5253 - Cover Corporation / Hololive Production

"A"

Gawr Gura, the blue shark Vtuber said.

    Streamers and Live Streaming are relatively new way of digital entertainment. In recent year live steaming gain its popularity alongside with short form content. 

    But what if I say that there is subset of live streamer called "Virtual Youtubers" or "Vtuber" in short. They are like regular Youtuber/Streamers but with 2D/3D Avatar on top with make up name similar to wrestling. Convince for people who concern about privacy, Whan marketable brand identity or just lazy to apply makeups.

    And in this blog. I will tell a story of an equivalent of "Toyota" in Vtuber market. They might be not the first who invented wheels. But they are Japanese, Big in market and being one of well-known company in market. The 5253 Cover Corp. A Japanese Vtuber/Tech company.

First Step

    The story of the company could trace back to 2016. It is June 13 of 2016 where " Cover Corp " established.

    At the start the company is intended to be regular tech company to focus on VR (Virtual Reality) /AR (Augmented reality) technology that is a trend back then. 

    In 2017, They release "Ping Pong League" in February, Simple Pingping VR video game. Nothing really special about this one. 

    But in the September of the same year. Debuting Virtual idol under the name of "Tokino Sora" debuts on September 7th on "Niconico" to 13 viewers. Thus, Starting whole new business opportunity for Cover as "Hololive" Production.

The Bright Parade

    There are several key people for Cover's success. First, the man named Motoaki Tanigo (aka. "Yagoo"), CEO and founder of COVER Corporation. Helps funding and pushing the virtual idol project into reality.

   However, Company's success would not achieve without these 2-woman."Friend A"(A Chan) and Tokino Sora. Who came up with virtual youtuber project and they are also the main one who run this project.

    Later, more people joined the team, create newer generation of those steamers (Talents) including Hololive 1st Generation, Hololive Gamers, Hololive Indonesia etc. Making company bigger. More talents, bigger community. Expanding their market to Indonesia and China. 

Myth or Treat

    In September of 2020, At the peak of covid pandemic. Cover release new project. Called "Hololive English Myth". Cover is no stranger to foreign market but this time it was one of biggest leap for Cover. The project was big success. Gawr Gura one of member from this generation hit 1 million subscribers on 22 October. Paved way for other members in the agency and boosting popularity for Hololive to gaining English speaking fans from western country.

Capturing the moments.

    At in 2025 There are around 15 generations or ~70 active members for talents under Hololive. There are also "Holostar" for male counterpart. and around total of ~400 employees. 

    Here are some interesting milestones of Cover.

• 2018
• Hololive 1st Generation debuts.
• 2019
• Holostars 1st Generation debuts.
• 2020
• The first HoloFes (Concert) live Nonstop Story is held.
• Hololive Indonesia debuts.
• Hololive English -Myth- debuts.
• The second HoloFes live Beyond the Stage is held.
• 2022
• The third HoloFes live is held, Link Your Wish, alongside the first Hololive Super Expo (Convention).
• 2023
• Cover launched an initial offering listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. 
• multimedia studio which housed a second Mocap studio, totaling at a cost of 1.2bn Yen.
• A new branch Hololive DEV_IS is created along with the debut of ReGLOSS.
• 2024
• Cover USA is established.

    The other project outside live steaming and idol activity include "Holoearth" which is Metaverse project that still under development. And here are some recent financial numbers.

    Lastly, I wound noted that is blog is based on my perspective and minimal research. It is not reflected all the facts, and I might miss the details. However, if you want to know more about Hololive or Cover Corp. Check out these reference resources.

Reference

https://cover-corp.com/en/company

https://virtualyoutuber.fandom.com/wiki/Hololive

https://hololive.wiki/wiki/COVER_Corporation.