Bilibili Product Analysis

In the current industry context, Bilibili has blazed a path of its own with its unique positioning, unique users, multi-functional community design and distinctive content sections. In this article, the author focused on "breaking the circle" and made a product analysis report on Bilibili based on his own experience. If you want to have a comprehensive understanding of Bilibili, you might as well click in and take a look.

From an early niche cultural community to today's Generation Z paradise, it is imperative for Bilibili to break out of its circle. However, faced with questions from native users and the outside world, what can Bilibili rely on to meet these unknown challenges and give it the confidence to seek change?

1. Product Overview

1. Experience the environment

Device model: iPhone7

Operating system: iOS14.4

Experience version: 6.21.0

Experience time: 2021.04

2. Basic product information

1) Product Overview

Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as B Station) is the video community with the largest number of young people in China, and is also a pioneer in the aggregation video platform in today's video industry.

2) Product development background (mainly by analyzing the changes in the name of the B-station App Store app on the App Store to infer the product development trend)

ACG community cultural background : In June 2009, Bilibili started out as an ACG community website. Its early users were concentrated in the gaming and ACG fields. As a gathering place for niche ACG culture, it has extremely high user stickiness. In the early days, the name of the B station mobile application was "Bilibili Animation", which mainly provided the most complete new anime and original music, dance and ghost videos created by the platform's users. Since April 2016, the feature of barrage has been highlighted to distinguish it from other video software.

Content expansion and management : With the strengthening of copyright and effective management of content, the restrictive words for video types in the application name were removed one after another, and "Bilibili Animation" was changed to "Bilibili". The current name has been used since 2017. Bilibili - live broadcast of bullet screen animation videos, reflects the three main lines of B station's video business: UCG video, PCG video and live broadcast.

3) Summary

For Bilibili itself, as ACG users are approaching saturation, expanding the user base by expanding content to retain users and increasing their payment conversion rate is an inevitable choice to change the situation of continued losses.

2. Market Background

1. Industry Analysis

1) Current situation

① Core changes in the video industry

Cost reduction across the entire industry chain : With the development of digital and Internet technologies, the popularization of mobile Internet, and the improvement of residents' consumption levels, the supply, reach, and consumption costs of video content have dropped significantly. These are reflected in: reduced creation costs, expanded distribution channels, improved efficiency, and enhanced user spending power and payment awareness.

Shift in demand : Against this backdrop, content has shifted from a seller’s market with low supply and high demand to a buyer’s market with booming supply and demand. User interests are divided, and attention is shifting from excess to scarcity.

Industry changes: First, unified content can no longer meet the diverse needs of users. Production is moving towards verticalization and dissemination is segmented to meet the personalized tastes of users. Second, from the perspective of the industrial chain, close links in the industrial chain can improve content production and operation efficiency, thereby meeting the ever-changing interests of users.

② Development status of video distributors

Strengthened voice : China’s video platform entered the market in 2005. After 16 years of development, its voice has gradually strengthened.

• The distribution of PGC has gradually evolved into another mainstream distribution channel besides traditional media.
• For UGC, technology has promoted the rapid development of video creation among the whole people.

Improved distribution efficiency : As a platform connecting creators and users, video distributors can accurately distribute content to interested users through their mastery of resources, data and technology, thereby improving the efficiency of video content distribution and promoting the verticalization, circleization and development of videos. (The following picture is from iResearch)

2) Development Trend

For the leading video platforms, if they want to achieve further commercial success, they will mainly focus on two directions, namely expanding the number of users and increasing the payment conversion rate.

Expand the number of users : Improve video categories to meet the personalized needs of different users, and the positioning of platforms will be integrated and extended.

Improve payment rate : build diversified monetization methods and upgrade business models.

3) Summary

From the perspective of the industry, the expansion of users and monetization is in line with the development trend of high-end platforms in the industry.

2. Product analysis (STP model)

1) Market segmentation

From a demographic perspective, groups born in the same historical period and with similar behavioral characteristics are called the same generation. (The basic assumption of generational division is that people born in the same era have experienced the same social, political, and economic environment, so they will have similar ideas and behaviors)

2) Target Market

Generation Z : In China, young people born between 1990 and 2009 are called Generation Z. They are the natives of the Internet. They have been exposed to Internet technology since their infancy and have a natural dependence on the Internet.

Market size : According to iResearch Consulting’s research on Generation Z, in July 2020, the number of monthly independent devices of China’s mobile Internet Generation Z users reached 385 million, accounting for 27% of China’s total mobile Internet. Moreover, in the one and a half years that data is available, the number of independent devices per month has been on a long-term growth trend.

At the same time, the market size of China's Z+ generation pan-video industry reached 377.4 billion yuan in 2019, and the growth rate was higher than the overall. It is expected to reach 1364.3 billion yuan in 2025, and there is still huge room for growth. (The following picture is from iResearch)

Difficulty of market entry : Bilibili is deeply loved by Generation Z users due to its native two-dimensional attributes and diverse, interesting and active community. According to data statistics from QuestMobile in January 2020, Bilibili is the most preferred app for young people under the age of 24 in China. (The picture below is from the official website of Station B)

Product matching : Strong desire for self-expression and social interaction. At the same time, for the technology-savvy Generation Z users, Bilibili provides them with a mature environment for creation and communication. Here, they can express their values ​​and have in-depth exchanges through videos, barrages and comments, while seeking community identity.

3) Market positioning

Slogan : All the videos you are interested in are on Bilibili

Positioning : A cultural community where young Chinese people gather (a community-based video software that provides cultural and entertainment life for young Chinese people)

Core competitiveness : Continuous high-quality content viewing and output comes from the following three aspects:

① Closed-loop video creation ecosystem

In the introduction on Bilibili’s official website, the closed-loop creative ecosystem is described as a continuous source of power for the community’s development.

On Bilibili, content creators are affectionately called up masters. Up masters create high-quality videos, and the platform attracts users to watch through high-quality videos. The growth of fans in turn motivates up masters to create high-quality videos in the long term.

This process allows the platform to save on content creation costs and achieve self-growth of content, thus providing a continuous source of community development momentum.

② Rich incentive plan

Bilibili has a rich creative incentive program for video content creators.

Incentives from the platform : There is a bounty program for ordinary creators; for mid-level creators, they can receive creative incentives; for larger creators, they can receive B-station-exclusive medals for 100,000 fans and 1,000,000 fans; for top creators, there is an awards ceremony for the top 100 up-masters every year.

Fans’ incentives : Fans can show their love for videos through likes, coins, reposts, favorites, barrages, comments, etc.; they can also support the up-master’s creation by charging him/her. Among the new features recently launched, fans can make an appointment for the creator’s next video and supervise the up-master to avoid being "silent".

It can be seen that compared with the platform's material incentives, the incentives from fans are more playable. The variety of gameplay activates the activity of both creators and viewers, becoming a very important part of the B station community atmosphere.

③ High user stickiness

In the field of medium and long videos, Bilibili's high user stickiness comes from the construction of both content and community.

High-quality users : Bilibili is not without choices for its users. Every ordinary user needs to complete a lengthy question-answering session before becoming a formal member of Bilibili.

The obvious disadvantage of this link is that it blocks some users from entering, but it actually helps the platform to prioritize user education, and users who pass the test are often of higher quality. The content of the questions is mainly divided into two modules, community norms questions and two-dimensional knowledge. The Community Norms topic allows users to understand the behavioral norms of the B site community.

Highly sticky users : According to Bilibili's Q4 and full-year 2020 financial reports, with an average of 220 million monthly active users, the average daily usage time of Bilibili users is 75 minutes, and the retention rate of formal users in the 12th month exceeds 80%.

High-quality users stay because they can find content of interest here and gain a sense of community identity. On the other hand, perhaps because the membership is hard-earned, I cherish the opportunity to stay here even more.

3. User Analysis

1. User Profile

By collating the Baidu Index, iResearch Consulting, and the official website of Bilibili, we have made quantitative and qualitative descriptions of Bilibili users and obtained two typical user portraits.

Since the analysis of this report focuses on "breaking the circle", the main target of analysis here is Generation Z rather than the ACG group.

1)

Nickname: Alanbiubiubiu

Region: Guangzhou

Age: 21

Occupation: College student

Opinion expression:

"I got my first smartphone when I was in high school. They call us the Internet generation, and it is true that we have been exposed to the Internet since we were born."

"I think our generation is more tolerant of culture. We are willing to understand and accept foreign cultures, and we are also willing to promote and inherit China's good traditional culture. Maybe we would rather let culture serve our own development, rather than stubbornly becoming slaves to a certain culture."

"In addition to the knowledge I acquire in class, I also hope to consciously cultivate and develop my own interests and hobbies. The Internet and social networks are the channels through which I often acquire such knowledge. I like to make friends with similar interests. This in-depth communication based on interests allows me to resonate and experience a sense of belonging."

Demand classification:

• Interest pursuit and the need for perfection
• Aesthetic and entertainment needs
• The need for self-expression and social interaction
• The need for respect and recognition

2)

Nickname: I am Li Lindi

Region: Shanghai

Age: 26

Occupation: Full-time up master

Opinion expression:

“I like to share my expertise with my fans. I feel valuable when I can express my views on life and the world and they like me. In the process, I not only grow myself, but I also often receive feedback from fans saying that I have a positive impact on their lives, which makes me feel that I have a deep connection with them.”

"By producing high-quality video content, I have gradually achieved my own financial freedom. In addition to the creative incentives provided by the platform, some brands will also find me to create some interesting promotional content."

"With a certain level of financial security, I can be more courageous in perfecting my pursuits and producing higher quality content."

Requirement description:

• The need for self-expression and opinion expression
• The need for recognition and a sense of achievement
• The need for material and spiritual rewards
• Interest pursuit and the need for perfection

2. Usage scenarios

The demand is mainly derived from the function. Given that this analysis report is mainly aimed at analyzing the user growth and retention methods of Bilibili, the following usage scenarios will revolve around the core function with large user volume and growth potential - providing UGC videos.

1) Content consumption scenarios

Active search : When there is a need to recognize specific content, enter the keywords of the target content in the search bar to retrieve highly relevant video content, and select the video content that best meets the search expectations for browsing.

Browsing recommendations : In your free time, without any special browsing purpose, you can obtain video content based on system recommendations. Filter the video content you are interested in and browse it based on the title, cover, up-host, recommended tags and other information.

Browsing updates from up-loaders : When an up-loader you follow updates a video, users will usually watch the latest updated content based on their past trust in the quality of their videos. If the up-host does not update for a long time, fans will urge the up-host to update.

2) Content creation scenarios

Active creation : The up-host uploads his own videos through Bilibili, expresses what he wants to express, and gains recognition through feedback from fans.

Create content at the request of fans : After the videos uploaded by the up-host have gained a certain degree of recognition, some fans will ask the up-host to create video content on specific topics based on their understanding of the up-host and their own content needs.

3) Social scene

Communicate with other viewers : During and after viewing, the video content itself, the comments and comments in the video may arouse the desire of viewers to express their opinions and feelings to other viewers.

Communicate with the up-masters you follow : When watching a video, users may express their own opinions that are similar to or different from those of the up-master based on the content in the video. In addition to watching videos, you may also want to express your love or make suggestions to the up-master through other means.

Communicate with fans : When shooting a video, the up-host may directly express the opinions he wants to convey to fans, or initiate a topic to discuss with fans. The up master will also communicate with fans about some interesting feedback.

4. Product Analysis

1. Product functional structure

The B station App involves many business functions. Here we mainly sort out the functional structure of the three main lines of video content (UCG content, PCG content and live broadcast).

The following conclusions can be drawn from the structure diagram:

From the perspective of content type : Bilibili uses UGC and PGC videos as its main content distribution channels, and the priority of live content is relatively low. Compared with PGC content, UGC content is easier to reach general users.

From the perspective of structural characteristics : for basic functions with a large number of users (such as providing video content), the structure is flat, and there are fewer classifications and divisions of menus at the same level, the spatial layout efficiency is low, but the scalability is strong; for more niche functions, the structural width is obviously narrower and the depth is deeper.

There are many duplicate entrances : For UGC and PGC video content, there are often 2-3 functional entrances. The disadvantage is that it makes the overall functional structure look redundant; the advantage is that it can distribute content in multiple ways to meet the needs of users to watch video content in different scenarios.

Creator support : The entrance to support video creators on Bilibili is relatively hidden, and mainly provides functions for creation management and creation incentives. The reason is that compared to short video platforms, Bilibili's main content is in the field of medium and long videos, which has higher requirements for creators, and creation and uploading are generally done on the web.

But recently, Bilibili launched an official editing app on mobile phones, Bijian, which allows users to upload clips in one place. This has further lowered the threshold for video creation. It is probably an attempt to expand the video field towards short videos while attracting more creators.

2. Product function flow chart

Bilibili has a wide range of businesses, and here we will only sort out the main processes of content creation, distribution and playback, and user feedback after watching videos. The specific business process is summarized as follows:

3. Product historical iteration versions

After sorting out the version record data of Bilibili from October 2018 to the present, the following conclusions are drawn:

1) Extension of positioning

From "Bullet screen video community, anime and two-dimensional entertainment" to "Entertainment anime and two-dimensional community", and then to "All the videos you are interested in are on Bilibili" in February 2020, Bilibili's positioning has gradually shifted from a niche two-dimensional community to an anti-video platform.

2) Serving functional iteration and content operation

Each version update is mainly for the purpose of promoting new features or domestic animation series. The copy is young and lively, using many Internet buzzwords, close to the users' language habits, and stimulating users' interest in unlocking new ways to play on Bilibili. In the past year, promotions for large-scale events (such as the Top 100 Uploader Awards, the Centennial Anniversary, etc.) will also be explained in version updates.

**Function iteration summary: **After screening a total of 44 major function updates, it can be seen that on the basis of achieving the availability of core functions, from October 2018 to the present, the iteration direction of Bilibili's mobile App has mainly focused on the following aspects: committed to enriching the usage scenarios of functions and meeting personalized needs.

① Expansion of content creation scenarios and improvement of quality

A total of 23 updates were seen including optimizations to content creation features.

Among them, from October 2018 to mid-2019, the function development work was relatively intensive, focusing on functions such as mobile phone shooting, mobile phone editing and submission, and made multiple scene expansions and quality improvements, in order to obtain higher video quality while lowering the threshold for video creation.

Among them, there are some special features for B station video content, such as:

• For dance video shooting scenes, the mobile phone horizontal screen and mirror shooting functions are provided;
• Extend the gif recording time limit in the video player to facilitate users to re-create the video content on the site;
• For video creation in the pet area, a cat face recognition function has been added to mobile phone shooting, as well as an optimization of this function - the recognition of multiple people or multiple cats scenes.

② Improve content playback function & expand scenarios

A total of 25 update notes containing content playback function optimizations were screened out.

Updates to this type of functionality are evenly distributed within the time frame studied, and mainly include expansion of distribution channels, improvement of player settings, and expansion of playback scenarios, in order to obtain better viewing data on playback volume and playback duration.

In addition to obtaining video content through recommendations and searches, based on user relationships (mainly follow-up relationships), users can obtain video content that the up-host has posted or is of interest to them from the personal space and posting dynamics of the person they follow. In response to different user playback scenarios, functions such as background continuous playback and small window playback are provided to meet users' needs for consuming video content in personalized playback scenarios.

③ All-round and interesting interaction

In response to interactive needs, a total of 23 updates were found.

This type of functional optimization is relatively evenly distributed and can be divided into two aspects: expansion of interactive objects and optimization of interactive methods.

In terms of expanding the scope of interactive objects, in addition to users paying attention to video creators and giving feedback such as likes, barrages, and comments on video content, up-masters can also embed barrages, voting and other functions in video manuscripts to guide viewers to interact.

In addition, the interaction between viewers is also strengthened, and comments sent to barrages can also get feedback from other users.

The interactive method is a highlight of the Bilibili platform. In addition to the pioneering barrage function, the "one-click triple-link" function launched at the end of 2018 has received unexpected results. After that, the platform continued to stimulate users' enthusiasm for interaction by enhancing the fun of interaction.

In addition, in August 2020, the "Watch Together" function was launched for PGC content. The demand probably came from "Weiguang", a video social software preferred by Generation Z users.

④ Efficient content management & accumulation of high-quality content

There are 9 update notes in total, including those related to content management, and there is no particular concentration in their time distribution. There are more updates to the favorites content management, and fewer iterations to the history and watch later functions.

By helping users manage content, it is helpful for users to screen video content that is truly valuable to them and improve the viewing efficiency and playback frequency of high-quality content. It is also conducive to the platform's accumulation of high-quality content.

5. Functional Analysis (Content Distribution Function)

The following will analyze the UGC video related functions of Bilibili based on the general content distribution model.

*The following analysis framework refers to the article "I have a story to tell you | Exploration of content distribution models for content-based products" by NetEase UEDC, an author of the website Everyone is a Product Manager.

Content : What kind of content is worth distributing?

Channel : Through what methods and channels will it be distributed?

Users : Who will consume the content?

1. Content

1) Content production control

We consciously divide the content into corresponding organizational structures at the source of its generation, so as to ensure that the newly generated content is within the controllable range of the platform.

① Artificial division

When submitting articles to Bilibili, you must fill in the field classification and tags.

Among them, the partitions are selected according to the established hierarchical content organization structure, and the label settings can be customized, recommended labels can be selected, or activities to participate in can be selected. Recommended tags are automatically generated by the system based on the partition and title content filled in.

② Video review

After users of Bilibili submit video content, it needs to be reviewed by reviewers and can only be finally published on Bilibili after passing the review. The review content mainly includes whether the video meets the safety and compliance requirements.

2) Build a content organization structure

① Step type

In response to the huge amount of UGC content, Bilibili organizes the content structure by dividing it into content types. The sections involved include animation, dance, games, ghost animals, etc. that are native to the ACG community, as well as life, knowledge, digital, etc. that are becoming increasingly powerful.

PGC is divided into two major sections according to content type: animation and film and television, and the sources of content are mainly divided into copyright purchase and self-production. Some of the self-produced variety shows and documentaries have received good responses because they meet user viewing needs and are attracted by top up-hosts.

② User self-organization

Content consumers can build their own video content library based on their preferences.

For UGC content, users can add videos to their own video library by collecting them. By creating and managing favorites, users can further divide these videos according to their personalized needs to facilitate searching and watching next time.

For animation and film and television content, you can add them to your favorites through the follow-up function, and divide them into want to watch, watching and watched according to the viewing status.

In addition, content creators create and upload video content, which naturally creates a library of up-master manuscripts.

③ Related network

On the half-screen video viewing page, a list of recommended videos based on the current video content appears below the introduction. Above the video playlist, you will see some labels like "Snail Noodles", "Foreigners", "America", etc. Click on the corresponding label to jump to the corresponding channel. From this, we can infer that the platform associates content with content through tag similarity to form a content organization structure.

3) Content value judgment

For Bilibili, the main consideration for judging the value of content is the popularity of the content. Because most content is not time-sensitive and can be consumed repeatedly, the pushed content is likely to have been produced several months or even years ago.

The value of the content is determined by the user's recognition of the content (likes, coins, forwarding, favorites, barrages, comments, etc.), and then it is determined whether to push it on a larger scale.

By analyzing the recommended tags of popular videos on Bilibili, we can infer that the basis for calculating the popularity of Bilibili content includes: number of views, number of likes, number of shares, etc.

Content with a high popularity ranking or a fast growth rate of popularity in a certain section is considered to have higher content value. When the popularity values ​​are close, they are sorted by timeliness to ensure real-time update of popular content.

4) Summary

In terms of content production, organization and value judgment, Bilibili has established a relatively complete content management system.

Content control during the production phase reduces the cost and risk of relying solely on system control. When the amount of content uploaded is large, there is also a relatively basic basis for the subsequent distribution of the content.

In terms of content value judgment, the assessment of high-quality content includes the reflection of the content growth value, and consciously helps new up-loaders to be seen by more people through high-quality content.

2. Channels

1) Aggregation distribution

Distribute content pools directly according to categories in your organizational structure.

2) Hotspot Distribution

Distribute the highest-value content on your site. Based on the value judgment of the popularity of the content, the popular content is divided into rankings, weekly must-sees and must-sees according to the time dimension, and popular video content in real time, one week and previous years is pushed respectively.

3) Associated distribution

When users consume content, relevant content is pushed to promote continuous consumption.

4) Summary

Rich distribution channels help high-quality content reach target users faster, and ordinary users can also effectively obtain content of interest to them through a variety of methods and retain it, so the platform has achieved impressive product usage data.

3. Users

1) Select distribution objects based on user attributes

Draw a user portrait for the user to push content that matches his or her interests and expectations. Then push the corresponding content through the matching algorithm.

Through the usage experience and the analysis of recommended tags in the video list, it is speculated that the construction of Bilibili user portrait is mainly based on the behavioral dimension. That is, based on the content that the user has historically clicked, completed, and interacted with, we analyze the tags corresponding to the content, infer the tag type corresponding to the content that the user is interested in, and then push the video content under that tag to the user.

On this basis, high-quality content and content related to the up-master will be highlighted with labels to guide users to click and watch.

2) Select distribution objects based on user relationships

① The relationship chain generated by users’ attention behavior on the platform is used to distribute content

The "Dynamics" function is actually a stream of content posted by the up-masters you follow, and the content here is sorted in chronological order. In addition, a "most frequently visited" function has been added to the top of the page to display the update status of the up-masters that users visit most frequently, making it easier for users to obtain the video content they are most interested in more quickly.

② The content generated by the actions of the people you follow on the platform can also be distributed

In the "Dynamics" function, up-loaders you follow can forward content they think is high-quality, which can also effectively distribute high-quality content and reach interested users. As the saying goes, love the house and love the dog. The identification with the up-host affects the user's recognition of the content approved by the up-host.

The same principle is also applied to the recommendations on the homepage.

3) Summary

In terms of research on distribution objects, Bilibili tends to infer users' viewing habits through more explicit behavioral data, which is also due to the establishment of a complete interest-oriented content organization structure.

In addition, fans often have (or expect to have) similar values ​​to the up-master, and using this to distribute content will achieve good results.

6. Analysis and Summary

In the introduction of Bilibili's official website, there is a sentence: "The symbiotic relationship with users determines our mission and vision: to become the cultural lifestyle of young people in China and grow together with this generation."

From ACG cultural community to Z generation paradise, it is probably more like a growth path for Bilibili. After seeing the richer real world, the second-dimensional boys in their middle school years will also develop a wider range of interests.

When these interests become a teenager's work and lifestyle, he has simply grown up and is dealing with the relationship between himself and the world with a more inclusive attitude.

When the boy meets new friends, he will proudly introduce the two-dimensional culture to them, because that is the spiritual core that has accompanied him growing up.

Author: Right Bed Plaster

Source: Right Bed Plaster