Move over, Kardashians: these virtual social media influencers could be the real deal

Fictional social media personalities are posting comments, gaining followers and collaborating with big names; unlike humans, they don’t get caught in scandals

Japan’s first virtual influencer, four-month-old Liam Nikuro, is currently planning his music career, and he’ll never do anything inauthentic, his creator says

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Liam Nikuro is a virtual reality social media influencer, part of a new trend of fictional personalities used as marketing tools.

Published: 8:00pm, 5 Aug 2019Updated: 12:17pm, 13 Aug 2019

Liam Nikuro, a 21-year-old Japanese-American virtual social media influencer, lives out a jet-setting life between Tokyo and Los Angeles for all to watch online as he tries to break into the music industry.

He posts on Instagram and Twitter about whether he should change his hair colour, working with Grammy-winning music producers and disliking cold weather, and receives dozens of comments in various languages, some praising him for his looks and others professing their love for him.

Some express disbelief that Nikuro, with his 11,000 followers, is in fact a fictional character.

Nikuro, touted by his creators as Japan’s first male virtual influencer, is one of several such social media “personalities”. Another is 19-year-old Lil Miquela. Also known as Miquela Sousa, she debuted on Instagram in 2016 and has since leveraged her 1.5 million followers to partner with fashion brands such as Prada and Calvin Klein.

“He may be fake, but he has a real personality,” says Hirokuni Genie Miyaji, Nikuro’s creator and the founder and CEO of Tokyo-based 1sec, a “virtual human planning and production” company. “He will touch on real human issues.”

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