Chinese Digital Marketing

Bilibili Marketing – A 2022 Guide

Bilibili KOL

Bilibili was founded in 2009 and has since grown to become China’s largest anime streaming site, as well as one of the country’s largest video-sharing sites.

The Shanghai-based startup bills itself as the internet home for ACG (Anime, Comics, and Gaming) aficionados. The company offers a platform for China’s Millennials and Generation Z to consume pre-made content as well as produce their own videos.

It’s one of China’s fastest-growing social networks, with a thriving community that marketers can’t afford to overlook. Let’s take a closer look at why.

Chinese Internet Audio & Video Market

While Youku (owned by Alibaba), iQiyi (owned by Baidu), and QQ Video (owned by Tencent) appear to dominate China’s online video business, short-form videos receive the most of the attention these days. It reaches 83% of the Chinese internet population, while other video formats and live streaming account for +70 and +60%, respectively.

Another intriguing trend in China’s internet audio and video business is the increase in users paying for this type of content (as we will see with Bilibili), with more than 45% of users paying. 60% of these users were born after 1990.

Bilibili User Statistics

Bilibili monthly active users

Bilibili’s unique selling point is its ability to build a highly sticky community in the ACG culture niche market. Because of its rapid user growth, the company has moved into a variety of new industries, including advertising, mobile gaming, and e-commerce.

Bilibili user engagement

China’s  Young & Dynamic Gen Z Demographic

More than 80% of users are classified as Gen Z, or those born between 1990 and 2009. The average age of current Bilibili users is 21 years old, and the average age of newly registered users is 19.8 years old, with the majority of them living in second-tier cities and below.

All of this is exciting for businesses interested in China’s Generation Z customer, and even more so when considering Bilibili’s user engagement.

Aside from anime and gaming, Bilibili also has beauty, fashion, entertainment, advertising, and digital sectors. Users on Bilibili enjoy live streaming, which opens up potential for companies to collaborate with popular KOLs who are active on the platform.

Whatever industry a brand is in, there’s probably a way to use Bilibili’s strong content culture for customer acquisition and engagement.

Original & High Quality Content

Bilibili is a one-of-a-kind video portal that features both mainstream and non-mainstream anime, as well as original documentaries. In comparison to other video uploading services, this site stands out due to its extensive content offering.

This is due, in part, to Bilibili’s lower investment in original anime production compared to Youku and Tencent. As a result, Bilibili is able to license a wider range of anime than its competitors, which China’s Generation Z customers like.

Bilibili unveiled over 50 new Chinese anime titles during ANIME MADE BY BILIBILI 2021-2022, which took place on November 20 in Shanghai last year. The annual news conference highlights Bilibili’s past accomplishments as well as new plans for Chinese animation. To better encourage industry talent, the business recently developed the “Light Catcher Initiative.”

The great quality of the content is at the heart of Bilibili, and it is the key reason why its user base is not just loyal, but also motivates them to become premium customers.

Strict membership rules ensure passionate and knowledgeable members

Currently, the Bilibili Site is China’s sole large-scale video-sharing platform with rigorous access requirements.

If a new user wishes to become an official member, they must first take a 100-question quiz covering topics ranging from corporate history to Japanese manga artists. Although such a rigorous access method inhibits overall user growth, it essentially ensures the quality of Bilibili users.

These high-end users have strengthened the dynamics of the Bilibili-Platform community culture, which is shown vividly in Bilibili users’ usage time and retention rate.

Core Advantages Of Bilibili

1) High conversion, with the News Feed Ads on the homepage and Traffic Native Ads over the whole website

2) Special CPT(Cost-Per-Thousand) advertising space with competitive daily payment

3) Supports external connections, entry of e-commerce and direct mail for a single product, entry of games, product recommendation by the uploaders, and the conversion driven by fans.

4) Orientation for specified video keyword

A Highly Interactive Same-screen Social Experience Called Danmu

The most distinctive feature of Bilibili is Danmu. This is a user dialogue system designed for Niconico in which time-synced comments are superimposed directly on top of the video as it plays.

Here’s a picture of Danmu.

Bilibili Danmu

The Danmu system offers a dramatically social viewing experience akin to being in a boisterous movie theatre: during critical times in a video, reactions flood over the video in a dense tidal wave, frequently completely covering over the source content.

People visit Bilibili for the community as well as the videos. It provides Bilibili an advantage because customers report feeling as if they are viewing their favourite episodes with friends.

Bilibili Target Sectors

One of Bilibili’s primary value propositions is its ability to capitalize on trends that are important to younger Chinese consumers. The platform has its origins in China’s ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) subculture, which has been popular among young Chinese consumers, and it has now extended into more general lifestyle categories such as food, travel, and fitness. With that growing user base has come a torrent of brand investment, particularly in the IT, food and beverage, and sports sectors.

China anime, comics and gamers

China’s ACG community is expanding steadily across all age groups. Bilibili has also become one of China’s most popular beauty marketing platforms, thanks to its creators’ makeup lessons, cosmetics reviews, unboxing videos, and other content. The number of beauty businesses with an official Bilibili presence more than doubled between June 2020 and June 2021.

Growing visitor volumes on video platforms have prompted organizations to reassess their traditional digital marketing efforts and shift their focus to this medium of communication. Most businesses in China have already adopted ByteDance’s Douyin and WeChat’s Channels. But, there is still an unexplored video platform that luxury brands can look to leverage. That platform is Bilibili.

Ads & Mini Programs

There is also the option of placing ads in KOL channels or running typical display ads to market products on Bilibili. This assists advertisers in gaining the attention of their target demographic.

bilibili

Since Alibaba’s investment in Bilibili in April 2019, the platform’s focus has shifted from user acquisition to e-commerce. This is primarily due to the introduction of new e-commerce miniprograms on Bilibili, which are now the most efficient way to sell on the platform.

Bilibili also started a mini-program in 2019 where celebrities sell cosmetics.

Some Tips To Summarise

1) Users can purchase things by clicking on the “commodities” column on the homepage, rather than going to third-party websites. So, make sure you open a store in this column.

2) Creators of content can include links to their products in “Danmu” or under the videos.

3)Collaboration with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) or Key Opinion Customers (KOCs) might be an excellent way to market your company on Bilibili.

Bilibili KOL

4)The collaboration between Taobao and Bilibili gives the latter the opportunity to investigate “content-related e-commerce,” allowing Bilibili to employ Taobao analytics tools to improve the user experience.

And finally, when it comes to your Bilibili marketing strategy, we say- If you’re going to do it, do it well. To generate winning video content, you need a competent team. If you want to see viral videos on your channel, you must have the correct director, scriptwriter, actors, equipment, and storytelling. Contact us today to get started.

 

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