Vket

Virtual Market is set up as a virtual exhibition, hosted on the social platform VRChat. Exhibitors sign up for free and are then able to host an exhibit.^[2] Earlier Vkets had limited spaces for exhibitors, however this number has increased as the event has become more popular.^[3] Visitors to Vket events are able to make purchases through either the Japanese website Booth.pm, or through the e-commerce platform of the venue host. These are accessible through external links that can be interacted with at the virtual event. Product samples and QR codes are also made available to visitors.^[2]

VRChat is the platform Vket is hosted on.

Virtual Market began as a project of VRChat player, "Phio the Alchemist".^[2] After hearing content creator Nekomasu talk about creating a country in VR space,^[4] Phio aimed to create fictionalised versions of real world cities, such as Tokyo, Japan, within the virtual space, in an effort to increase the amount of people who live there. To realise this, Phio learned how to model using the game engine, Unity.^[5] Spotting a growing trend for selling avatar models, Phio conceptualised an idea for a virtual event where individuals can showcase their work, for others to both enjoy and potentially purchase, having spent a period of time in VRChat and witnessing other creators publishing their work for free,^[2] Phio wanted to help expand the movement.^[4] For each Virtual Market,^[a] the concept of the Vket events were based on Comiket and Anime Expo, whilst the selling of products and assets through Japanese site Booth.pm, were comparable in function to Etsy.^[2]

Hikky, the organiser of Vket, was founded in 2018 by businessman Yasushi Funakoshi and artist Mika Sawae, among others.^[7] Funakoshi was initially sceptical about running a virtual events business, so drew on his prior experience as a student and business owner, and found himself able to form a partnership with Phio, who became Chief Virtual Officer.^[8] The first Vket was held during August 2018 for a period of one day, featuring 76 exhibitors in a VRChat world lacking a particular theme. Exhibitors displayed their content and assets in virtual "venues", with purchases being made through Booth.pm. The event became the top trending topic on Twitter, drawing publicity to Vket.^[9] Companies including Nijisanji, Seven & I Holdings and Gugenka [jp] joined as exhibitors for the second Vket.^[3] Performance issues experienced at the first Vket meant that the second Vket event required certain restrictions, these being a limit of 10MB for booths with a limit of 4x3x2m and a polygon limit of 70,000 for user avatars, with other limits also applied to renderers and colliders.^[9]

In November 2021, Hikky raised ¥6,500,000,000 (US$57,000,000) in capital funding, from a procurement close with NTT Docomo. Hikky directed the funds into the organisation in an effort to expand their VR services domestically and in foreign regions,^[10] including the building of an "open metaverse". Hikky raised a further ¥500,000,000 (US$3,140,000) from shares with business partner Mediadoo Inc. in January 2022.^[11] Hikky realised their goal of creating a virtual metaverse on the fifth anniversary of Vket, through Vket Cloud, which was made available as a general service, after initially only being available to other companies, on 20 April 2023.^[12] A year later, Hikky announced the release of a dedicated browser world called "Vket Cloud: Entrance", run on the Vket Cloud engine. The world was made accessible to both PC and smartphone users, allowing up to fifty total connections at one time, with private registration only events also supported. The intention was to allow anybody to host and access their own events.^[13]

Set up as a doujinshi sales event, ComicVket was first hosted by Hikky from 10-12 April 2020 on VRChat, cluster.mu [jp] and STYLY [jp], as "ComicVket 0". The event focused specifically on manga, and allowed visitors to make purchases in the same manner as Vket.^[14] Whilst VRChat requires the use of a VR headset, cluster.mu and STYLY did not, differentiating itself from other virtual events.^[15] The second ComicVket, "ComicVket1", was held from 13-16 August 2020, was attended by over 100,000 and had 337 doujinshi circles exhibit. Due to being hosted during the COVID pandemic, the event offered a way for companies to keep in touch with their customers.^[16]

ComicVket 2, the third event, was held simultaneously with MusicVket 3 from 6-14 November 2021. Products were able to purchased both digitally and by mail.^[17] 180,000 visitors attended ComicVket 2 in total. The fourth event, ComicVket 3, was held from 23 February to 5 March 2023 and was centered around books. "Doujinshi Tower" was opened as a way for visitors "to discover a variety of books".^[18]

First introduced alongside ComicVket 1 in 2020, and held at the same time, MusicVket is a music marketplace version of Virtual Market. It featured fewer circles, and could also be accessed through VRChat, cluster.mu and STYLY.^[22] MusicVket 2 was held from 6-10 March 2021,^[23] and featured nine spaces for exhibiting, with twenty-five artists. Tracks were able to be selected, followed by automatic opening in a browser. Artist booths were sorted by genre, for example "techno and club" and "classical ambient, folk jazz and fusion". Many works were fictional, with some artists selling items that were not just limited to music. Alexandra Hall, writing for Kotaku, described the event as a "venue to demo music I wouldn’t normally have been exposed to. Not to mention the ability to compensate the artists directly."^[24]

MusicVket 3 was held simultaneously alongside ComicVket 2.^[17] Distribution for MusicVket included both Bandcamp and Booth.pm, including the ability to show the preview of a music video for the work when an attendee approaches a booth.^[25] The fourth installment, MusicVket 4, was held from 18-26 June 2022. Leetspeak virtual monsters were featured, hosting a virtual live event with rock music on Vket Cloud, organised collaboratively by GLK Music and Vampire Inc.^[26]

Liberatune, a virtual tool used for performing music virtually live, was used at MusicVket 5. The tool functions in three instances, ambience, floor and stage. Using Liberatune, artists at MusicVket's OpenLive were able to experience a streamlined process, being able to perform using their virtual instruments, without the added difficulty of interim application processes.^[27] The most recent MusicVket, MusicVket 6, was held concurrently with Virtual Market 2024 Winter.^[28]

A service called "My Vket" was released in beta during late 2022, featuring a virtual avatar creator and virtual rooms, for use on smartphones and web browsers. Vket Avatar, the avatar creator, allowed the selection of presets including clothing and accessories to create customised virtual avatars for download. The creator enabled over five hundred million unique combinations. Vket ROOM, a virtual room creator, facilitated the setting up of a room using as many as ninety types of furniture presets, with the room having the option of being made public for sharing purposes. Multiplayer with the option of voice chat were supported.^[32]

Serving as the real-world event for Virtual Market, VketReal was first held in Bellesalle Akihabara, Akihabara from 29-30 July 2023. The event featured a horse model provided by the Japan Racing Association. It was reported that the event had a high turnout.^[33] Michael Wilson of the University of Nevada, Reno hosted two booths at the first event, focusing on the Virtual Museum of Native American Basketry and 3D photogrammetry respectively. Participants at the photogrammetry booths were able to scan pre-selected items using an iPad, with the scanned items then viewable virtually after the event. Basket weaving was also taught by Wilson using Toki Pona.^[34] After holding a second event in Harajuku and Shibuya from 16-17 December 2023, VketReal was expanded to three locations at the third installment, hosted from 3-4 August 2024 at Bellesalle and TKP Garden City PREMIUM in Akihabara, Shibuya Sakura Stage [ja] in Shibuya and Namba Midosuji Hall in Osaka.^[33] The event organisers decided to scale down for the fourth VketReal,^[35] which was held from 21-22 December 2024,^[36] at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. Wanting a higher quality event, the organisers cited a disadvantage of visitors not being able to see all the venues across multiple locations.^[35]

In an interview with CGWorld [jp], the creators noticed a decline in the quality of booths being submitted, attributing this to free exhibition at the event for creators. To alleviate this issue, a fee and lottery system were set up to encourage higher quality work and reduce the number of participants overall, in turn making the event smaller in scale.^[35] A fifth event was held at Bellesalle from 26-27 July 2025. Temperatures were reportedly high, with visitors wearing wet towels to prevent heatstroke. The venue received a high turnout, despite being held on the same weekend as the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival, which caused congestion on the local public railways. Future events were rumored to expand to other regions.^[37]

In a chapter for the book "Gaming the Metaverse", author Nicolle Lamerichs described the VRChat worlds Vket uses during its events as more "detailed, aesthetically pleasing and lively compared to the "dead malls" that many Western tools have to offer." Lamerichs juxtaposed "virtual identity" with the real desires of the people beyond the game, and concluded that without choice, human expressions such as fashion become "meaningless".^[90]

A conference paper written by Mhaidli et al for the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems investigated the effect of advertisements on users of VRChat. Vket was found to be a fun event with minimal advertisements, with participants in the investigation finding the adverts that were present causing either "slight annoyance" or found to be "fun experiences". Some participants went onto make purchases from the adverts, meaning the adverts were not enjoyed for their function, but were instead "fun" as part of the "VR experience".^[91] The 2023 AFHE Conference examined the relationship between kawaii avatar motions and consumer behaviour, specifically purchase intention, within the metaverse, with Vket described as being a "new area of business". The study analyzed the data of thirty-five graduate students, using Google Forms to survey a specifically designed female avatar to determine a positive correlation between buyer intention dependent on kawaii motion. The study was ultimately approved by the Life Science Committee of Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.^[92]

University of Zagreb undergraduate David Minđek identified major factors preventing VRChat from becoming a "true metaverse" in 2023. These including the lack of an "internal economy", despite users having the ability to create avatars, worlds and events including Virtual Market.^[93] Nintendo of America software engineer Hideki Saito identified patterns with the "ecosystem", positing that Japanese players are much more likely to create their own avatar compared to players from other countries. The gap between starting to play VRChat, ranking up to the trust rank level that allows for user uploads means players are exposed to "avatar worlds", in turn encouraging them to create their own "identity" once the game allows them to. Saito explains that Japanese culture plays a key role in assets being sold, shared and used to build player identity within the virtual ecosystem.^[94] In 2025, VRChat introduced an "Avatar Marketplace" that allows creators signed up to their "Creator Economy" program to sell avatars using the service. Players use a digital credits currency to make purchases, with creators receiving the majority revenue cut. Previously, the primary way to buy assets and avatars was through Vket.^[95]