New Delhi, Sept. 28 -- I was in Tokyo earlier this year, and while scrolling through Instagram, I landed on a very interesting page titled Imma.gram, a creator with over 380,000 followers. At first, she looked just like a regular influencer. But she was actually a virtual influencer.

A virtual influencer or a digital avatar creates content primarily around beauty, fashion, food, lifestyle and collaborates with brands too, just like a human one would. For instance, Brazil's Lu is a pioneer in the business of virtual influencers, created way back in 2003 by Magazine Luiza, one of Brazil's biggest retail companies. Today, she is a nearly-real person managed by ad agency Oglivy and has over 8.2 million followers on Instagram alone.

This vir...