Chinese companies are reportedly paying huge sums for virtual employees in a variety of industries, including customer service and the entertainment sector.
The number of virtual worker projects that tech company Baidu has taken on for clients has tremendously increased since 2022, with prices ranging from $2,800 to $14,300 each year.
With the use of machine learning, sound technology, and animation, virtual humans can dance, sing, and even engage in Livestream interaction. Virtual people were found on the American internet till now, but they are now being increasingly seen in Chinese cyberspace.
As per Li Shiyan, Baidu, some customers of virtual people include local tourism boards, state media, as well as financial services businesses.
Costs have decreased by almost 80% since 2022, as technology has rapidly advanced in the past few years. While a virtual human in three-dimensions costs 100,000 yuan ($14,300) each year, a two-dimensional human costs around 20,000 yuan ($2899.14).
Li stated that the virtual people market would continue to expand by 50% yearly through 2025.
China is making substantial efforts to build virtual persons. In August, Beijing City planned to increase the municipal virtual persons market value to over 50 billion yuan ($7.2 billion) by 2025.
The city government has asked for the launch of one or two dominant virtual people firms with annual revenues of over 5 billion yuan ($724 million) each.
This fall, major government ministries unveiled a comprehensive plan for integrating more virtual reality, particularly in the broadcasting and manufacturing industries. More economic digitalization, including AR and VR, was called for during the recent five-year plan, unveiled in 2022. According to a survey that was released by Kantar this fall, nearly 36% of customers have witnessed a digital star or a virtual influencer perform in the previous year. One-quarter had seen a virtual host or broadcast an event.
Source credit: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/02/companies-can-hire-a-virtual-person-for-about-14k-a-year-in-china.html