The Realistic Evolution of AI Virtual Idols: How MEET48 Shapes a New Experience in Web3 Entertainment and Social Interaction

Driven by AI technology, digital singers and virtual idols are presenting increasingly realistic visual effects, with appearances that closely resemble real people and continuously improving performance and interaction abilities. At the same time, the entertainment industry has welcomed a large number of AI-generated artists, participating in all aspects of content creation at an unprecedented speed, from music and dance to image design, pushing the virtual idol ecosystem into a new phase.

MEET48 is an "entertainment social metaverse" that integrates AI-generated content, virtual idols, fan economy, and Web3 incentive mechanisms. The project boasts impressive resources and funding background, recently securing support for a token round financing with a valuation of over 100 million yuan, and has been selected for an incubation program in a certain blockchain ecosystem.

MEET48 held its Token Generation Event (TGE) on June 11, marking a key "evolution". With the TGE, how will MEET48 leverage AI and Web3 to drive the next generation of "fan economy + creation economy"?

From Hatsune Miku to AI UGC: The Technological Transformation of the Entertainment Industry

In 2007, Hatsune Miku became popular with VOCALOID voice synthesis technology, marking the beginning of the user-generated content (UGC) era for virtual idols. Around 2012, some virtual idol projects in Japan and South Korea promoted further development of virtual idols through motion capture + PGC methods, but PGC faced issues such as high costs, significant creative bottlenecks, and long update cycles. Today, MEET48 redefines the development path of virtual idols with AI-driven content generation and Web3-driven value distribution.

MEET48 has a rich and diverse product matrix, including the Web3+AI entertainment creation platform MEET48.ai, the meme token launch platform Mars Protocol centered around AI Agents, and the virtual entertainment world MEET48 Metaverse.

In February of this year, the official MEET48.ai was launched, a Web3 entertainment creation platform that integrates virtual idol AI cultivation, social interaction, and music and dance AIGC. It supports features such as generating music from text, generating dance from music, AI-driven choreography, and voice cloning, allowing AI idols to produce multimedia content that can be instantly shared on major social platforms. MEET48.ai also introduced a dedicated AI creation tool, AISHOWBOX, which supports deep creation for 3D image generation, AI-driven choreography, idol agents, and more.

In the early stages, MEET48.ai has integrated a large number of exclusive entertainment resources from the MEET48 ecosystem. More than 700 songs and dances from a Chinese girl group with over 30 million fans have been added to the material library, and more than 250 active idols will participate in creating their own AI idol agents.

Mars Protocol is the most representative innovative token launch platform of MEET48, launched simultaneously with the MEET48.ai platform. As the first AI idol platform in a certain blockchain ecosystem, Mars Protocol aims to reshape the Web3 idol economy by integrating the "Idol Meme + AI Agent" model, providing users with one-click token issuance, circulation, and trading tools. The platform deeply integrates AI technology with the assetization path on the blockchain, supporting the tokenization of virtual idols and decentralized community interactions.

MEET48 Metaverse is a virtual entertainment world designed to provide users with an immersive social experience that transcends reality and time. MEET48 also features its own multimodal large model, supporting music and dance training, offering users AI creation tools and a MaaS editor, significantly lowering content barriers, with training data reaching up to 500TB.

Top Resources Support, MEET48 Masters the Core Entry of Content Assets

In April of this year, MEET48 announced the completion of its token round financing, with a fully diluted valuation of $100 million, led or co-invested by several well-known institutions and individual investors. The new funds will be used to support the development team and to develop related AI products.

Investment institutions value not only the ability to implement technology but also the fact that MEET48 has mastered the core entry point of content assets. The copyright authorization of a well-known idol group gives it real fans and IP stickiness in the field of AI virtual people, combined with complete technology, forming a unique moat for MEET48.

Another noteworthy aspect is the performance of community data: As of a global voting event in January this year, the total number of votes for voting DApps exceeded 697 million, with a total of 3.39 million registered users. During the event, the number of on-chain transactions reached as high as 32.78 million, and the cumulative number of active wallet addresses surpassed 1.18 million. It ranks among the top in social DApps on a certain data platform. This data also directly validates that MEET48, under the combination of AI virtual idols and Web3 incentive mechanisms, has real market demand and product scalability.

In October last year, MEET48 was selected for a well-known blockchain ecosystem's accelerator program, lasting 4 weeks, with a selection rate of less than 1% among the thousands of projects that applied. The program provided MEET48 with customized courses for early Web3 projects, fireside chats with relevant investment teams, 1:1 guidance, and access to resources throughout the ecosystem.

In April this year, Wayne Zhang, co-founder of MEET48, was invited to attend a roundtable discussion at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, with the theme "How AI Agents Reshape the Web3 Ecosystem". He explored the potential and challenges of AI in enhancing on-chain data analysis and optimizing DAO governance, providing forward-looking insights for industry development.

Token Economy Drives AI Idol Co-creation

To give back to all users supporting the MEET48 ecosystem, the $IDOL equity token airdrop event has been launched. The snapshot was completed on May 21, and the claim page will officially go live on June 9.

$IDOL was launched on multiple trading platforms on June 11. In the afternoon of June 11, a certain wallet held an exclusive $IDOL TGE, and eligible users must participate using specific points. Other platforms also launched the IDOL token that same evening.

The native token $IDOL of MEET48 has a total issuance of 4.8 billion pieces. The specific allocation is as follows:

• Community Incentives (including community rewards & future airdrops, and airdrops): 45.2%
• Supporters (strategic investment and private placement round): 7%
• Team and Advisors: 17%
• Liquidity support: 3%
• Ecosystem Support: 20%
• Marketing: 5.8%
• IDO (Initial Decentralized Offering): 2%

To ensure the smooth launch of new products and services within the community, and to promote the healthy development and growth of the MEET48 community, some tokens belonging to the "community incentives" and "ecosystem" categories may be unlocked in advance, but only for user incentives and market promotion purposes related to new community products and services, and must be approved by a community DAO vote.

Roadmap Preview: From Idol Selection to AIGC Game Matrix

TGE is just one of the many important milestones for MEET48 this year. In the coming time until 2025, MEET48 will hold the annual community idol selection, optimize the token launch platform, launch a limited test of "AI Dance Troupe," and launch two Web3 games, "Bounty Hunter" and "Chain Tycoon."

According to the plan, MEET48 will hold the annual community idol selection and release ceremony on August 2, with the event taking place at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong, gathering idol artists from multiple countries and regions along with their overseas AI-Agent virtual groups.

In the third quarter plan, on the product side, the token launch platform will continue to optimize the AI Agent and meme coin launch functions, while promoting "AI Idol Training Room," a virtual idol voice intelligent interaction and development system. Users, as producers, control real music scenes, lighting effects, manipulate 3D virtual idols, and lead experiences such as dance choreography and live streaming.

"AI Dance Crew" will also be further developed. The game will create a large-scale community game with a full ecosystem through $IDOL and virtual human music dance LLM and AI Agent technology, using $IDOL as the main token, and plans to launch a limited test in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, two Web3 entertainment games will be launched: "Bounty Hunter Fish" and "Chain Tycoon". In the first quarter of 2026, we will officially enter the comprehensive public testing and commercialization phase of "AI Dance Party".

Ultimately, MEET48 will build a global AI-driven Web3 ecosystem covering entertainment, social interaction, creation, and assetization, based on the Web3 AI social metaverse, integrating the MEET48 community and multiple AI gaming systems. The subsequent progress of the project is worth looking forward to.