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Investing.com– any color Japanese media, which owns the second-largest virtual YouTuber (VTuber) agency Jisanji, announced on Wednesday the stock price (TYO: ) fell more than 5%.
Wednesday's loss came after VTuber “Moira,” one of the first VTubers to sign with Nijisanji, announced in a social media post that she would be taking a one-year hiatus. Moira, who has about 150,000 subscribers on YouTube, did not reveal the reason for her hiatus.
However, her hiatus came just one month after Nijisanji ended its contract with English VTuber Tatsuki Seren, who was one of the group's most popular streamers.
Tatsuki's YouTube channel was still open, but all of her videos were deleted after she ended it. At its peak, the channel had around 800,000 subscribers.
VTuber controversy negatively impacts Anycolor stock
Tatsuki had accused Nijisanji of bullying allegations and accused the agency of fostering a toxic work environment. Her firing also comes after a series of other high-profile departures through 2023, with growing criticism of Anycolor and especially Nijisanji's handling of talent.
Fans of the company's VTubers have accused the company of unfairly treating rising talent and hindering their potential for growth. The company controversially closed down distributors in South Korea, India and Indonesia over the past year.
Although the company said the financial impact of Tatsuki's departure would be minimal, Anycolor's stock price fell as much as 20% after her departure in February. The stock then saw some recovery in early March, but Wednesday's decline put it back on track toward February lows.
Anycolor's losses widened on Thursday, leading to increased stock volatility ahead of the release of its December quarter results.
The company has struggled to expand outside of the Japanese market, and Tatsuki's firing will only exacerbate the decline of its English-language channel.
VTuber – Niche but rapidly expanding business
VTubers are content creators who use virtual avatars, usually using motion capture technology or animation software, to livestream or create content on video streaming platforms (usually Twitch or YouTube).
Although still largely niche, this trend has rapidly increased in popularity and reputation over the past six years.
Anycolor, which went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in early 2022, reached a peak valuation of approximately $2.5 billion later that year, making founder and CEO Kaku Rikuta the world's youngest billionaire.
Nijisanji's VTubers have a total of over 60 million followers on YouTube.
Nijisanji is the second largest VTuber agency after Hololive. cover Coop (TYO:). Hololive is also a supporter of Gawr Gura, the world's most popular VTuber with over 83 million followers on his VTuber and over 4 million YouTube followers.
Still, Anycolor stock's weakness spilled over to Cover, which traded 1% lower on Thursday after falling nearly 3% in the previous session.
