B station product analysis report!

The article provides a brief analysis of Bilibili from the perspectives of product and community, users and growth, revenue and commercialization, and shares it with everyone.

01 Background

Bilibili is now a comprehensive video community focusing on UGC content. It started out with two-dimensional content in the early days and gathered a group of core users. With further development, the content categories have expanded, the user circle has become wider, and the business has become more and more, which has been able to give rise to greater imagination.

1.1 Main Business

As shown in the figure on the official website of Bilibili, the main site is a relatively comprehensive video community. Anime, games, membership purchases and comics are all businesses derived from the two-dimensional world. Live streaming is a real-time video content carrier. Similar to it are long and short texts, pictures and texts, and short videos, which meet user needs through a variety of different content carriers. Race

The event module shows B station's determination to please more young users, rather than just two-dimensional users, which is different from the above modules.

1.2 User Circle

The 2D world is an extremely niche user group, while among young people there are more pan-2D and 3D users. Now, Bilibili has gradually stepped out of the shackles of the two-dimensional circle and its user base has expanded.

1.3 Content categories

The content is roughly divided into two categories:

1. Copyright purchase content
2. User Generated Content (UGC/PUGC)

Bilibili did not choose to join the copyright battle between Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video. It mainly purchased content that matched the tone of Bilibili users, while also trying to make its own content. Various types of animation dramas make up the majority, and others include documentaries, old movies, TV series, etc.

User-generated content is the lifeblood of the entire Bilibili and is also the most important foundation as a content community. Over the years, there have been continuous breakthroughs in content formats and categories, gradually able to cover all video needs of all young groups.

Related to this is that the needs that Bilibili meets for users are not just entertainment, including the previously popular "I am studying at Bilibili". The satisfaction of these needs means that Bilibili does not need to enter the brutal battlefield for user time too early (Tik Tok, Kuaishou, Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video are all very strong), but can achieve user retention by satisfying more needs.

02 Products and Community

As we discussed above, the definition of Bilibili is "a comprehensive video community." So what is a community? It is a group of people who come to one place and communicate by producing content, or we can choose to simply consume the content produced by others. The same thing is that we all stay and live together.

In the whole life, there are several processes that are more important. Producers choose to produce content, and other users will consume the content. At the same time, we will communicate with each other. It can be summarized into three key points of content community products: "content production + content distribution + social interaction".

2.1 Content Production

The content of Bilibili is mainly long videos, which naturally increases the difficulty of content production. UGC content is the source of vitality of Bilibili, but what is certain is that content production will gradually move towards more professional content. Especially as Bilibili's users and influence grow and it acquires certain media attributes, more and more other professional media people will come in and compete for traffic.

2.1.1 Main types of uploaders

• A pure amateur, mainly producing videos part-time;
• Content production is done full-time, but there is a trend towards specialization;
• Signed MCN (not yet determined;
• Official accounts of organizations, such as the Communist Youth League Central Committee;
• Professional media people from other platforms enter Bilibili.

It can be seen that 1 is the basis of 2 and 3, and is also the core driving force of Bilibili's content production. Most of them are young people with creative motivation and strong learning ability. They can identify and grasp user preferences and create content flexibly.

4 and 5 are professional content producers. Their difficulty lies in adapting to the community atmosphere and video creation format of Bilibili. Once they adapt, they can play to their strengths to gain traffic and fans.

2.1.2 Up master gradient

We can see that 1 and 2 are still the main content producers. If we classify them according to the number of fans, they may be in a pyramid shape like this:

Since there is no specific data, this chart is not rigorous. This is a ladder for up-masters to climb. Those who have just started to produce content are called newcomers. If they maintain continuous content production, they will gain a certain number of fans and become small up-masters. To be a mid-level up-master, one needs to have certain content production and operation strategies and ensure continuous and stable content output. Being a big up-host is more of a coincidence. Suppose we believe that maintaining a continuous and stable output of content can steadily increase the number of fans.

There are two important processes here:

1. From consumer to video creator. For most ordinary users, the initial choice to make videos is mostly out of personal interest. Only with continuous positive feedback from users can we continue to do it.
2. Continue to produce content. Continuous content production capability = production capacity + production motivation

2.1.3 Production capacity

As the number of fans increases, users’ requirements for videos are getting higher and higher, which also forces producers to constantly learn on their own, try new content forms, and keep improving themselves.

At the same time, since each up-host chooses a different track, the content type and source of materials are also limited, resulting in different costs and sustainability of video production. For example, it is impossible for an up in my LOL section to make a video on King of Glory. Not only will I lose fans but I may also be directly abandoned.

Moreover, the video updates of lol events will be produced along with the real-time events. In this way, even though there is no business in the off-season, as long as the game is not unpopular, I can still make a living. But if the content is about opinions, every piece of content I write is consuming my accumulation, and if I cannot gain big benefits, it will seem extremely unprofitable and cause constant anxiety.

2.1.4 Production power

It is mainly divided into spiritual motivation and economic motivation.

The earlier content producers are, the more likely they are to be spiritually motivated. However, as they get older, the pressures of life approach. If they want to continue producing high-quality content, they must have a certain level of financial security.

I follow a lot of people with around 100,000 followers. Some of them are happily waiting to graduate and make videos full-time. After graduation, they are pressured by money and consider switching to a new job or working part-time. If Bilibili is unable to retain them, it will lose a large number of high-quality up-hosts.

2.2 What B Station does

1. Activity operation, attracting users who want to make videos but haven’t done so yet;
2. Incentive plan, certain economic benefits;
3. Creator Academy;
4. Up master operation (a small amount)

2.3 Summary

There is a trend towards more and more professionalization of content production;

Introduce MCN agencies or adopt new methods to help newcomers and small up hosts transition to the mid-level up host stage as quickly as possible. Change the pyramid structure into a spindle structure, which is healthier and richer;

Strengthen commercialization capabilities, cultivate up-masters' awareness of commercialization, and solve economic problems.

03 Content Distribution

There are mainly the following ways:

1. search;
2. Channel;
3. recommend;
4. focus on.

3.1 Search

Search is a way for users to actively acquire content. The other ones are passive for users, and the platform chooses a suitable traffic distribution method to distribute content.

Due to the difficulty of content production on Bilibili, the number of consumers should be far greater than the number of active content producers. Therefore, in order to meet the consumption needs of most users, the overall distribution method of traffic should still tend towards content classification and content quality. (Guess

3.2 Channels

Partition + channel + topic is a function for content classification and aggregation.

Content Categories

There are 33 channels in total at the first-level entrance of the channel tab. The video content is simply classified through "partition + sub-partition + channel", and the tags actively added by the author are the initial video data. It helps with content operation and management, while users can obtain more relevant content. However, the zoning classification is too coarse and needs to be more refined.

Content Aggregation

This function is often ignored during use. The reason is probably that the content is too personal and the topic organization is too weak. Take Weibo’s topic function as an example. Everyone is discussing a topic through pictures and texts, but long video content is naturally not suitable for this aggregation method.

3.3 Recommend and follow

The following system cares about people, while the recommendation system helps to obtain more high-quality content of interest.

The problem is that traffic is limited, and all content requires traffic. The attention system is a stable basic traffic pool. At the same time, the "ranking" function solves the problem that popular content requires a large amount of traffic, allowing the recommendation system to allocate more traffic to high-quality content produced by small and medium-sized ups.

04 Social Interaction

Social interaction is the most important module of a community product. The connection between people and between people and content is the foundation of the community.

Three links, charging, comments, and barrage are the main interactive systems of Bilibili. In some products, comments are the real UGC content; while the content of comments is often reduced to a new topic to be opened. In Bilibili, videos are still the main content output, and comments exist as an interactive system.

I think that in the interactive system of Bilibili: barrage creates weak relationships, and "comments + follows" create strong relationships.

There is no rigorous argument for the relationship between strength and weakness. My understanding is that weak relationships arise when users care more about the content rather than the author. Strong relationships are often the relationships between the two parties, and there will be more trust between them.

4.1 Barrage

In the early years, the full name of B station was "Bilibili Danmu Network", which shows the importance of Danmu in the B station system.

• Danmu is a user's re-creation of content;
• the way users interact with each other;
• How users interact with video authors and content;
• Barrage helps users focus on interaction and reality rather than just immersing themselves in the video.

Under the user's re-creation, the videos are completely two different ones with or without barrage. In addition to subtitles and information supplements, the rich styles of barrage can stimulate users' imagination and creativity, allowing videos to produce different messages and laughs.

In fact, the most important function of barrage is interaction. The loneliness and curiosity of young people are infinitely magnified in the online world. Danmu is a new form of interaction that stimulates users' imagination and allows them to communicate with different users.

Danmu Eye Protection

4.2 Follow

By following the up-host, users establish a stronger connection with the video author, and the recognition and trust between the two parties will also be enhanced. This also means that the up-host has gained a certain voice in social media. At this time, the up-host needs to pay attention to: use his or her online voice correctly and reasonably.

The number of fans indicates the nature of the media, and information will spread quickly among a group in a short period of time. Do not deceive users, incite user emotions, produce content reasonably and obtain profits.

05 Users and Growth

5.1 User Group

Users of Bilibili usually have two labels: young and two-dimensional. Similarly, I believe that age and user preference type are two main factors that can be used to simply divide user groups.

As shown in the picture, the young two-dimensional users in the lower left corner are the core user group of Bilibili. During the development process, users with other types of needs in the young group have gradually been brought in. Older three-dimensional users have gradually come into contact with and used Bilibili, but for the time being and for the foreseeable future, there will probably still be a blank for older two-dimensional users.

5.2 Community Culture and Atmosphere

Each different user group has its own way of communication and community atmosphere. The definition of user groups can be distinguished by content preference types. The groups are not one-size-fits-all but are interconnected. I am a "lol player", within lol I am an "rng club fan", and I am also a "campus" college student, so I can belong to multiple groups.

The reason why all our different user groups can live together is that we all have the identity of a "Bilibili user", which is intersecting, integrated, and complex. Together we maintain a healthy, unique, and sustainable community atmosphere.

Here, several phenomena are observed:

1. Has a group effect.
2. Different groups will confront each other, and the entire large group will also have carnival. Take the cxk event as an example.
3. A unique culture that is independent of other platforms.
4. For example, two-dimensional culture, vlog, ghost animal, etc.
5. The "good" culture has broken through the circle and users have a high degree of acceptance.
6. For example, Huanong Brothers, "Shadow Lord", "Oli Gei", etc.

5.3 New User

When attracting new customers, we need to take the city factor into consideration. There are still significant differences in user culture and habits, which can be simply classified into "first- and second-tier markets" and "downstream markets."

New user sources:

1. Continue to reach younger users who have already met the content type needs;
2. Make the vertical axis longer, enrich the content types, and try to cover all young users in first- and second-tier cities;
3. Go down to the grassroots and introduce new young users.

In Q3 2019, Bilibili disclosed that it had 128 million monthly active users, a year-on-year increase of 38%. Assuming a steady increase at this rate, the number of users will reach 176 million in Q3 2020. If growth accelerates, it will approach 200 million monthly active users by the end of 2020. According to the 2010 census, there were approximately 300 million people aged 10-24 that year. Therefore, Bilibili does not need to worry about the growth ceiling for the time being.

At the same time, user growth needs to be accompanied by a stable increase in the number of content producers and production capacity. Keep content demand and supply stable.

As for the older user groups, there is no need to attract them specifically for the time being. On the one hand, the number of new young users has not yet reached its ceiling. On the other hand, as time goes by, young users will naturally grow older, and more similar content will be generated to attract the corresponding groups.

Ways to attract new customers: natural growth and advertising.

Due to its good atmosphere and ecology, it attracts a large number of users. At the same time, the growth department actively brought in more users through advertising, app store optimization and other methods.

The difference here is that natural growth often has good retention, while the users brought in by new users need to consider the product and community's ability to carry them.

5.4 User Retention

Different user groups will have different community atmospheres. So when a new user group is introduced, it will collide with the original user group. The better ones will be lost, while the others will remain safe. If the situation is bad, the entire community will be in turmoil and the social structure will collapse.

This is a story of the old versus the new. The addition of new users will expand the scope of the user group, but it will also inevitably dilute the community atmosphere. Just like the integration between ethnic groups, the number of ethnic minorities is far less than that of the Han nationality, so despite the large ethnic confrontation, they will eventually integrate into the Han culture step by step. A stable growth method should be gentle, with the power of the elderly far greater than that of the newcomers, so that the newcomers can gradually integrate into the community atmosphere of the elderly.

The old people tolerate the newcomers; the newcomers integrate into the old people.

1. Control the growth rate and ensure that the number of new people is far less than the number of old people. Set indicators and warning lines to measure community atmosphere, and immediately control new additions once they are triggered;
2. Help newcomers understand the community culture and adapt to the community atmosphere as quickly as possible.

Retention is an indicator to measure product capabilities, whether it can discover user needs, match user needs, and meet user needs. The above discussion is here.

06 Revenue and Commercialization

As shown in the figure, this is the revenue data disclosed by Bilibili in Q3 2019. The overall revenue structure tends to be balanced, rather than games accounting for the vast majority.

Due to the community nature of Bilibili, it has a good community atmosphere and user stickiness, and its games and live broadcasts have achieved good monetization.

Advertising revenue is not huge, but it is growing rapidly. Bilibili users are young, have low purchasing power, attach great importance to user experience, and reject advertising, resulting in low advertising revenue. But we can expect big growth from trying new advertising formats.

07 Summary and reflection

Bilibili is a community that focuses on operations and user experience. Judging from the current growth momentum, Bilibili has a lot of room for future evolution.

Bilibili has removed the three words "Danmu.com", which means brand upgrade. Keep buying copyrights and creating your own content. Just got the news that we have won the exclusive broadcasting rights for League of Legends S10. All these show that Bilibili has clear ideas and plans, so just wait and see.

I wrote it on and off for three days. I quickly made an outline, but as I was writing I found myself overestimating my abilities. Each module has a huge space for discussion, but due to my limited ability, I have only touched upon too many issues briefly. I hope I will have the opportunity to make additional comments in the future.

Finally, for the final advertising time, I am a fresh graduate of 2020, looking for internship and formal job opportunities. The school is based in Shanghai, and the work location is not limited. If there is a boss willing to give me a chance, I will be grateful~

Author: An

Source: An