>>93321379Japan-based Cover Corporation is betting on the US as the next big market for growing its virtual anime-style influencer fan base.
The company manages creators who use technology to appear in videos and other online posts as digital avatars, often resembling anime characters. These influencers are most popular on YouTube. The VTubers, as they're known, typically livestream. Many make music or play games.
Their popularity is small but on the rise. From January 2023 to June 2023, VTubers comprised 1.4% of the active YouTube live gaming community but captured 9.6% of all viewer hours, according to data from the game-marketing platform GameSight. VTuber viewership increased by 28% during the period, while that of other gaming creators on YouTube Live fell by 6%.
Cover is one of several companies that exclusively work with VTubers to expand their businesses. Its agency division, Hololive Production, manages VTubers in Japan, Indonesia, and English-speaking countries, which have been a major area of expansion for the company since 2023.
Last year, Cover opened an office in Los Angeles through its first overseas subsidiary.
Hololive's popular VTubers in the US include Mori Calliope (2.49 million YouTube subscribers) and Nerissa Ravencroft (805,000 YouTube subscribers). Globally, its talent includes some of the most-watched and subscribed VTuber channels on YouTube.
Mori Calliope
Mori Calliope is a VTuber with 2.49 million subscribers. Cover Corp
The company's international expansion has helped boost revenue and earnings. Cover's revenue rose 50% year over year to 10,688 million yen, about $67.6 million, during its last reported quarter, which ended in October. It posted a profit of 1,500 million yen during the period.
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Cover has a market capitalization of about $160 billion yen, or around $1 billion.
Motoaki Tanigo, CEO of Cover, spoke to Business Insider in an interview conducted through translators. In 2025, he said the company plans to focus on gaming collaborations, pop-up shops, and live events like concerts to grow its business in the US.
Hololive collaborated last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers on exclusive merchandise, for instance. VTuber Gawr Gura (4.5 million YouTube subscribers) also sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on screens throughout the stadium.
Inside the business model of a top VTuber company
While Hololive primarily manages livestreamers, several of the company's creators sing and make their own music. That has opened up avenues for revenue and growth.
Mori Calliope, for instance, is scheduled to headline a solo concert in February in Los Angeles. Hololive's VTuber talent uses 3D technology to bring its digital avatars to the stage.
Tanigo said music is one of the top ways its talent reaches new audiences.
In 2023, Cover held a concert at the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater in LA, which sold out in 30 minutes, the company said. Its August concert at the Kings Theater in New York, another 6,000-seat venue, sold out in 10 minutes.
"The popularity of these events proves that North American audiences have a tremendous appetite for VTuber content," Tanigo said. "Our goal is to elevate VTubers alongside popular Japanese exports like manga, anime, and games."
Cover's top revenue drivers are merchandise, such as made-to-order items and a collectible card game; streaming revenue from super chats and channel memberships; concerts and live events; and licensing and collaborations, per its earnings report. Licensing and collaborations was the fastest-growing segment.
Hololive's international expansion
In 2025, the company is making a behind-the-scenes shift that it hopes will make its VTubers more engaging.
Until now, Hololive's VTuber models had been created through the gaming software Unity. Tanigo said the company is switching to another platform, Unreal Engine, which it believes will create "better quality" models.
The company is also working on finding better ways to sell tickets to and improve its in-person events. Tanigo said he'd love to see a function on YouTube or Twitch for ticket sales and better real-time translation for live videos, for example.
Hololive's international expansion has faced roadblocks.
Tanigo said the company has struggled with music copyright outside Japan, including getting the rights for talent to cover a song.
One of his priorities for the year ahead is to make inroads into traditional US media.
In Japan, the company has placed its talent on TV shows and other traditional media spots, and the team is working on animation projects based on its talent.
"We'd like to have that opportunity in the US as well and try to have more exposure in a TV show and different types of mediums," Tanigo said.
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