New gen? Thought Yagoo stated they weren't added any new ones until the older ones retire.
A lot of people focused on that part but ignored the next part. He also said that they still had debuts planned and most likely after that they will focus on their current ones. Remember they still have potentially ID4 in the waiting lines.
The entire question that has been doing the rounds for the last few weeks:
Q&A: Timeline of long-term targets and image of VTuber portfolio
Question: On the slide "Medium- to Long-term Profit Target” of “Matters Connected with Business Plan and Growth Potential," it is stated that "target date of long-term targets remain unchanged." However, in view of the fact that your company’s business model will grow relatively quickly, I think that you can achieve the targets in the not too distant future.
In what time do you consider you can achieve the targets of a gross margin ratio of 50% and an operating profit ratio of 30%? Also, I wish to hear an image, such as an appropriate VTuber portfolio, in achieving the targets, if any.
Should the portfolio be enlarged rapidly at revenue per VTuber at about the present level? Or, would it more effective in achieving the margin to imagine an image of their charms per VTuber increasing further by creating content and a unit price of revenue per VTuber also rising?
Kaneko: We have informed you that the time of achievement will be in about 3 to 5 years from the time of IPO, in the IPO roadshow and on other occasions. We also have such an image now.
In a short term, depreciation expenses for the developed software will be added to cost, and the cost of operating studios at a full capacity will be added to cost as depreciation expenses and personnel ones. For that reason, I think that a gross margin ratio would sometimes fall in the short term. However, speaking in the medium to long term, we continue to suppose that we will achieve targets of gross margin ratio and operating profit that we have professed within a period of 3 to 5 years.
With respect to VTuber portfolios, we realize that we are graduating from a phase of making an increase in revenue and profit by increasing the number of VTubers. Instead of that, we are considering expanding the scale of revenue from the whole business by expanding the degree of recognition per VTuber IP and increasing profitability.
The last two paragraphs are the most important here.
First, the "medium to long term" is at the moment according to them a period of 3-5 years. In this period they are still investing in their software and equipment, which will somewhat hamper their gross margins. After this period they are expecting to become completely stable. During this transition phase of several years they are planning to slow down gen debuts.
Note that this document was released on the 13th of May this year (slightly over a month ago). The development of an entire gen (auditions, hiring artists, making designs, etc...) takes at the very least 6 months to maybe more than a year, so HoloJustice was most definitely already in the pipeline before they announced this.
So expect more gens to be released for now, but it will slow down.
