Incubators hatch internet idols

The office of an incubator for startups in Hainan. The growth of incubators for online celebrity is explosive. [Photo provided to China Daily]

With online celebrities becoming more and more popular in China, many incubators also have emerged and are turning the trend into more of a systematic business enterprise, insiders say.

A Tencent report of online celebrities says many incubators are now in operation, and the number is growing quickly. Although the result of their work is not entirely clear yet, it does mean cyber celebrities can be made in batches, offering endless streams of content.

"Online celebrities in the past had to rely on themselves, but now many have incubators or agencies to work with them. The birth of incubators means that in the online celebrity area, star-making factories have appeared," says Zhang Xiaorong, a senior researcher at the Tencent Research Institute, in a recent report.

Although no specific figures are available yet about how many incubators there are in China, Yang Ping, general manager of Hangzhou Online Celebrities E-Commerce Co, says growth of online celebrity incubators in the past few months has been explosive, and she can feel the competition getting fiercer.

Yang set up the incubator in June and has signed six online celebrities, most of whom are young, attractive women. The company has 50 employees and she plans to sign two dozen celebrities by the end of this year.