>>15288286This is actually something I've considered for a long time, researched, and was actually working on a video about. I've followed vtubers since the days back in /jp/, back when Eilene was relevant and people were gushing over this and that, and I think that while some of the points people bring up in this thread are relevant, they miss the bigger picture. Which is that vtubing, especially virtual livers - which really only started in like 2018-2019, is new and volatile, and that what Hololive had was a little bit of luck and a LOT of business acumen.
1. The idol strategy. Now, I don't think that being "idols" versus whatever Nijisanji does is a particularly relevant distinction. But the way Hololive promotes, organizes, and models their talents on idol companies has enabled their growth, both from a pragmatic, market POV and a fan-engagement one. Frankly, Japan isn't very familiar with streaming culture, and contextualizing virtual livers as "idols" gives Hololive the established tools of the idol industry to grow their brand. Fans also have a framework to engage with their Oshis in a familiar context, you can see this most prominently in the virtual handshake events that Hololive was pushing pre-Covid. But also, on the back-end, it makes things like record deals, advertisement, and marketing much easier when Cover is looking at themselves less like a talent agency and more like an idol agency.
2. Chinks and clippers. A direct consequence of this idol formula is that fans can transition from other fanbases smoothly, and in the case of China especially, which has huge idol culture fanbases, it was second nature. These primarily Chinese clippers latched onto Hololive for these reasons and grew the brand exponentially, at least until Coco yab. This cannot be understated, ultimately it's word of mouth that drove Hololive's growth, and this came largely from China.
3. Expansionism. Holo was the first to break into the west, and they did so in, frankly, an extremely extravagant fashion. Like, the talent they recruited for HoloEN was head and shoulders above the kind of people Holo has gotten before. This could be because they just get more diverse and talented applicants due to their fame, but I have a hard time believing they didn't scout some of their talent, or at least expedite them through the process. But whether luck or deliberate, people like >HER and DD are not going to drop by every day, and Holo has aggressively marketed their talent, while also making sure their rivals don't get any influence by heavily disincentivizing collabs.
That said, I don't think the throne is as impervious as it looks. Hololive is showing some of the same signs as Upd8 and .Live before their eventual collapse. They're too ambitious, seeking out shit like HoloALT and new markets rather than reinforcing their core talent, morale seems lower than ever with Council and BREAK BREAK BREAK, and their competitors have seized on Holo's weak points and exploited them. NijiEN is nepotism, plain and simple. Or at least an attempt to transfer an existing friend group over to their company. Why? Because Niji knows they can't beat Holo on the parasocial, unicorn-pandering front, so they go for the other approach, create chemistry and collaborative atmospheres that Holo can't match because, frankly, HoloEN and Council just aren't all that close or friendly. And it seems to be working, honestly. Niji doesn't fall too far behind Holo in terms of SC revenue and Luxiem's debut blew me away, there are whole untapped markets that Hololive seems unwilling to touch, and I think that's a huge mistake.
Lets not forget that two years ago Kizuna Ai and the four kings seemed unassailable on their thrones, and look where they are now. Vtubing is still very, very young, and it's idiotic to think that Hololive will go uncontested forever.
