Company culture. Phase is at a point where it's a recognisable enough brand for even the bigger names to give it consideration, while also striking a decent balance between lax rules and a respectable public image. It has enough of its own identity now that I fully expect them to be getting tons of applications from people who specifically want to be in Phase rather than in the earlier days where it was just a backup option for applicants who got rejected from Hololive.
In more concrete terms, here's what I think Phase offers over other reputable agencies:
- Turnover is extremely low compared to other agencies. This tells me that work culture is good - it's highly likely that talents enjoy their work, aren't unduly stressed, goals set for talents aren't unreasonable, talents get along well with other talents, management and the CEO, and so forth.
- Idol activities are optional, which would suit talents who want to do idol stuff, but don't want the pace of it dictated to them and would prefer to do it on their own terms.
Hololive, as I understand it, mandates times that talents have to do idol stuff, which is a pretty big imposition, while other companies might not offer idol opportunities at all.
- There are pretty lax rules on stuff like what games can be streamed. You don't need permissions, which would suit streamers that play vintage games, and roms seem to be okay too. There seems to be relatively few restrictions in terms of content and stream topics too.
- From all accounts, Fishman is pretty generous towards talents - he gives out lots of free merch, pays for travel and food and so forth.
- Multiple talents are able to make a living solely streaming for Phase Connect, even talents that live in Western countries that can't take advantage of poor exchange rates, so money between donations, subs, and merchandise is decent if you're willing to put the work in to grow your channel.
There's obviously upsides to other companies, but I think Phase makes a pretty good case for itself for talents that want to be part of a corpo.