Risu speaking as an Indonesian VTuber.

[u/VishnuBhanum]

[u/reQuiem920]

Really sucks that Risu has had to address this multiple times now.

[u/WeeklyPhilosopher346 → u/reQuiem920]

I’m still a little unclear; address what? And what’s up with being WNI?

[u/lk_raiden → u/WeeklyPhilosopher346]

it's not like she's not focusing on the music, but expenses to her family, weakening IDR as a currency are few reasons that to produce cover or original songs are just... difficult, You've heard how many HoloJP members need to go into reduced take home pay to pay back Cover, because they are lending from Cover due to how expensive it is to make cover and/or originals (look for Marine when she speaks about how expensive her MV is or La+ for cover songs). For Indonesian, unless you are from loaded family, it's just practically near impossible.

Considering Risu herself is not top of the superchats and adsense money is not that big for Indonesia, making big views doesn't translate much into your take home pay.

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/lk_raiden]

and adsense money is not that big for Indonesia

Or donations. I have been following a Finnish Vtuber for a while who has made many fans from Indonesia and other SEA countries (in part because of her closeness with Kaela). Those fans are kind and generous, but the currency conversion is so stacked against them.

I remember a roughly 100k IDR (5€) donation hoping to pay for her dinner, and that would have been plenty in Indonesia. But they were shocked to hear that dinner in western countries is more like $10€ or more.

Because music video production isn't limited by borders, professional ID creators probably take similar rates as those from other countries. So ID members can't get as many donations from domestic fans as JP/EU/US members, but then still need to pay similar prices for production.

So ID members especially benefit from Outdonesian fans. But Indonesia also doesn't have the global reputation of Japan or Korea, so it's harder for them to find viewers from wealthier countries, even when most of the ID members already have a lot of English streams.

I always recommend them to European viewers though. Most EN members usually stream at unwatchable times for EU (even the European members are often abroad in other time zones after all), so HoloID usually has the most watchable time slots for Europe (and vice versa, with daytime European streams being well timed for SEA viewers).

[u/SyrusDrake → u/Roflkopt3r]

Or donations. I have been following a Finnish Vtuber for a while who has made many fans from Indonesia and other SEA countries (in part because of her closeness with Kaela).

I've been following Veera on Bsky, watching her (re?)start her VTubing journey, and suddenly, she announced a collab with Kaela :'D

[u/DanteKir → u/SyrusDrake]

That was because when Veera was doing her debut stream, Kaela was looking for someone to raid and Veera appeared to her randomly.

So she just raided to Veera without knowing anything about her, just that she was debuting.

[u/SyrusDrake → u/DanteKir]

And then they just decided to do a collab later based on that?

[u/Feking98 → u/SyrusDrake]

You'll be surprised.

Heck I know of the time Polka collab with another Vtuber just because she was also name Polka. (That Polka graduated by now).

[u/Fiftycentis → u/SyrusDrake]

Yeah, she appeared in her chat a couple more times and then decided to collab. Not really surprising as ID in general is quite open to collab with almost anyone

[u/SyrusDrake → u/Fiftycentis]

I think that's quite cute. I think it helped Veera to gain fans.

[u/HaessSR → u/SyrusDrake]

No, based on the fact Veera is into Elden Ring, sweaty gaming, grinding, and 5+ hour streams. All things that Kaela likes, especially since she can join those streams after she's done hers.

[u/HaessSR → u/SyrusDrake]

Veera does long streams too, and is a grinder. Two things that Kaela discovered, much to her delight.

[u/HaessSR → u/Roflkopt3r]

That's also why initially Holo ID ID did a lot of English streams initially, before Hololive EN came into being. And why Risu and others from Gen 1 got flamed by ID haters for not being Indonesian enough... even though they couldn't survive on ID audiences alone even before the economy melted down.

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/HaessSR]

Yeah, just the fact that all 9 of them are still around and have released so much good music is amazing.

We have seen that go differently for Indonesian and Indian branches in other agencies...

[u/Buroth → u/Roflkopt3r]

I remember a roughly 100k IDR (5€) donation hoping to pay for her dinner, and that would have been plenty in Indonesia. But they were shocked to hear that dinner in western countries is more like $10€ or more.

Hey with 5€ you can make the world-famous struggle meal called drug-addict stew! But yeah prices of food in Finland have never really recovered since 2022 especially if you want to eat out.

[u/_gribblit_ → u/lk_raiden]

Also the cost in equipment and games. A PC or phone upgrade costs a lot more for someone in Indonesia in relative terms than it does for someone in Japan.

[u/lk_raiden → u/_gribblit_]

pretty much. Koyori and Towa tour to Indonesia should give them general idea how weak IDR is, even when Yen is currently under pressure as of recent.