How the main Chinese analogue of YouTube works

YouTube is in a fever in Russia, and it is unclear what will happen next. It is high time to look at China, where YouTube has long been blocked, but people have several substitutes. We analyze the most interesting of them, which is most similar to YouTube. This is Bilibili, and it has an unusual history (spoiler – it appeared thanks to gamers and anime fans).

When I say “anime fans” above, I'm not joking. How did this happen – read below.

What's the deal with video content in China?

It is no secret that the largest Western social networks, messengers and platforms do not work in China. They were blocked in the 2000s. Of course, if there is a goal, there will be a way, and many Chinese still go to Google, Twitter and Zuckerberg's social networks. However, the Chinese system for shooting unwanted traffic is not called the “Great Firewall of China” for nothing. This thing quite effectively blocks access to blocked resources, so if Mr. Lee wants to watch YouTube from Shanghai, he will have to dance with a tambourine.

Fortunately (for the Chinese), the Celestial Empire has a whole scattering of local substitutes for Western platforms. Instead of Google, they have Baidu, instead of one social network with pictures – Xiaohongshu (Xiahonshu), another banned social network is replaced by RenRen, and they have a whole wagon and a small cart of Twitter analogues, the largest is called Sina Weibo. China also has its own unique services – for example, the news aggregator Toutiao or short video platforms Kuaishou and a similar thing called Douyin, which is known to the whole world under a different brand. And I'm not even talking about WeChat, QQ and other super apps, where there is simply everything – from chats and news to paying bills and delivering udon from Uncle Liao's shop.

An interesting fact - absolutely all Chinese services and applications look like a firecracker shot at the screen with hieroglyphs and icons. And there is a logical reason for this, I discussed it in my channel - take a look if you are interested. — An interesting fact – absolutely all Chinese services and applications look like a firecracker shot at the screen with hieroglyphs and icons. And there is a logical reason for this, I I sorted it out in my channel – take a look if you're interested.

The same goes for YouTube. Chinese authorities blocked YouTube in 2009, after videos of unrest in Tibet went viral on the platform.

Today, the Chinese watch video content on several platforms at once, which can be roughly divided into two types:

The first is a kind of TV on the Internet. The platforms invest money in their own content, make their own production, and it is this that is promoted in recommendations. They also attract users to it. The focus can be on both cinema (movies/series), and on shows, various entertainment programs and content from their own bloggers. That is, something between video streaming a la Netflix/Hulu/Kinopoisk and the model that our VK is now trying to develop. The key point is that such services focus more on their own production than on User Generated Content. This results in a completely different consumption model, different algorithms, and different monetization. Nevertheless, these are also important players in the video content market with a gigantic audience.

The second type is a full-fledged analogue of YouTube with a focus on UGC content from independent authors. A blogger makes a video, uploads it to the platform, and it gives him traffic through recommendation systems. IMHO, the main problem with replacing YouTube in the Russian Federation is that we essentially don’t have platforms of the second type (or rather, they exist, but are still in their infancy). I heard that VK is now throwing a lot of effort into strengthening the UGC component. Well, we’ll see.

So, in China there are two major platforms with UGC videos:

The first is Xigua Video, which was launched by ByteDance in 2016.

I have a separate article about ByteDance. From it you will learn how TikTok appeared and where it got such cool recommendation algorithms.

Xigua has a ton of users, is growing rapidly, and has a powerful recommendation engine, but it's not exactly YouTube. It's more like a cross between YouTube and TikTok. A typical video on the platform is between 5 and 30 minutes long.

But the second service – Bilibili – is just YouTube YouTube. But with its own jokes and unusual features. We will analyze it in more detail:

How gamers and anime fans launched a national-scale video hosting service

“All innovation on the internet came from either porn or games.”
Sun Tzu, “The Art of War on the Internet”

Bilibili is not the largest video platform in China. But among the young and advanced population, it is the largest. Bilibili is now considered the closest analogue to YouTube.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Bilibili is its development path. Unlike other Chinese video hosting sites, it was not launched or acquired by a major Internet giant like Alibaba, Tencent or Baidu. In fact, Bilibili was not originally a video platform at all, but a community for gamers, cosplayers and anime fans.

In 2009, developer Xu Yi was a senior in college. He was into games, anime, manga, and maybe a little hentai, but he didn't have a candle. In 2009, he launched the thematic portal Mikufans.

Xu Yi. Here he is in a jacket and glasses, but I am sure that he goes to the Bilibili office in a Hu Tao suit from Genshin Impact. Or at least makes his subordinates wear it.

Essentially, it was an online forum and a corresponding community of interests. Fans of vocaloids (these are all sorts of digital singers who are very popular in Asia) quickly joined anime fans and gamers.

Mikufans soon became an online hub for a wide variety of Asian pop culture.

The forum allowed posting videos, and it was video content that attracted the most traffic. Xiu Yi noticed this and converted Mikufans into a video hosting site. He also changed the name to Bilibili.

Actually, Bilibili is the name of this girl from the Japanese manga “A Certain Scientific Railgun.” Every May 2, the service celebrates her birthday with a special design for the main page. Nya!

Many young Chinese were into the powerful Japanese (and other Asian) pop culture, and gaming video content traditionally gets good views, so Bilibili started to catch good youth traffic. Soon, authors from other topics relevant to young people started uploading their videos there. Entertainment content, challenges, tutorials, tech reviews, food blogs, videos about life and much more began to appear on BiliBili.

The company soon unveiled a new slogan: “All the videos you love are on Bilibili!”, making it clear that it was now more than just an anime-gamer get-together.

In 2013, the service launched a mobile app, which attracted even more young viewers to the portal.

After that, Bilibili grew every year and expanded its range. The service began to buy licenses for other people's content (including exclusive rights to Japanese anime), which attracted even more audience. Serious advertisers began to come to Bilibili, and some companies created their own successful channels.

The company began spending money on adult marketing and branding. It became a sponsor of a Shanghai sports club, created its own eSports team, and launched offline activities.

However, about 90% of Bilibili content came not from producers and professional studios, but from users. This was also facilitated by the introduction of Bilibili Creators – a full-fledged YouTube-like monetization system for authors. They also added streams, a very important step for the gaming content segment. In 2016, the service launched a premium subscription. It opened access to “special” videos (primarily their own), allowed watching videos in improved quality and turned off advertising.

In 2018, Bilibili held a successful IPO. The proceeds from the placement were used to implement new features and technological solutions, support programs for authors, and develop their own production. Moreover, they decided to make not only anime, TV series, and other videos, but also games for the Chinese market (which is logical, given their core audience). They also stepped up international expansion – for example, in 2020, Bilibili received exclusive rights to show the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Bilibili celebrates its public offering on NASDAQ. As the saying goes, an anime fan can go public, but it will never become an anime.

The company has been growing steadily for the past few years, and recently its MAU almost broke through 350 million users. In the last year, however, growth has stalled a bit – apparently, the user base is slowly starting to mature.

Most users are very involved zoomers and late millennialsso for many companies Bilibili is a key advertising channel. Educational content on Bilibili is also gaining momentum. So, yes, there are plenty of info gypsies, gurus and mentors there.

Unlike other Chinese video hosting sites, Bilibili is an independent company. Large investors (such as Sony) have minority stakes, but the lion's share belongs to the holding company Bilibili Inc., headed by Xiu Yi.

How is Bilibili different from YouTube and its Chinese counterparts?

The platform has several original features. For the Chinese they are simply interesting and cool, and for us, Lavavians, they are completely outlandish and unusual:

The most interesting feature is the live commentary based on the “bullet curtain” principle (from Japanese “danmaku” or “danmu”). This name comes from the Japanese shooter “Batsugun”, where the player can shoot many bullets at once, creating the same bullet curtain.

In Bilibili, comments are displayed not only under the video, but also directly on it, on top of the content. Due to this, viewers feel as if they are discussing the video with friends. This greatly increases engagement. If the video is popular, then the comments can cover the entire screen. But this is not a problem – artificial intelligence can harmoniously push them across the interface, adjust transparency and optimize display timing, and even hide them behind the silhouettes of people in the frame. If desired, the author can turn off the “bullet curtain” for his videos, but many people enjoy using it.

It looks something like this. While I was googling these danmaku, I noticed a certain polarization of opinions. Some people are thrilled by the feature, while others are furious and ask on forums how to disable this vinaigrette.

Such comments can be left anonymously. This is important, otherwise the user will write something wrong about comrade Xi and the Great Chinese Party, his social rating will be reset and his catwife will be taken away.

The second interesting decision also concerns comments, but it is more about safety, atmosphere and the fight against inadequate people:

Only those who have completed full registration and successfully completed the 100-question quiz can leave comments (including pop-up comments). It includes both general and thematic questions. The former concern, for example, copyright, behavior on the platform, and knowledge of the terms accepted on the platform. More they writethat there are questions about the attitude towards the Chinese authorities, but I didn’t google the proof, and IMHO it smells like duck meat.

The content part is even more interesting. You need to choose a topic that you understand (for example, anime, games, food or psychology) and answer questions on it. They write on the Internet that if you answer 40 questions out of 100 incorrectly, you will be asked to take the test again.

Of course, passing such a test with ChatGPT or a Chinese analogue will not be a problem. But the point is not in the complexity, but in proving interest and involvement. Due to this, the platform cuts off many trolls, inadequates and passing crocodiles, making discussions in the comments more productive, meaningful and warm.

The third important feature is streams. Of course, there are streams on any self-respecting platform, including YouTube. But in China and the rest of Asia, streams are a special fetish. Live broadcasts gather a huge audience, and brands use streams as an important sales channel. Streamers show some product online, immediately give a link to the marketplace, and viewers place an order with one button.

In China, even apartments are sold via streams - I analyzed this case here.

And if we talk about games (one of the “core” topics on Bilibili), then streams acquire special significance. And here the Chinese service is not much inferior to the same Twitch. There is a whole set of tools for game streamers – convenient launch of broadcasts (both from a computer and from a mobile phone), overlay chats with gameplay, sound gadgets, etc. Moreover, Bilibili even negotiates with many Chinese game developers so that they embed the functionality of native gameplay broadcasts directly to Bilibili (a kind of API) into their products. It is also necessary to remember that the company has its own game development studio – there, of course, all this is fully implemented.

Several other features can be highlighted, for example:

Communities. You probably remember that Bilibili was originally a forum and a set of interest groups. Now the service is a video platform, but the communities have not gone anywhere and are quite active. If our VK develops, makes normal algorithms, and then makes a decent link between videos and publics, then there will be a chance to create something similar.

Virtual Talents is a special functionality that allows bloggers to create their own 3D avatars and make content with them. It is not a full-fledged metaverse, but something close. There are also plans for AR/VR content.

Guess in one go, in what style most influencers from Bilibili make their avatars?

We could also talk in more detail about the monetization system, the author support program, or the paid subscription features, but the article already turned out to be longer than I planned.

In conclusion, I want to say this. Bilibili is a shining example of a major national-scale product emerging from a small niche thing as a result of organic growth and gradual and very smart audience expansion. Perhaps due to this, even innovative and bold features look organic and increase engagement. I think this is how good products are born.

***
If this article goes well and gets a lot of views and likes, I will continue with an analysis of other major video services in China (there are about five or six of them).

Well, subscribe to mine TG channel Disruptor. There are a lot of similar materials there – not only about China, but in general. Analysis of cool companies, innovations, products and what not. Every day I write large informative posts there, and also announce all the articles that come out regularly. There is also Channel Two Phychismwhere I analyze interesting and bright features. You are also welcome.