Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-35301431-20130822203251/@comment-3467648-20130827074320

Technically the most of Vocaloid are more mascot of their software, something specially noticeable in the Internet's Vocaloids (Gakupo vs Gackpoid; GUMI vs Megpoid ; Ryuto vs Gachapoid). Many others are technically an avatar or representation without background, so they CAN'T be considered a character. Examples: Meiko, Kaito, Sweet Ann (they are technically just a cover art) and Lily (she was Yuri Masuda's anime avatar for the AniMOVE album releases).

The only situation were the word could cause problem is the cases of Azuki and Matcha, because they're going to get their own story and franquise, while the Vocaloid related-stuffs are more a resource to boost their media releases with new options.

Considering that situation we should change the word mascot for the more generic  avatar in some particular cases. Now, consider some Vocaloids as character by themselves seems more an exception than a rule. Only I can remeber three cases: Azuki, Matcha and Iroha.