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Vtubing is a business and a product. There is no denying this. According to Raymond Vernon, the American economist, there is 4 stage to a product/service life cycle:
>Introduction stage
When a product or service is first introduced, it is likely to offer something new in terms of its design or performance. Few competitors will offer the same product or service and, because the needs of customers are not perfectly understood, the design of the product or service could frequently change. Given the market uncertainty, the operations management of the company needs to develop the flexibility to cope with these changes and the quality to maintain product/service performance.
>Growth stage
As the volume of products or services grows, competitors start to develop their own products and services. In the growing market, standardised designs emerge. Standardisation is helpful in that it allows the operation to supply the rapidly growing market. Keeping up with demand could prove to be the main operations preoccupation. Rapid and dependable response to demand will help to keep demand buoyant, while ensuring that the company keeps its share of the market as competition starts to increase. Also, increasing competition means that quality levels must be maintained.
>Maturity stage
Eventually, demand starts to level off. Some early competitors will have left the market and a few larger companies will probably dominate the industry. The designs of the products or services will be standardised and competition will probably emphasise price or value for money, although individual companies might try to prevent this by attempting to differentiate themselves in some way. So, operations will be expected to reduce costs in order to maintain profits or to allow price cutting, or both. Because of this, cost and productivity issues, together with dependable supply, are likely to be the operation’s main concerns.
>Decline stage
After time, sales will decline, and competitors will start dropping out of the market. To the companies left there might be a residual market, but if capacity in the industry lags demand, the market will continue to be dominated by price competition. Operations objectives will therefore still be dominated by cost.
Currently, Vtubing as a business is in its maturity stage as we start to the big names dominating the industry and while attempt to differentiation is there, the main competitive advantage lied in cutting cost by using in-house artists and talent connections to reduce the recruitment cost.
