Abstract
In this paper, we explored a 4-stage framework(planning, production, debut, and retirement): the life cycle of a ‘Virtual Influencer’. To address expected ethical limitations on how VIs are produced and how they communicate with the world, we developed a 4-stage framework for the VI’s lifecycle. paper includes a literature review, case studies, and surveys to determine the perception of VIs. We summarized the concepts and characteristics and the market size of VIs. Moreover, we discussed how VIs are created and produced at each stage these days, which is different from human influencers and celebrities. In addition, we adjusted the concept of the retirement of the VIs by suggesting the possible utilities that can be done in the near future. Finally, we identified what social and ethical problems are expected during VI production and activities and proposed solutions such as awareness improvement and preparation of legislation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
References
Korean Air/ Korean Air. Korean air releases a new safety video featuring virtual humans [online]. 2024. URL: https://www.koreanair.com/id/en/footer/about-us/newsroom/list/240104-new-safety-video (Accessed 10 February 2023
Victor Andersson and Tim Sobek. Virtual avatars, virtual influencers & authenticity (2020)
Azuma, R.T.: A survey of augmented reality. Presence Teleoperators Virt. Environ. 6(4), 355–385 (1997)
Callahan, K.: Cgi social media influencers: are they above the ftc’s influence? J. Bus. Tech. L. 16, 361 (2021)
CalvinKlein/ CalvinKlein. calvinklein (2019). https://www.instagram.com/p/BxhrRE-jbWA/?hl=de (Accessed 19 July 2023)
CalvinKlein/ CalvinKlein. calvinklein (2019). https://twitter.com/CalvinKlein/status/1129521041309614085 (Accessed 19 July 2023)
Cho, J.: A face that doesn’t exist in the world, virtual human louis (2020). https://buybrand.kr/pick/rui/ (Accessed 25 May 2023)
Taebeom choi/ Money Today. Ai meets art, ’virtual human science docent’ opens at the national museum of science and technology (2022). https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2021110115154398379 (Accessed 10-October-2022)
Conti, M., Gathani, J., Tricomi, P.P.: Virtual influencers in online social media. IEEE Commun. Mag. 60(8), 86–91 (2022)
Drenten, J., Brooks, G.: Celebrity 2.0: Lil miquela and the rise of a virtual star system. Feminist Media Stud. 20(8), 1319–1323 (2020)
SaraSemic/ ELLE. Meet the man behind the world’s first digital supermodel (2019). https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/a28394357/man-behind-worlds-first-digital-supermodel/ (Accessed 25 August 2023)
Fardouly, J., Vartanian, L.R., Current research and future directions: Social media and body image concerns. Curr. Opin. Psychol. 9, 1–5 (2016)
Franke, C., Groeppel-Klein, A., Müller, K.: Consumers’ responses to virtual influencers as advertising endorsers: novel and effective or uncanny and deceiving? J. Advert. 52(4), 523–539 (2023)
Hartholt, A., et al.: All together now. In: Aylett, R., Krenn, B., Pelachaud, C., Shimodaira, H. (eds.) IVA 2013. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 8108, pp. 368–381. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40415-3_33
Higgins, D., Zibrek, K., Cabral, J., Egan, D., McDonnell, R.: Sympathy for the digital: influence of synthetic voice on affinity, social presence and empathy for photorealistic virtual humans. Comput. Graph. 104, 116–128 (2022)
Jang, H., Yoh, E.: Perceptions of male and female consumers in their 20s and 30s on the 3d virtual influencer. Res. J. Costume Cult. 28(4), 446–462 (2020)
Jhawar, A., Kumar, P., Varshney, S.: The emergence of virtual influencers: a shift in the influencer marketing paradigm. Young Consumers 24(4), 468–484 (2023)
Hong, H.J., Kim, S.I.: A study on the virtual influencer preference of mz generation (2023)
Kadekova, Z., Holienčinova, M.: Influencer marketing as a modern phenomenon creating a new frontier of virtual opportunities. Commun. Today 9(2), 22 (2018)
Karasavva, V., Noorbhai, A.: The real threat of deepfake pornography: a review of canadian policy. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 24(3), 203–209 (2021)
Kim, D., Wang, Z.: The ethics of virtuality: navigating the complexities of human-like virtual influencers in the social media marketing realm. Front. Commun. 8, 1205610 (2023)
Kim, H., Choi, Y.M., et al: A case study of fashion style in accordance with tpo of k-virtual influencer. In: International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings, vol. 78. Iowa State University Digital Press (2022)
Jaehyuck Kim/ Kocca. The secret to dancing models in advertising: the science of creating virtual influencers (2021). https://www.kocca.kr/trend/vol27/sub/s21.html (Accessed 20 April 2023)
Koreanupdates/ Koreanupdates. Esteem & sidus studio x (2021). https://twitter.com/KoreanUpdates/status/1386967834471768067 (Accessed 06 August 2023)
Lee, S., Park, J., Kim, T., Chun, J.: The effect of virtual fashion influencers’ presence on evaluation attributes and relationship maintenance behavior. J. Korean Soc. Clothing Textiles 47(2), 295–310 (2023)
Gyu lee Lee/ The Korean Times. Virtual humans emerge as major trend in burgeoning metaverse (2022). https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/01/129_326052.html (Accessed 10 October 2022)
Leinatamm, K., Bilali, S.: Virtual avatars rising: the social impact based on a content analysis and a questionnaire in the context of fashion industry (2019)
Li, Z.S., et al.: Narratives: the unforeseen influencer of privacy concerns. In: 2022 IEEE 30th International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), pp. 127–139. IEEE (2022)
Lim, R.E., Lee, S.Y.: you are a virtual influencer!’’: understanding the impact of origin disclosure and emotional narratives on parasocial relationships and virtual influencer credibility. Comput. Hum. Behav. 148, 107897 (2023)
Lou, C.: Social media influencers and followers: theorization of a trans-parasocial relation and explication of its implications for influencer advertising. J. Advert. 51(1), 4–21 (2022)
I Marketing. The top instagram virtual influencers in 2020 (2020)
MiranKim. [social archives] interview| park ji-eun, ceo of pulse9 _ why did he create an ai idol?. The Scoop (549), 52–53 (2023)
Miyake, E.: I am a virtual girl from tokyo: virtual influencers, digital-orientalism and the (im) materiality of race and gender. J. Consum. Cult. 23(1), 209–228 (2023)
Moustakas, E., Lamba, N., Mahmoud, D., Ranganathan, C.: Blurring lines between fiction and reality: perspectives of experts on marketing effectiveness of virtual influencers. In: 2020 International Conference on Cyber Security and Protection of Digital Services (Cyber Security), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2020)
Nisandzic, M.: Are you even real? Virtual influencers on Instagram and the role of authenticity in the virtual influencer consumer relationship. PhD thesis, Master’s thesis, Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck (2020)
Shin Daji Kwon Ji Min Park Jee Young Guo Yijun Yun Jaeyung Park, Ye Rang. A study on user preference based on the characteristics of virtual influencers. Soc. Design Converg. 21(2), 1–16 (2022)
Park, S., Sung, Y.: The interplay between human likeness and agency on virtual influencer credibility. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 26(10), 764–771 (2023)
Inc. Priya PR/ Priya PR. Giantstep drops ’savage’ vfx and animation for k-pop group aespa music video (2021). https://lbbonline.com/news/giantstep-drops-savage-vfx-and-animation-for-k-pop-group-aespa-music-video (Accessed 05 May 2023)
Rodrigo-Martín, L., Rodrigo-Martín, I., Muñoz-Sastre, D.: Virtual influencers as an advertising tool in the promotion of brands and products. study of the commercial activity of lil miquela. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social (79), 70–91 (2021)
Won Hyung Choi Eun Kyeong Ko Da Hye Kang Jae Young Yun So Hye Kim, Ha Yeon Shin. A study on the correlation between experience factors and favorability of virtual influencers. J. Korean Soc. Design Cult. 29(1), 13–23 (2023)
Stein, J.-P., Breves, P.L., Anders, N.: Parasocial interactions with real and virtual influencers: the role of perceived similarity and human-likeness. New Media Soc., 14614448221102900 (2022)
Um, N.: Exploring the impact of virtual influencer advertising: In-depth interviews with college students. J. DCS 24(7), 1391–1400 (2023)
Um, N.: Predictors affecting effects of virtual influencer advertising among college students. Sustainability 15(8), 6388 (2023)
Wibawa, R.C., Pratiwi, C.P., Wahyono, E., Hidayat, D., Adiasari, W.: Virtual influencers: is the persona trustworthy? Jurnal Manajemen Informatika (JAMIKA) 12(1), 51–62 (2022)
Chang won Lim/ Aju Korea Daily. Digital supermodel shudu to collaborate with virtual social media influencer in s. korea (2021). https://www.etoday.co.kr/news/view/1988477 (Accessed 16 March 2023)
Zhe, H., Lee, H.S., Han Zhe and Hyun Seok Lee: The characteristics of user created content (ucc) for virtual band k/da. J. Korea Multimedia Soc. 23(1), 74–84 (2020)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
1.1 A. Participant Demographics
Demographics of survey participants, including gender, birth year, primary SNS used, daily SNS usage time, awareness, and interaction with VIs (Table 1).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Yum, J., Sung, Y., Jin, Y., Wohn, KY. (2024). Virtual Influencers’ Lifecycle: An Exploratory Study Utilizing a 4-Stage Framework of Planning, Production, Debut, and Retirement. In: Nah, F.FH., Siau, K.L. (eds) HCI in Business, Government and Organizations. HCII 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14720. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61315-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61315-9_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-61314-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-61315-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)