Bilibili (B station) product operation analysis

As a content community that started out by relying on the two-dimensional world, Bilibili has been continuously "expanding its territory" in recent years, and "The Next Wave" and "Into the Sea" have caused phenomenal discussions.

Experience environment and product introduction:

System version: MIUI 11.0.5

Experience time: 2020.11

Product name: BILIBILI (commonly known as Station B)

Product Type: Video Social APP

Experience version: 6.12.0

1. Product Analysis - Based on the Five Elements of User Experience

1.1 Strategic Level

1.1.1 Product Positioning

1.1.1.1 Market Overview

The trial production scale of China's online video industry is expected to reach 294 billion yuan in 2020.

Video platform users, traffic, and content are further concentrated on the leading platforms, content competition has become the focus of the industry, and enriching user consumption scenarios has become the long-term development goal of enterprises.

Image source: BiDa Consulting

Traffic is not the only goal. Strengthening content and focusing on interaction have become the key to improving retention.

my country's video industry has basically achieved large-scale coverage of Internet users, and the market has also entered the stock market from the incremental market. It is necessary to seize the user market and refine the video content. Traffic is not the only goal. Strengthening content and focusing on interaction have become the key to improving retention.

Image source: BiDa Consulting

Young people account for a high proportion of online video users.

The number of male online video users is slightly higher than that of female ones. The age structure is relatively young, with 89.39% under 35 years old and 23.8% under 25 years old.

Image source: BiDa Consulting

Young groups have strong demand for entertainment consumption.

Among the consumer group of post-90s and post-00s, which is as large as 280 million, entertainment consumption accounts for 28.9% of total expenditure. Among users under 24 years old, online entertainment products such as video services and game services account for 27.1% and 9.2% of their entertainment consumption time respectively.

Image source: BiDa Consulting

1.1.1.2 Product Overview

Bilibili was founded on June 26, 2009. In its early days, it was a video website for creating and sharing ACG (animation, comics, and games) content, with its target users being the two-dimensional group. After 11 years of development, Bilibili has continuously attracted users with different content needs by expanding its content areas. The fields currently involved include music, dance, knowledge, digital, life, food, ghost animals, fashion, film and television, etc. The business segments have also gradually expanded from content creation to live broadcast, games, e-commerce and other modules. Bilibili has now grown into a "cultural community and video platform with a high concentration of China's young generation."

1.1.2 User Demand Positioning

As a website mainly based on UGC/PUGC, Bilibili’s users can be roughly divided into two categories: content consumers and content producers. Among them, content consumers account for the majority of the total number of users, and content producers can be divided into UGC producers (mostly individual up-masters), PUGC producers (full-time up-masters with their own teams) and traditional PGC producers (such as the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League that has settled in Bilibili).

But the two types of users are not separate. Some content producers are converted from content consumers. In the process of consumption, sharing, and interaction, the demand for creation or self-expression of content consumers is stimulated, thus becoming a small up-master. Through the continuous production and operation of high-quality content, a small part will gradually grow into an up-master with a considerable number of fans or even an opinion leader in niche content.

User pyramid Image source: self-made

In the following, the author mainly analyzes the content consumers and UGC content producers, who account for the majority of the population:

1.1.2.1 User attributes

Baidu Index, Jiguang Big Data, iResearch, and Bilibili's 2018 annual report all have quantitative descriptions of users. The specific data and statistical calibers are slightly different, but overall, Bilibili users have the following attributes:

• Age attribute: mainly young people under 30 years old
• Gender: The proportion of male users is slightly higher than that of female users, but as the user group continues to grow, the proportion of female users is gradually increasing.
• Geographically: mainly distributed in the eastern coastal areas and more developed cities in the central and western regions. From the perspective of city level, users are more concentrated in first- and second-tier developed cities
• Educational background: undergraduates and postgraduates are the majority, and the proportion of middle school students is gradually increasing.

1.1.2.2 User characteristics

At the 2019 China Internet Copyright Protection and Development Conference, Chen Rui, Chairman and CEO of Bilibili, gave a speech:

"Regarding our user group, there is a term called "Generation Z", which is mainly composed of users born in the 1990s and 2000s. I have summarized their three characteristics: cultural confidence, moral self-discipline and knowledge literacy. Cultural confidence means that the current Z generation has a more objective understanding of national style, traditional culture and China's own culture. At the same time, they are more confident and proud. Moral self-discipline comes from the fact that they have received better education and have a better material life since childhood. Knowledge literacy also comes from better education. They were born in an era of popularization of the Internet. They are a generation born on the Internet. Whether it is acquiring knowledge or finding their own interests and hobbies, it is much easier for them than for us who were born in the 1970s."

Characteristics of Generation Z users Image source: bilibili official

1.1.2.3 User needs

According to the characteristics of users, their needs include the following aspects:

• Demand for acquiring content of interest: The characteristics of young people and high humanistic qualities make users pay more attention to the cultivation of their own interests and skills, thus creating a demand for acquiring content of interest. These contents include both relaxing and entertaining content such as animation, games, ghost videos, and life videos, as well as functional content such as course videos.
• High-quality social needs: While consuming content, users want to express their inner thoughts and alleviate loneliness, which creates social needs. Different from general social relationships based on interpersonal relationships, in an interest-driven context, users will use more "memes" and Internet buzzwords to interact with groups with similar interests and hobbies to gain resonance. These interactions will enhance members' sense of belonging and inspire more people to respond, thus enhancing the community atmosphere.
• Creative needs: In conscientious social and interactive relationships, users' creative needs are stimulated, and they interact closely with other users in the community, expressing their ideas more directly to gain recognition and resonance.
• The need to profit from creation: High-quality creation requires a lot of effort. When one's own interests and recognition from others cannot drive the continuous creation of high-quality content, the need to profit from creation will arise.
• Derivative consumption demand: Users with a strong sense of payment will generate demand for derivative consumption due to the strong community atmosphere.

User needs diagram Image source: Homemade

1.2 Scope Layer

1.2.1 Content Requirements

Combined with the user needs summarized at the strategic level, content needs can be broken down into two levels: basic needs and derived needs.

At the basic demand level, that is, the UGC/PUGC side, content consumers need high-quality film and television works, rich UGC content and a high-quality social environment. Content producers need a simple and easy-to-use content creation platform, a diversified creation incentive mechanism and precise content distribution channels.

Basic requirements diagram Image source: self-made

At the level of derived demands, users will further derive their consumption of UGC/PUGC content into areas such as membership, games, shopping and live streaming. This has also become an important source of revenue for the platform.

Derived demand graph Image source: Homemade

1.2.2 Functional specifications

Based on the above content requirements, the functional specifications are summarized as shown in the following figure:

Functional specification diagram Image source: Homemade

1.3 Structural Layer

1.3.1 Information Architecture

The product information architecture of Bilibili mainly includes six modules: homepage, channel, comprehensive, game, member purchase, and my.

The homepage is the main channel for UGV/PUGC distribution, which includes seven functions: recommendation, live broadcast, hot topics, follow-up series, film and television, fight against pneumonia and well-off.

• The recommendation function accurately recommends content that users are interested in. It is the default interface for entering the app and is also the interface most used by users;
• The ranking list in the popular function provides comprehensive real-time ranking of 17 categories including animation, music, and dance, and also provides a comprehensive ranking of the entire site based on the content of the entire site. The refined divisions provide users with different hobbies with a good channel to obtain high-quality content, and the rankings within the region enable niche divisions to develop healthily. In addition to the rankings, the popular features also include a collection of high-quality content such as must-sees every week and must-sees when entering the site;
• The follow-up function mainly focuses on ACG content, which is related to the theme content of Station B;
• The film and television functions are mainly copyrighted movies, TV series, and variety shows;

Channels are another channel for distributing UGV/PUGC, which further refines the divisions and provides content of interest to users with different preferences.

The comprehensive content is mainly updated by the up-masters that users follow, making it convenient for users to watch the subscribed content. In addition, the new version has conducted internal testing of regional functions. The author understands that this is an initiative by Bilibili to further expand the community attributes of its products and serve the lower-tier markets.

Games are B's main profit point. It provides game download agency services and fully leverages its own community and content production advantages to establish a gaming community to encourage secondary creation and increase game users' stickiness to the product.

Member Shopping is Bilibili’s e-commerce platform, which mainly sells ACG derivative products, Bilibili peripherals, etc.

My module includes user personal information management, creation center, as well as value-added services such as VIP services.

Product architecture diagram Image source: Homemade

1.3.2 Interaction Design

Taking the UGC/PUGC function as an example, analyze the interactive design of Bilibili.

1.3.2.1 Personalized content recommendation and multi-channel content distribution

In the content recommendation interface, the app automatically pushes content of interest to users based on an algorithm. Users can long press the video or the three dots under the video to add it to watch later and provide feedback. In addition, users can also obtain content of interest by choosing live broadcasts, popular shows, follow-up shows, movies, channels, etc., thereby reducing the cost of obtaining information, improving the accuracy of acquisition, and increasing user stickiness.

1.3.2.2 Easy to operate

In terms of gestures, the B station app mainly uses actions such as clicking (short time, long time), pulling down, and sliding (left and right, up and down) for operation, which is simple to operate. Most operations can be completed with one hand, lowering the user's usage threshold.

1.3.2.3 Encourage user interaction

On the video playback interface, interactive buttons for likes, dislikes, coins, favorites, and shares are set below the video content. The buttons are relatively obvious. Long pressing the like button can perform three clicks in one go, lowering the threshold for user interaction. In addition, the setting of video barrage increases the fun of users in watching videos, encourages users to participate in discussions, and also enhances the creative passion of content creators, which is conducive to the establishment of a good community atmosphere on Bilibili.

1.4 Framework Layer

1.4.1 Interface Design

1.4.1.1 Startup interface

The startup interface of Bilibili rotates through several versions. The cartoon characters are 22 Niang and 33 Niang, reflecting the ACG characteristics of Bilibili. In terms of text, "All the videos you are interested in are on Bilibili" is the slogan of Bilibili, and the tenth and eleventh anniversaries are major events of Bilibili. After the startup page is the advertising interface.

Startup interface Image source: Homemade

1.4.1.2 Login Interface

After clicking on the login interface, a page for one-click login using your phone number will pop up automatically. Clicking this button allows for quick login, lowering the user login threshold.

When choosing other login methods, you can use your password or SMS verification code to log in, making it convenient for users in different device segments to choose the most convenient login method. When entering the password/verification code, 22-chan and 33-chan will cover their eyes, which shows that the company attaches great importance to the user's personal privacy. It is a very cute and bright design.

In terms of page design, important buttons are placed on the upper right side of the screen, allowing users to complete most operations with their right hand.

Login interface Image source: some from the Internet

1.4.1.3 Content display interface

The content display interface adopts a modular grid layout, displaying content in the form of pictures + text. The top of the display page is a sliding information display box/classification information entrance, and the bottom is recommended information/ranking information/subscription information. This arrangement makes the page prominent and well-structured and makes full use of the display space.

The layout of different types of information is also different.

• For recommended information, unlike the single-column immersive display method of the short video platform Douyin, the display interface of Bilibili adopts double columns, which improves the personalization and richness of the content. The presentation form of pictures + text is conducive to the personalization of accounts and enhances the trust between content consumers and producers.
• For ranking information, since all of them are high-quality content certified by the entire site, more space is allocated than for recommended content, which increases the user's click-through rate and the average time that users stay on each piece of information is longer;
• For subscription information, considering that users will be more interested in such content, a single column format is adopted, and the height of the display module is also increased, so that more detailed information can be displayed, and it is automatically played by default;

In summary, the interface setting gives different information different display areas according to the probability of user interest, recommended information < ranking information < subscription information, thereby affecting the user's stay time on unit information and improving user stickiness.

Content display interface Image source: self-made

1.4.1.4 Playback Interface

The playback interface includes three modules: video content, video information and related recommendations.

• Video content: including pause, progress bar, full screen, floating window, screen casting, and sending barrage, which are some basic operations on the video;
• Video information: In addition to the video title, up-host information, and video sub-information, the interactive information is very obvious (follow, like, coin, favorite, forward), encouraging users who watch the video to actively participate in the interaction. The above interaction is an interaction between users and up masters that can be easily carried out when the user video is playing. After the video ends, swiping right to the comment area allows further in-depth interaction between users and users and users and up masters. Comments are sorted by popularity and time, and wonderful replies are displayed under hot comments.
• Related recommendations: Recommend videos related to the current content. When users swipe down to view recommended content, the video information will be collapsed but the video content itself will not, making it convenient for users to view content of interest while watching the video.

When playing in full screen, in order to give users an immersive experience, the interactive buttons and recommended information of the video are arranged in the full screen, and users do not need to exit the full screen mode to interact and view related content.

Playback interface Image source: Homemade

1.4.1.5 My & Personal Homepage

My page contains four modules: personal basic information, creation center, recommended services and more services. The information is displayed using vector icons + text. The frequency of use decreases from top to bottom, which is in line with usage habits. In the personal basic information module, the "My VIP" entrance is large and obvious, guiding users to make value-added consumption.

The personal homepage includes personal information and several modules such as homepage, dynamics, submissions, and favorites. In terms of the functions of several modules, the homepage includes dynamics, submissions, following shows, and favorites. Dynamics includes submissions. I personally think that the logical relationship is not particularly clear, and individuals will be confused about the functions of each part when using the software.

My & Personal Homepage Image Source: Homemade

1.4.2 Navigation Design

Contains content navigation and function navigation.

Functional navigation has been explained in the interface design:

In terms of content navigation, it is mainly arranged at the bottom and top of the page. The tag at the bottom is the first-level navigation, which is switched by clicking, and the tag at the top is the second-level navigation, which is switched by sliding left and right. Such interactive design is conducive to the clear organization of information hierarchy.

In addition, the entrances to games and messages are arranged in the upper right corner. The messages and the user avatar in the upper left corner are personal information. The game entrance is arranged on the homepage. The author speculates that this may be because this is an important profit module of Bilibili that needs to be displayed in an important position in the form of a shallow entrance, but it belongs to two different categories from the main UGC/PUGC video content, and it is not convenient to include it in the tags at all levels below.

Function navigation page Image source: Homemade

1.4.3 Information Design

Contains content information and error information, where the content information has been explained in the content display interface.

Error messages including loading failure and no search results are displayed using the cute cartoon images of 22niang and 33niang respectively. The cute images help alleviate users' "Internet disconnection anxiety." A refresh button is added to the loading failure page to reduce the user's reloading operation process.

Error message page Image source: Homemade

1.5 Presentation Layer

Content-based pages are compact and substantial: they use a modular grid layout to display information in the form of pictures + text, with different information clearly prioritized and the layout compact and substantial.

Functional pages are concise and beautiful: pink/colorful logo and plenty of white space give users a concise and beautiful sensory experience.

The overall visual style is consistent: the visual experience of product icons, fonts, color schemes and other elements maintains a lively two-dimensional style, which meets the visual needs of two-dimensional culture enthusiasts.

2. Functional Optimization

The following table summarizes all the product improvement plans proposed through user surveys of product pain points in 14 product reports about Bilibili on the website "Everyone is a Product Manager". A functional evaluation is given by comprehensively considering the functional value and development difficulty.

Among them, the function that received the most suggestions for improvement was the playback function. The main suggestions for improvement included the setting of "long video playback nodes", the improvement of the "watch later" function, the "comment area" class representative function, etc. Among them, the "long video playback node" function has been improved in version 6.12.0.

Video playback node Image source: Screenshot

The second is the partition and channel function. During my daily use and investigation, I also found that this function is not well used by users. At the same time, I personally feel that the channel function also has problems such as unreasonable and unsightly layout, poor arrangement logic, etc. Improvements have been made in version 6.12.0 to optimize the channel function entrance.

Channel function entrance optimization Image source: self-made

In addition, functions such as fan groups and interest circles were also mentioned repeatedly. It is noted that the interest circle function was launched in version 4.8.10 at the end of 2015. The product form was similar to Baidu Tieba, but the function was removed at the end of 2017.

Through investigation, we concluded that the possible reasons for the delisting include:

• Poor management: Piracy is rampant in the community, zombie fans, online trolls, and veteran users are rampant, and the community atmosphere is poor.
• Unreasonable product design: In early versions, posts could not be modified, circles could not be opened outside the client, and connectivity to the outside world was extremely low.
• Product traffic was not enough: Tieba's success was based on the high traffic and high usage frequency of Baidu search engine, but Bilibili did not have these conditions at that time;
• Overlaps with the comment section function.

The emergence of the interest circle function reflects Bilibili’s ambition in the community field, but it is bound to cost a huge amount of money to manage a community of this size. Whether it is necessary to launch corresponding functions in the next stage requires careful consideration.

(Front) Screenshot of the interest circle interface Image source: self-made

The same-city function is currently being tested in version 6.12.0, which makes it hard not to think of Kuaishou's same-city function. In the same city function, people will not pay much attention to the content of the top up-masters, but will focus more on the lives of ordinary people. The content is more authentic and is conducive to the cultivation of a long-tail interest ecosystem.

Secondly, this function is conducive to expanding the sinking market and becoming a local service portal. Modules such as recruitment, real estate and used cars are prioritized by Kuaishou, paving the way for Kuaishou to monetize. However, it should be noted that Kuaishou’s high regional penetration rate gives it a user base for developing local services. Whether Bilibili has this capability requires comprehensive analysis.

Screenshot of the local interface Image source: self-made

3. An unrepeatable community atmosphere

What is a community? First, we need to clarify the three concepts of community, social networking and media.

• Media: People – Content
• Social: People - People
• Community: People - Content - People

It is undeniable that compared with other platforms, Bilibili has high user loyalty, high stickiness, and a good community atmosphere. How does Bilibili do it?

3.1 Reasonable mechanism construction

In the closed loop of creators-creative content-consumers-creators, Bilibili has established many mechanisms worth learning from.

• Creators-Creative Content - Bilibili has established/is establishing a series of decentralized creation incentive mechanisms, including charging, creation traffic incentives and some single incentive plans, to encourage creators to produce high-quality content. In addition, Bilibili has also adopted a very tolerant attitude towards the commercialization of up-masters.
• Creator Content - Consumer - The recommendation algorithm of Bilibili's recommendation page recommends content of interest based on consumers' personal preferences. Refine the partitions, do a good job in content stratification, and establish partitions and channels to achieve more accurate content distribution.
• Consumer-Consumer - Bilibili is the only mainstream video website that requires users to answer questions to become formal members, which is a round of screening for high-quality users. In addition, we have established reporting and black room mechanisms to ensure a healthy atmosphere in the community.
• Consumers and creators - a reasonable feedback mechanism has been established between the two, including barrage, triple-link, charging, comments, etc. A healthy feedback and interaction model helps increase consumers’ connection with creators, while also further motivating creators’ creative enthusiasm.

Image source: Homemade

A good social atmosphere provides users with a good product experience. Because users invest energy, emotions, and time in the community, they produce comments, moods, and videos, which will be converted into the cost of user migration. Yu Jun proposed in Product Methodology that products are the medium for value exchange between enterprises and users, including:

User value = (new experience - old experience) - replacement cost

Bilibili has achieved high user experience and high replacement cost for migrating to other products, which further consolidates its own user value.

3.2 Robust expansion strategy

The development of community products can be simply divided into three stages according to the community scale: 0-10 cold start period, 10-100 ecological construction period, and 100-10000 expansion period.

3.2.1 0-10 Cold Start Period

"As a content-focused product, the core KPI of a community product during the cold start phase of 0-10 is to produce enough high-quality content that meets the product's positioning and build the product's first moat."

In the early days, as a video website for AGC content creation and sharing, Bilibili accumulated reputation and popularity in the two-dimensional community, which became the first moat of the product.

3.2.2 10-100 Ecosystem Construction Period

"The focus of this stage is to educate users subtly, so that they can gradually understand the rules and boundaries of the community during use, that is, which behaviors are encouraged here, which behaviors are not encouraged, which behaviors are irrelevant, and which behaviors must be prohibited."

For producers, Bilibili encourages them to produce high-quality content. It launched the "bilibili Creation Incentive Plan" in January 2018 and has upgraded the incentive plan many times since then.

Image source: bilibili official

For consumers, on the one hand, Bilibili has designed a variety of interactive methods such as barrage, comments, and likes to encourage user interaction; on the other hand, it has clarified the bottom line of the rules, set a threshold for formal members to answer questions, and began to update the "Discipline Committee Weekly Report" and "Little Black Room Weekly Report" at the end of 2017 to crack down on non-compliant behavior.

Image source: bilibili official

3.2.3 100-10000 Expansion Period

"This stage is a period of rapid product expansion. With the joint efforts of product mechanisms and operators, the content ecosystem is basically formed. It begins to enter the growth stage. The most important thing at this stage is to adjust the conflicts between new and old users."

The boundary between new users and old users is the established cognition of the community’s content and basic positioning. The influx of a large number of new users in a short period of time may cause serious damage to the original content ecology of the product. In this regard, Bilibili has adopted a cautious rhythm of product growth and commercialization to educate new users. While younger users join and become the representatives of young trends, detailed divisions and content stratification should be done to reduce conflicts among users of different age groups.

IV. Conclusion

"The world is yours, as well as ours, but ultimately it is yours. You young people are full of vigor and vitality and are in your prime, like the sun at eight or nine o'clock in the morning. Our hopes rest on you." - Mao Zedong

Whoever wins the young people wins the world. As a community where young people gather and are loved by young people, Bilibili has a bright future. However, as young people continue to grow, their needs will change. A major challenge for Bilibili is how to adapt to this change and grow together with its users. In addition, how to coordinate the conflicts between new and old users and monetize the product while maintaining word-of-mouth is also a problem we face at this stage.

Author: Si Niang is the best 🎊

Source: Si Niang is the best 🎊