Popular South Korean influencer who’s landed over 100 sponsorships is not actually a real person

September 13, 2021

Rozy is a South Korean social media personality whose ads are racking up millions of views on YouTube, and she isn’t even a real person.

AI-powered social media star: The influencer, who now has over 58,000 Instagram followers, is actually a virtual human created by South Korean content-creation group Sidus Studio X. She is the first of her kind in Korea to be based on artificial intelligence, reported Korea.net.

She is reportedly stuck at being 22 years old, 171 centimeters (5 feet 7 inches) tall and subscribes to the “Lion King” motto “Hakuna Matata.” She loves surfing, skateboarding and running, among other activities.
Introduced in August last year, Rozy was reportedly created by combining the physical attributes most millennials and Gen Zs find most attractive.
The studio used 3D modeling technology to extract almost 800 facial expressions and movements from an actor.
According to the studio, no one realized that Rozy was a 3D virtual model during the first three months of her Instagram account.
Being a virtual person, she is not restricted by physical limitations and can go anywhere in the world, including to hard-to-visit places. Virtual people, like Rozy, are also free from potential scandals, which could affect a star’s marketability.
So far, Rozy is proving to be a bankable model as her video ad for the Shinhan Life Insurance company has so far been viewed over 11 million times on YouTube.
Rozy has reportedly landed over 100 sponsorships to date, including one for American carmaker Chevrolet.
Earlier this year, Rozy was featured in Vogue Korea alongside Shudu, another digital supermodel.

Others like Rozy: The concept of digital celebrities is nothing new to Koreans, who were introduced to digital singer Adam back in 1998, according to the Korea Herald.

Adam, modeled after actor Won Bin, sold over 200,000 albums as a singer and worked as a commercial model. He earned 500 million won (over $426,000) in his first three months alone.
South Korea is also home to Sua, another virtual human made using modern visual effect techniques. She is made by developer studio Sua Digital using video game development engine Unity.

Another virtual influencer, Imma, from Japan, is a computer graphic model whose 3D- animated head is transposed onto a live-action body and background. Created by CG company ModelingCafe, Imma has been around for over two years now and has over 349,000 followers on Instagram.

Featured Image via rozy.gram

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