The market for virtual idols is expanding beyond music and broadcasting to encompass offline concerts and intellectual property (IP) businesses. In fact, the offline concert held by Isegye Idol in September last year sold out all 20,000 paid tickets priced between 55,000 won and 99,000 won. Playbe's first solo concert, held at the Olympic Hall in Seoul Olympic Park in April, sold out in 10 minutes, leading to the statement that "seeing a virtual idol performance is like trying to get a star from the sky."

Experts point to "the eternal idol that is only mine" as one of the factors behind the popularity of virtual idols. A representative from Genie Music explained, "Virtual idols who debuted in their teens remain 10 years old even as time passes. They never change and hold fan meetings more frequently than other idol groups, constantly interacting with fans, leading to a strong fandom." In particular, Isegye Idol has been serializing a webtoon titled "Magical Girl Isegye Idol" on Kakao Webtoon to provide various content for fans. This webtoon launched a fundraising campaign for book production earlier this year, and it received approximately 2.53 billion won in donations within 24 hours of its launch.

Kim Young-bi, CEO of Parable Entertainment, which operates Isegye Idol, stated, “Last year's sales increased 43% year-on-year to 13 billion won thanks to the expansion of festival, concert, and commerce businesses. We plan to further strengthen global market entry and IP business expansion in the future.”

The virtual idol market is expected to continue its rapid growth for some time due to the increase in global fandom and the entry of market participants such as entertainment agencies and AI companies. According to Global Information, a global information firm, the virtual artist market size in the United States and Canada is expected to grow from $144.32 million last year to $596.75 million in 2029. During the same period, the virtual idol and YouTuber market in China is also expected to grow from $247.22 million to $11.39 billion.

This growth trend signifies that virtual idols are actively operating in various fields, including music, performances, webtoons, and IP businesses, going beyond simple digital characters and redefining the traditional entertainment market. In particular, content that fans can access anytime, anywhere, and constant communication serve as the charm of virtual idols, suggesting the possibility of them emerging as the core of the future entertainment industry.

In conclusion, virtual idols are expanding their scope of activity into diverse industrial sectors, not only in domestic and international music markets, and their influence is expected to grow even further. The success of virtual idols signifies the birth of a new star in the digital age, and their future economic value and cultural impact will be beyond imagination.