Please forgive my numberfagging because it is the only proper way to address this. As much as I enjoy trolling eurofags (trust me, I've spent a lot of time in online games trolling you guys), the blatant truth is that EU has not shown to be super profitable compared to other regions. I know it sounds crazy to say this given the EU's population and the wealth of their countries but they don't really put up substantial numbers as a region. The Advent monetization streams showed that the EU just didn't really show up despite being a continent of 1st world nations and a massive population. The cope at the time was "well, it was at 4am for us! Of course we didn't show up!". Amerifags convinced Cover to open a branch because they would show up for JP streams and keep in mind, JP hours to Amerifags is pretty much NA hours to Eurofags. Even the followup stream to Fuwamoco's monetization stream was their morning show and that was a solid fit for the EU but there still wasn't a large presence. Even the JPfags showed up for Fuwamoco's monetization stream while it was the middle of their work day.
The whole reasoning for dedicating a branch to a region is the understanding that if the fans are dedicated enough to show up during off-hours, talents in that region will pop off since there's obviously a big market there. Unfortunately EU just doesn't do this and it's not like talents streaming in hours dedicated to the EU really pop off.
As Zizara below points out, the occasional EU stream 3 years into failing to build up an audience there really isnt a good place to start comparing stuff.
The assumtion that western european audience is less profitable is not proven at all and arguably disproven considering that there are plenty of EU streamers on twitch that make bank.
I'd argue they haven't really put the work in to make Europe a more profitable market. You can't spend years running on NA times which are inconvenient to the EU market and then just drop a couple streams in that timezone and expect the same NA profits from what is in reality a mostly untapped market. You haven't built the core audience to enable that, what EU fans exist are already staying up to watch and engage during NA hours so it doesn't seem like there's a difference.
Hololive does seem to understand this in other cases in their attempts to create regional branches such as China and Indonesia, but seem content to just roll EU into NA under the "EN" branch despite that being an overly broad category.
They have enough native content creators and websites that serves content in their native language that they have no need to spread out across the broader internet and search out English content. They stick to their own enclaves kinda.
I would disagree on that front as well. Pretty much anyone under the age of 30 is ESL, but usually to a much higher degree than other parts of the world. And just because content exists in the native language doesn't mean that people stick to it 100%. Personally, I only consume EN content and no content in my native language because I think I'd cringe to death if I heard a vtuber speak my language. I know they are out there, but I actively avoid them.
I'll admit that France is a bit more insular but there as well, Saruei is the most popular French Vtuber and she doesnt even stream in French all that much. To say that EN speaking ESLs can and do very well over there as well, and that audiences do not just consume native language streamers.
Most of that number of people have English as their second language. Even then, you have to wonder both how much of that is: a) interested in watching streamers, b) interested in anime, c) even willing to give VTubers the time of day. Historically, the most popular stream times in terms of viewership has been NA primetime.
That is to say, I still think Cover should make a better attempt to break into the market than they have. Just because all of the above is the case, doesn't mean they cannot carve out a dedicated viewership there. I just understand why they haven't tried.
Adressing concern B first:
Europe is the biggest market for Anime and Manga outside of Japan actually. France alone buys more Manga in a year than the USA. Official French releases of Manga volumes are also ahead of the VIZ releases. The French at one point bought about a 1 billion dollar worth of manga and the european market makes up around 1/4 of the global anime market. Sales of manga and anime was up 75% in Germany according to Deutsche Welle and sales up 107% in France in 2021 compared to 2020 according to Les Echos. The Japan Expo in Paris is the biggest Japanese (Pop) Culture related convention in the World outside of Japan.
The demand for Anime shit is up there, and there is most definitely more than enough disposable income available as well (in Western Europe).
Concern A:
I would assume yes, but if I am honest, I dont know because, just like in NA, the normie streamer culture in Europe also pretty much exclusively exists on twitch. I just assume that just as in NA, plenty of European people also stream and do a living and do well, I personally must just not know about them because I know jackshit about twitch and fleshtubers. European ways of getting entertained are mostly imported from the US as well, so the situation might look similar. Additionally, EUs are used to consume foreign made entertainment in addition to local stuff.
C: Combining, yes, there is very likely a demand for Vtubers. Its just that Hololive failed to meet it when it had a chance. The vast majority of European vtubers I met on the Internet got into Vtubers by Hololive during the pandemic, but as people return back to their normal lives and work, watching an Ame stream that starts at 2am on a weekday stops being a possibility or even watching a full Fauna steam that starts at 11pm. Most people moved on by now, either to Twitch indies, where 99% of the EU Vtubers are, or more recently to Idolcorp with Rin and the others.
This has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy:
No content at EU time ➡ No audience ➡ No need to make content for no audience ➡ even less audience
There are no HoloENs live at Primetime, so there is a smaller audience. The Hololive data indicates a small audience, so there is even less focus on EU. Even less focus on EU means even fewer fans there.
And it's really up to Cover to go and attract that audience by providing interesting EN content at good times as the first step. They never took it tho, so I am not surprised that 3 years later, it looks like the audience just doesn't exist, when in reality it (very likely) does.
This madlad has been posting KiaRys art almost daily for a few weeks now and I just have to applaud the effort. Kiara and Irys have collabed exactly 1 time and even that aside, Kiara likes to talk about her Holofriends on stream and an Irys mention from Kiara is almost as rare as a Holostars mention.
I dont think that they hate each other, just that they seem to live completely parallel of each other with no overlap. But also they are both very close friends of both Calli and Reine
And I think thats funny