WHAT IS AN INFLUENCER?

An influencer is a person or group that has the ability to influence the behaviour or opinions of others on digital platforms

We can study influencers by their:

Format: Photo Blogger, Video Streamers

Platform: Instagrammer, TikTokers, YouTuber

Concept: Internet Celebrities, Micro-Celebrities, Creator, Influencers

There are over 51 million YouTube channels in the world in 2022

Micro-influencers on TikTok with 10,000 to 100,000 followers can earn between $60~$90 in revenue per post

Average monthly paying Xiaohongshu users reached 28.5 million in Q3 2022

What comes to mind when you think about influencers?

DO YOU RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE PEOPLE?

These 27 faces are virtual humans

We created them as composite faces through a combination of qualitative ethnographic and quantitative computational methods

They represent the 'average' looking Influencer on the most popular genres on nine platforms

Everyone's impression of influencers and internet pop culture is created through personal taste and media consumption

However, platforms play an important role in shaping these impressions through their inherent algorithmic sorting and recommendation systems

Do these virtual influencers match your expectation of what influencers look like?

OUR PROJECT

We studied 9 popular short video, long video, and livestream video platforms from Silicon Valley and the East Asian region: AfreecaTV, Bigo, Bilibili, Instagram, Kakao, TikTok, Twitch, Xiaohongshu and YouTube

Focusing on the top 3 genres of each platform, we conduct image capture, cropping, averaging, texture smoothening, and modeling to create 3D virtual influencers that represent the most popular 'face' on the platform

In this pilot study, we focus on skin tone and gender composites

Check out our 27 virtual influencers from nine platforms

SUMMARY

In our project, we found that platforms tend to promote the same type of influencers to viewers, in terms of their appearance

This impacts platforms, influencers, and everyday viewers, because ranking and sorting mechanisms erase the diversity of influencer cultures. As such, platforms end up perpetuating stereotypes that viewers perceive

We make the following recommendations:

Platforms should be transparent about their algorithmic recommendation mechanisms and be accountable to influencers and viewers

Influencers should retain their individuality and be advocates for minority cultures

Viewers should be equipped to decode how platforms and influencers skew our perception of everyday norms