Bilibili, China’s equivalent of YouTube, celebrated its 15th anniversary on 27 June. Chen Rui, chairman, and CEO, spoke during the anniversary livestream under the theme “Growing with You”, providing important facts on Bilibili’s development, user behaviour, and content consumption trends on new energy vehicles and artificial intelligence. Bilibili was listed in Hong Kong and the US in 2018 and 2021 respectively. Companies or brands trying to interact with Gen Z in China must look at and use Bilibili’s ecosystem.
Chen Rui claims that those born in the 1990s and 2000s make up almost 70% of Bilibili’s user base. With an average daily usage time of 105 minutes, the platform now boasts 102 million daily active users and 341 million monthly active users. Given the average daily leisure time per person is about 300 minutes, Bilibili users spend 30% leisure time on the platform.
The earliest cohort who joined the site in 2009 mostly consumes Erciyuan (二次元, also known as Manga, Anime, and Games) content and still shows an interest in it. Those who joined in 2017 have more varied tastes in entertainment, including documentaries, national creativity, anime, and science and technology materials. Also, those who participate in 2022 mostly watch different university courses.
With a 218% YoY increase in posts, data from Bilibili also revealed that over 70 million users search for cars on the platform every month. Creators share car reviews, test-driving experiences, industry analyses, and other relevant material in a special “car area” created by Bilibili. With a 71% YoY rise in the volume of videos uploaded on this subject, Bilibili has become the central debate forum for new energy vehicles as well.
The average daily video views of AI-related content increased by more than 80% YoY in 2023. Every month, over 80 million people view AI content on Bilibili, 60% of which is an audience from the post-2000s. The content varies from popular science topics to AI technology applications.
From an early Erciyuan cultural community when it first started in 2009, Bilibili has developed into a multicultural platform including more than 7,000 interests. Once Bilibili became a hub for meme creation, its distinctive “bullet comment” (弹幕) culture and “auto-tune remix-themed content” (鬼畜) helped to shape memes. Now, with the worldwide attention on artificial intelligence, Bilibili believes it has evolved into “the community with the strongest AI mindset.”
Chen Rui shared the stories of several creators at the end of his speech, highlighting Bilibili’s development from a niche platform to a cultural community. Through this emotional marketing approach, Bilibili have been able to successfully fortify its strong brand image and maintain user trust.
