate to monetization incentives. It references figures from YH Entertainment (乐华娱乐) disclosures indicating fast growth in virtual-artist-related revenue and higher margins associated with comparatively lower operating costs, and it cites a brokerage estimate of incremental revenue attributed to A-SOUL (A-SOUL). The implied tension is that when commercialization is the primary objective, pressure on the production pipeline can intensify the very labor and management issues that provoke fan backlash, creating reputational risk that resembles, rather than eliminates, the volatility seen in human idol markets.
Competition is presented as another driver of Weibo Anime’s ecosystem approach. The article describes the virtual livestream track as crowded and points to Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) having a dedicated “virtual streamer” area with very large scale, implying an entrenched creator base and audience habit. Against that backdrop, it suggests Weibo’s native virtual idol supply and community structures were not yet strong enough to compete directly, so partnering with entertainment companies, character studios, and technology firms is framed as a pragmatic attempt to bootstrap capability and capture attention within Weibo’s broader social-traffic environment.
Finally, the article tempers optimistic market forecasts—such as projections that China’s digital virtual human market could reach very large scale by 2030—by emphasizing unresolved constraints in consumer-facing virtual idol operations. It argues that many domestic virtual idols neither foreground a distinctive technology anchor comparable to early voice-synthesis-driven virtual idol paradigms, nor match the operational maturity associated with leading overseas VTuber agencies, and it claims that multi-platform attention has shown signs of cooling as more participants enter. The conclusion is that virtual idols remain content-dependent IP products whose distinctiveness and durability must be built through long-term characterization, consistent output, and disciplined operations, and that Weibo Anime sits in this matrix as the Weibo-side organizing vertical that connects IP holders, studios, and service providers to platform distribution and commercialization rather than as an independent production company in its own right.