Future Tech China: The Next Wave of Virtual Influencers

Influencers are the future of discovery-driven, brand-centric commerce. This means that they’re juxtaposed to Amazon and search-driven, brand-agnostic commerce. Picks and shovels like Shopify and Stripe enable influencer commerce.

Brands are well attuned to the power of the influencer, but are afraid of getting embroiled in a scandal. As social intelligence company Influential’s founder and chief executive Ryan Detert puts it, human creators could have “a crazy night, get arrested or they have a slur of some sort on their page”. Virtual influencers on the other hand “have a ... See more