Her motto is "Niche, pop and catchy" - An interview with Yukos, an influencer and businesswoman who attracts fans through niche empathy

Please tell us about your current activities.

Yukos: Basically, I have two axes. I work mainly as a talent/influencer on social media, and I run a company. I have several companies, including the management agency 321 for live streamers, and I also produce brands that utilize my influence.

You were in an idol group, but after graduating, you gained a lot of support on social media as a "popular creator." After that, you expanded your scope of activity by starting your own brand, but what made you decide to move from idol to entrepreneur?

Yukos: Originally, I didn't want to become an entrepreneur or have a business I wanted to run, but when I graduated from the group, YouTube and Instagram, which focus on individuals, started to become more popular, so I enjoyed the experience of being able to reach people I wanted to reach, and thankfully, I gained influence as I continued to do so.

After that, I started producing and running live streamer businesses because I wanted to respond to the requests and problems of more people.

After graduating from HKT48, you started developing your business, and I believe you published some books. What big changes did publishing bring about for you?

Yukos: Yes, I have changed a lot through publishing. I have a total of six books, including business books, style books, and photo books. I think it is important for talents and businesses to be catchy and pop, so that they can be understood in one phrase.

As the opportunities to take the time to explain myself are decreasing with the development of social media, I thought that books were a powerful tool to give Yukos momentum and make myself seem official.

At the time, I directly appealed to publishers, saying, "I want to publish a book. Please!" (laughs). After being rejected over and over, I was about to give up when I asked a publisher and they accepted my proposal, and that's how I got to where I am today.

The subtitle of your book "Sympathy SNS" is "Creating work through rounded and sharp communication." What was your intention in choosing this subtitle at the time?

Yukos: The words "round" and "sharp" are contradictory, but what's important to me as an influencer and business owner is to be "niche, pop, and catchy." I expressed the pop and catchy parts as "round" and the niche parts as "sharp."

There are some people in the world of social media who are aggressive and slander others, but I think that "niche empathy" is very important to gain the support of more people, so I gave that book a subtitle with the meaning of "Let's be round and sharp and increase our empathy."

I heard that the live broadcast agency 321, which you are the founder of, currently has several thousand members. What is the secret to having so many friends?

Yukos: We currently have about 8,500 live broadcasters registered. I think there are still a certain number of people who have a slightly suspicious image of the live streaming business. One of the reasons is that even though there is an environment where you can stream individually, there are problems with agencies and the guarantee you receive.

To solve this problem, when I launched the live streaming agency 321, I went to negotiate with the live streaming app. In addition, 321 is designed so that it does not take any margin from the live streamers.

In addition, we hold events with a budget of about 200 million yen per year. If you join 321, you will have a manager rather than streaming alone, you will not be charged for the revenue from streaming, and you can participate in events, so you can expect to be more active in terms of expanding the scope of your activities as a live streamer. I think that's what attracts people.

At events, even if I go out to give a founder's greeting, most people don't know me, so it can be a bit awkward (laughs). But I think the reason so many live streamers don't know me is because they find the agency's policy and design attractive.