Analysis of B station product operations!

From a UGC video platform that started out in the two-dimensional world to a cultural community and comprehensive video platform where China's younger generation is highly concentrated, Bilibili is galloping on the road to breaking out of its circle, with flowers, applause, abuse and doubts flying all the way. The yellow sand road is as hard as iron, and I will cross it from the beginning to the small broken station.

This article will provide a comprehensive analysis of Bilibili’s current situation and future development.

This article will analyze from the following aspects:

1. Product function structure
2. Competitive product analysis
3. User Analysis
4. User research
5. Functional optimization
6. Summarize

1. Product Function Structure

Product Architecture

2. Competitive Product Analysis

2.1 Market Positioning

According to the second quarter 2020 financial report released by Bilibili, Bilibili had an average of 172 million monthly active users, 153 million monthly active users on mobile terminals, and users aged 18 to 35 accounted for 78%. What does this represent? The backbone of future society and the main force of young people in current society are all on Bilibili, or in other words, are flocking to Bilibili.

And I am one of them.

Bilibili (English name: bilibili, referred to as B station) is now a cultural community and video platform with a high concentration of China's younger generation. It was founded in 2009 and is affectionately called "Little Broken Station" by fans. Bilibili started out with ACG content and has now developed into a comprehensive original video platform. Compared with other mainstream video platforms in China such as Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video, due to its unique barrage culture, PUGC method, and ad-free video playback, Bilibili has a group of highly sticky and loyal users.

In June this year, the cover of Bilibili's official website became "All the videos you are interested in are on Bilibili", which also reflects that Bilibili has a clearer idea of ​​its future development direction. On the road of evolving from the niche two-dimensional to the more generalized pan-entertainment, on the one hand, we will continue to deepen the two-dimensional vertical field and enrich our business forms. Bilibili has added interactive businesses derived from the two-dimensional direction, such as live streaming, e-commerce, and games, and has expanded from videos to other content forms such as comics and column texts, deepening the construction of its two-dimensional community. In the vertical field of domestic two-dimensional community, Bilibili has basically secured the top spot.

On the other hand, we continue to expand community content and expand content boundaries. Previously, Bilibili’s prospectus indicated that animation content currently ranks only fifth in terms of quantity, with entertainment, lifestyle, and ghost animal content ranking at the top. At the same time, Bilibili has not stopped its exploration of PGC, purchasing and producing copyrights of movies, TV series, variety shows, documentaries, etc.

2.2 Competitive Product Analysis

Bilibili started out as a single ACG video site, but as its business expanded, it has now become a leader in the two-dimensional vertical field, with an industry monopoly rate of 87.3% (data source: Analysys Qianfan), far ahead of other products such as First Bullet, AcFun, and Fuciyuan.

In 2019, the fierce competition in the short video field and the rapidly rising UGC video platform Xigua Video suddenly made us notice that Bilibili and Xigua, which have both long, medium and short content and UPGC genes, both want to become the Chinese YouTube. Later, as it gradually developed in a comprehensive direction, various fields such as movies, live broadcasts, variety shows, etc. were joined in. In the long video track, it was inevitable to encounter the three traditional video giants - Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent Video.

Therefore, Bilibili’s main competitors are: Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku Video, and Xigua Video.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

2.2.1 Business Distribution

The above table summarizes the business distribution of Bilibili and its competitors. It can be seen that: Core business: Video: The three giants that cannot be avoided in the mainstream track. Bilibili’s investment in Huanshi Media has caused many speculations in the industry. This is the first time that Bilibili has invested in a film and television company after breaking out of its circle, which means that it has started a battle for top content with companies such as iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video and ByteDance.

The three mainstream video websites, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku, have a very high degree of business overlap, but each has its own differentiation.

iQiyi’s brand tone and content strategy positioning are very clear, focusing on youth and fashion. Conduct in-depth research centered on IP and expand the periphery of IP. With the launch of many popular online variety shows and self-produced dramas, iQiyi has gradually revealed its trend of gradually developing into the entertainment industry chain.

Youku is an old website that survived from the earliest batch of video websites, so the old brand has accumulated many users. In terms of product functions, Youku Video focuses on UGC platform, user personalized subscriptions, and many live broadcast resources. By connecting Alibaba's system data, Youku can obtain richer and more accurate user portraits, thereby conducting membership and content operations more accurately.

Tencent Video, backed by Tencent's powerful social relationship chain, has a super traffic platform, video connections on the WeChat public platform, various short video resources uploaded by users, news pop-ups and other advantages that other video websites do not have. At the same time, Tencent fully leverages its powerful social genes to create a better social interaction experience through functions such as barrage, friends, fan derivatives, screenshots, and captured short videos.

But in fact, users’ loyalty to video websites is very poor. Whether it is iQiyi, Youku or Tencent, they are just channels and are not responsible for production. Users will care whether the movie is starred by Deng Chao and Zhao Liying, and directed by Han Han, but they will not care where they saw it.

Compared with these mainstream websites, Bilibili’s advantage is brand loyalty. Compared with other websites, Bilibili's user loyalty is extremely high. In other words, no one will proudly say that they are an iQiyi user, but you can see many people on the Internet saying that they are from Bilibili, just like fellow villagers meeting each other. Many old users even call themselves "spiritual shareholders" of Bilibili. This is the special stickiness and trust of users. Just like what someone said on Zhihu, "I go to Bilibili not because there are many resources there, but because I know that although there may be few resources there, they are all what I like to watch.

Data source: QuestMobile GROWTH user portrait tag database, 2019,6

Video: The offensive and defensive battle between Bilibili and Toutiao The short video field has become a red ocean. Douyin has nearly 400 million daily active users, and Kuaishou has around 300 million daily active users. There is not much room for improvement in the market capacity. At the same time, fierce competition in the field of medium and long videos has just begun. The number of users of Bilibili and Xigua Video is less than 200 million, and there is great growth potential.

Bilibili is stronger in community atmosphere and content operation, while Xigua Video relies on Toutiao's strong commercial monetization capabilities to attract content producers. Xigua’s poaching of Up masters from Bilibili is one of its moves in content layout. In the past few years, it has been building a content ecosystem through purchasing. In the long video field, it has launched movies such as "Lost in Russia" and "The Big Winner" and set up a special section for Hollywood movies. In terms of dramas, we purchased traditional dramas such as "One Meter of Sunshine". Documentary channel, Xigua Video has reached cooperation with BBC studio and Discovery. The animation channel launched the most-watched cartoon on YouTube, "Masha and the Bear", and exclusively purchased the copyright of the animated film "Infinity".

It can be said that Xigua Video has made strategic positioning in the fields of animation and documentary, which are the areas where Bilibili excels. In addition, Xigua Video is also trying to produce its own variety shows and documentaries. At present, Xigua’s influence is far less than that of Bilibili, but capital is a very important variable in commercial competition. Toutiao has sufficient capital support, and Xigua also has Douyin to divert traffic.

Video websites are also breaking new ground in content formats. In its latest 9.0 version, Youku highlights short videos and amplifies its interactive community attributes. iQiyi is also planning to create "China's YouTube" Suike.

It is not difficult to find that Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video are testing the waters of community and PUGC content, which is precisely the advantage area of ​​Bilibili and Xigua Video. For example, although Xigua Video is focusing on long videos, in the earliest days, food bloggers such as Wang Gang and Huanong Brothers also emerged from its platform, and many Douyin celebrities also use Xigua as a major content channel.

As for long videos, Bilibili is also making efforts, introducing genuine movies such as "Harry Potter" and "The Godfather" one after another, and its self-produced documentary "A String of Life" has been well received. Obviously, Bilibili, Xigua Video, Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video are all entering each other. With mutual expansion and overlap, Bilibili, Youku, iQiyi and Xigua Video will all meet unexpectedly.

Branch business layout: Live broadcast: Bilibili’s live broadcast also complies with its “breaking the circle” strategy. From the end of last year to now, Bilibili has not only spent a large amount of money to purchase the copyright of the "League of Legends" event and signed the anchor Feng Timo for a large price, but also welcomed a new live broadcast business team, and is also developing live broadcast content such as music and education. Bilibili, which started with two-dimensional culture, is gradually tearing off its original label, while live streaming is growing on the basis of the original content form.

Bilibili is focusing on live streaming because, on the one hand, it is one of the fastest growing businesses in Bilibili's revenue, and the live streaming business has maintained a year-on-year growth of about 100%; on the other hand, the live streaming business can acquire user traffic at a faster speed.

But in the field of live streaming, under the pressure of giants, what advantages does Bilibili have?

• First, Bilibili’s live broadcasts are diverse in form. Because there are so many video up-loaders specializing in various sub-fields, they use a wide variety of live broadcast content and formats when doing live broadcasts, such as audio broadcasts, virtual live broadcasts, learning live broadcasts, etc.
• Second, Bilibili has high user loyalty. At Bilibili, creative creators, a large and loyal user base, and high-quality content form a virtuous cycle of the trinity. It is able to maintain the core element of content innovation, has been attracting young users to the site, and maintains this spontaneously formed atmosphere through community operations. It has user loyalty that is difficult for ordinary video sites to achieve.

Bilibili’s live broadcast and value-added service revenue (billion yuan) Bilibili’s net revenue from live broadcast and value-added services in the third quarter was 452 million yuan, which is its second largest main source of revenue.

From the net income of 119 million yuan in the second quarter of 2018, it has grown 3.82 times in just over a year, which is an astonishing development speed. Although Chen Rui believes that the live streaming market has become a red ocean, there is still a lot of room for growth for Bilibili. With the continuous production of content in different fields by UP hosts at Bilibili, the live broadcast section of Bilibili has shown an endogenous development model. Compared with other live broadcast websites, Bilibili can meet its development needs by converting its large number of two-dimensional customers, not to mention the continuous influx of powerful peripheral traffic. The original content is based on real experience, with 90% of the content being useful information, and users have a relatively high level of trust in it.

game:

The two-dimensional world and its vertical content areas are the foundation of Bilibili, and the cash flow generated by related games is also an important condition for maintaining Bilibili's early operations. In 2016, it won the Chinese version of "F/GO", which once generated about 70% of the revenue for the main site, which was an unexpected surprise for Bilibili. According to data from Q4 2018, the two games "Azur Lane" and "Ark Command" that were represented by Bilibili at the same time had a cumulative turnover of 24.77 million, while the turnover of "FGO" alone exceeded 200 million yuan.

But it has to be said that in the gaming field, Bilibili is too random. The two games "Fate: Grand Order" (FGO) and "Azur Lane" account for about 85% of its gaming revenue, and its dependence on a single product is too high. Major gaming companies such as Tencent and NetEase have already formed a game matrix that combines heavy, medium, and light games to meet the needs of different players, from "99-level players to those who just learned to walk." Moreover, both of them integrate R&D, operation and agency, so it is not easy for Bilibili to get a share of the pie through joint operations and other forms.

E-commerce:

Bilibili has been experimenting with the e-commerce sector, and as early as July 2017, it launched "Member Purchase", which had successful conversion cases. The data speaks for itself. In the second quarter of 2018, the net income from e-commerce and others was 21 million yuan, which was a clear shortcoming among the four sectors. However, after 28 million in the third quarter of 2018, 96 million in the first quarter of 2019, 124 million in the second quarter, and 226 million in the third quarter, there has been a 10.74-fold increase. Although the base is relatively low, the development speed is still quite amazing, and it can be said that there has been a breakthrough in revenue.

Thanks to its core advantage of strong social attributes, Bilibili can achieve a higher conversion rate. UP hosts use their online appeal and influence to convert fans accumulated on social platforms into product consumers, and convert fans' trust in them into recognition of products or brands, thereby achieving consumption conversion.

Moreover, in terms of e-commerce sales, Bilibili has launched an e-commerce mini-program function, and at the same time has connected to third-party platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com through invitational advertising, opening up the commercialization link and accelerating content monetization.

In the future, the live streaming and e-commerce combined marketing plan that converts business to e-commerce platforms after conducting grass-roots marketing on Bilibili will become more and more mature.

educate:

According to data from market research firm iMedia Research, the number of paid knowledge users in China reached 292 million in 2018 and is expected to increase to 387 million by the end of 2019. According to industry data provider Zhiyan Consulting, the size of China's paid knowledge market will reach RMB 23.5 billion in 2020, a 172% increase from RMB 8.6 billion in 2018.

iQiyi is the first video website in China to launch paid membership, and also the first video website to start paying for knowledge. The logic behind Youku and Tencent Video’s layout in the knowledge payment field is similar to that of iQiyi - actively expanding the platform’s content ecology, attracting users, and promoting diversified revenue. Video platforms represented by iQiyi not only have a huge user base, but also have strong payment capabilities. This provides a natural breeding ground for paid knowledge content. Such an ecosystem enables iQiyi's knowledge content to reach more users through diverse distribution and marketing channels. Similarly, Youku Video is an important part of Alibaba's entertainment matrix, and Tencent Video is the backbone of video content in Tencent's full-platform content system. The ecosystem of the large platforms behind them can also empower knowledge payment.

Among these video players, Bilibili, which has just "joined the competition", is a little special. As the "two-dimensional holy land" for young people, its knowledge payment gene is even stronger than that of iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video.

"I study at Bilibili" is not a joke. Bilibili released a set of data in April this year, "Nearly 20 million people studied on Bilibili in the past year, which is twice the number of college entrance examination candidates in 2018." Bilibili's user base is young and well-educated, and they have a strong desire to learn and grow, which has sown the seeds for Bilibili to deepen its presence in the field of education.

Esports:

The future growth of China's e-sports market will mainly come from the e-sports ecosystem market. It is estimated that by 2020, China's e-sports ecosystem will account for 27.8% of China's e-sports market share, reaching 37.5 billion (iResearch, 2019 China E-sports Industry Research Report).

E-sports still has a large market share in China, and top events on major live streaming platforms are very scarce. With domestic teams winning consecutive championships in the League of Legends S8 and S9 seasons, the national enthusiasm for the League of Legends S League is increasing. Taking the viewing data of S9 as an example, the cumulative number of viewers for the live broadcast reached 130 million, with the highest number for a single game reaching 25.92 million. What Bilibili is eyeing is the rising national enthusiasm and the huge user traffic that comes with it.

After purchasing the exclusive copyright, Bilibili has gained all the benefits of the exclusive broadcasting rights of the S League. In addition to official live broadcasts, Bilibili can also serve as a second studio to attract users' attention, and can also hold online and offline operational activities to attract more accurate users to Bilibili.

Currently, Bilibili has more than 21 million game videos, making it one of the largest game video platforms in China. As a derivative content of competitive games, e-sports has gradually become an important part of Bilibili's content ecology. Whether it is e-sports events or secondary creations based on e-sports events and characters, they are showing a rapid growth trend on Bilibili. This year, the peak popularity of S9’s live broadcast on Bilibili reached 190 million.

When competing with other game live streaming platforms in the industry, Bilibili has its own unique advantages: a large young group and a very high proportion of active mobile users.

Business structure: Commercialization: Bilibili has a very good development prospect, and its four main revenue segments: mobile games, live broadcasting and value-added services, advertising and e-commerce and others, are growing in revenue every month. The continued growth of all four sections shows that Bilibili has made good plans for the space and development direction of each section, and each section is able to operate smoothly according to its development direction.

The operations of Bilibili's four main revenue segments are gradually getting back on track.

Xiaohongshu was launched in 2013, but from a commercial perspective, in terms of revenue or user scale, Bilibili is still unable to catch up with video platforms such as Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Kuaishou, and is even on par with Xigua Video. Official data shows that as of July last year, Xigua Video had 131 million monthly active users, while (Q2 2019) Bilibili had 110 million monthly active users. By the first quarter of this year, Bilibili's monthly active users had grown to 172 million. Data from Bidachun Consulting shows that Xigua Video's MAU in March this year was 187 million. Whether Bilibili can make a profit depends on whether the UP hosts themselves can be valued by advertisers. Perhaps this has something to do with the lack of strength of Bilibili itself. In contrast, Toutiao platforms, represented by Xigua Video, appear to be more wealthy by "burning money" to help UP hosts commercialize. After all, Toutiao’s parent company ByteDance had revenue of more than US$17 billion and net profit of more than US$3 billion last year. With the support of massive amounts of funds, Toutiao platforms such as Xigua Video can do whatever they want. In June this year, Xigua Video launched the "Movable Type Plan", providing 100 million yuan in cash and 100 million yuan in traffic to help creators turn text into "living" videos.

Long videos are the only way to attract users to pay and increase the revenue of video platforms. On July 8 this year, the State Administration of Radio and Television released the "2019 National Radio and Television Industry Statistical Bulletin". The communiqué mentioned that in 2019, the number of paid online audio-visual users reached 547 million, a significant increase compared to 347 million in 2018. These massive paying users play an irreplaceable role and can contribute indispensable revenue to the video platform.

Currently, video websites mainly rely on content copyright to compete for users. This is also the business model of several mainstream video websites in China, advertising + purchasing membership.

Compared with competitors such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xigua Video, Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video, Bilibili, which has a small user base, must inevitably invest high marketing costs to drive user expansion. B station CFO Fan Xin previously mentioned that "user growth is the top priority of this year's business and the cornerstone of commercialization improvement."

2.2.2 Development History

Station B:

As an important early two-dimensional community, Bilibili's initial content was mostly animation dramas, and its target users were mainly two-dimensional users. Later, ACG culture gradually integrated into the mainstream, and a large number of pan-two-dimensional and non-two-dimensional users such as Cosplay enthusiasts emerged. They are different from the early users, but the same thing is that they represent the spiritual demands of the younger generation and the development direction of public opinion trends.

It is precisely because of the input of these diverse users that the number of video content sections on Bilibili has gradually increased, with popular products appearing in the digital, documentary, and music directions. The scope of the community has gradually expanded, and the number of Bilibili users and the accumulation of PUGC video content have also ushered in explosive growth. Bilibili has finally become popular.

When Bilibili went public on the Nasdaq in 2018, it wrote in its prospectus: We began as a content community inspired by animation, comics, and games (ACG), and have now grown into a full-scale online entertainment world covering a wide variety of genres and media formats, including video, live streaming, and mobile games. We have now become a home for people of different cultures and interests, and a destination for the younger generation in China to discover cultural trends and phenomena.

Watermelon Video:

Every successful product of ByteDance has more or less the shadow of lightning-fast expansion. Toutiao and Douyin have almost all achieved rapid scale by sparing no effort to buy traffic and expand. This led to a major characteristic of ByteDance products, namely, the preferred way to enter any new track was to spend money.

The same is true for Xigua Video. After being spun off from Toutiao in May 2016, ByteDance identified the PGC+UGC short video track for Xigua Video. In September of the same year, it announced an investment of 1 billion to support creative works. One year later, the DAU of Xigua Video exceeded 10 million.

In August 2018, Xigua Video announced that it would fully enter the field of self-produced variety shows, investing 4 billion yuan in the next year to create a mobile native variety show IP in an "all-in" state. Subsequently, Xigua Video entered the micro-variety show IP stage. In 2018 and 2019, Xigua Video launched a total of 14 micro variety shows. In 2019, Xigua Video also obtained an OTT license through Wasu and began to enter the big-screen market. While supporting the long-video front, Xigua Video has also adjusted its brand positioning and released a new positioning as “a comprehensive video platform that aggregates diverse cultures.”

YouTube has a mature revenue-sharing mechanism. Backed by the giant Google, it can distribute 55% of advertising revenue to creators, so that creators can focus more on content creation. From this perspective, Xigua Video focuses on free viewing, algorithm recommendations, and information flow advertising, which is almost a complete replica of YouTube's model.

The difference between Bilibili and Xigua Video is that the barriers built by "culture" and "community" have a strong stickiness to short videos. Bilibili has only recently broken out of its circle, and its focus on the commercialization of UP hosts is still in its infancy. If the platform does not make major decision-making mistakes, it is highly likely that UP hosts will not have to worry too much about making a living in the future. In contrast, Xigua Video is currently eager to achieve success in terms of creators and content ecology. The high-priced poaching of talents from Bilibili reflects the lack of content in Xigua Video. Although Xigua Video has tried hard to promote some well-known creators, so far none of them has succeeded in breaking the circle in terms of influence. It is still difficult to determine the final winner in the battle between Xigua Video and Bilibili at the moment. Both have their own advantages, and the competition between models requires time and market verification.

IQIYI:

After a period of extensive growth in the early 21st century that encouraged UGC production and uploading and focused on quantity rather than quality, video platforms reached a new turning point around 2010.

In the battle for long video content, the companies mentioned more often at that time were Youku, Tudou, Sohu, Xunlei, Ku6, LeTV, etc. This year, iQiyi entered the video content market as a latecomer.

CEO Gong Yu focuses on the purchase of genuine long-form video content, including five categories: movies, TV series, programs, documentaries, and animation. iQiyi focuses on building the basic infrastructure of content, websites, technology, broadband, and teams, and survives in a low-key manner.

In terms of content, iQiyi purchases high-quality external content. From the end of 2013 to 2014, it successively won the exclusive online copyrights of "Happy Camp", "Day Day Up" and "Running Man". Secondly, it produces its own content, including self-produced dramas and self-produced variety shows. The first season of the phenomenal program "U Can U Bibi" became the highest-profile Internet variety show at the time with a sponsorship fee of 50 million yuan.

Being a member is more difficult than creating content. From 2.19 million members at the end of 2014 to over 100 million members on June 22, 2019, it took iQiyi less than five years to go from being an unpopular platform to becoming the first platform in a single country to have over 100 million paying members.

iQIYI has successfully accumulated users, from adapting to the market to leading trends, and has truly become one of the industry leaders.

YouTube:

As one of the "Big Three", Youku has a brilliant development history.

In 2010, Youku became the world's first video website to be listed in the United States; in 2012, Youku and Tudou announced their merger, with a market share of over 40%, making it impossible for iQiyi and Tencent Video to recover in the video industry. It was not until 2014 that the country began to rectify copyright issues. With a large number of movies and TV series removed from video websites, iQiyi and Tencent Video finally had opportunities for development.

Compared with the big moves made by iQiyi and Tencent Video, Youku's response is like that of a slow old man. While the other two companies were vigorously developing membership users, Youku actually excluded membership from its development focus. In terms of copyright, Youku vigorously promotes user-generated content and imitates Youtube to create a UGC platform belonging to China. However, in 2015, the mobile Internet was still in the graphic and text era, people were unfamiliar with UGC content and lacked experience in producing content independently. This resulted in a decline in the quality of Youku content and a loss of users.

It is precisely because of the introduction of film and television works by iQiyi and Tencent Video after the copyright regulations that they surpassed Youku and officially entered the era of "three-legged race". Being at a disadvantage, Youku has also been constantly adjusting, including starting to focus on its former UGC business. In June last year, Youku announced a major revision of its APP. Its "Discover" module was changed to "Dynamics", and UGC content such as short videos returned to the homepage. Unfortunately, in today's UGC market, whether it is Douyin and Kuaishou in the short video field, or Bilibili and Xigua Video in the long video field, they have all become new giants, and Youku's UGC prospects are even more unpredictable.

Tencent:

As an online video platform, Tencent Video was launched in April 2011, later than the other two video websites. As a video platform that debuted late, in order to compete for users and market share, Tencent Video had to invest heavily in film and television copyrights so that it could "catch up as a latecomer." It was a pleasure to purchase the copyright in the early stage, and of course the goal of user growth was achieved for a while. Later, this also became one of the reasons why Tencent Video could not make a profit. In 2019, the number of Tencent Video's paid members increased to 106 million, and the full-year operating loss of the video business was reduced to 3 billion yuan.

In order to reverse losses, self-made content has begun to become a new trend for major video websites. Tencent Video also has problems with few hit original series and lack of classic IPs. In September 2015, Tencent announced the establishment of "Penguin Pictures" and invited well-known producers to jointly develop online dramas. At the same time, Tencent Video has also introduced a large number of phenomenal American TV series such as "Game of Thrones". Baidu Search and WeChat/QQ continue to drive traffic to their own video websites, and through the membership model, they have quickly accumulated a large number of deep users.

With the further strengthening of the voice of online platforms and the changes in user consumption habits, the ectopic effect of TV and Internet influence is becoming more and more obvious. Online platforms are becoming the mainstream channel for users to watch TV series, and the ability of Internet social platforms to ferment topics surrounding TV series has also been further enhanced. Today, when the traffic + advertising model no longer accounts for the majority of video website revenue, how to integrate C-end service thinking into toB business, and how to seize the C-end's growing high-value demand and provide more circle-based and targeted services will be the next focus of video websites.

2.2.3 Data Performance

The above chart gives the data analysis of Bilibili and its competitors (data source: iResearch Qianfan, data time February 2020). It can be seen that the number of active users of Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video are higher than that of Bilibili. The reasons may be: Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video have a wide content coverage and are aimed at netizens across the country. The content of Bilibili is a relatively vertical community, and its main users are young people, so it is indeed difficult to compare with Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video, which have high national popularity, in terms of user coverage.

Compared to Bilibili, which started out as a two-dimensional video site, Xigua Video naturally has a wider audience and more diverse content, and is backed by ByteDance's traffic support. These four companies are capable of providing pan-entertainment services to Internet users across China, and their theoretical target users vary in magnitude.

Average number of startups and usage time per person:

Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video mainly focus on long videos, which have longer playback time than short videos. In addition, there are many episodes, so users need to open them multiple times to watch them all. These characteristics lead to Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video users launching them frequently and using them for a long time. Xigua's recommendation algorithm is more similar to TikTok, and is more friendly to users who have nothing to do and just want to use an App for leisure and entertainment. It can be regarded as another time-killing tool, and users use it longer per day. However, because the content of Bilibili is more 2D and youthful in style, it may not be very attractive to non-standard users, so they will not be interested in continuous use, which reduces the usage time.

Average monthly usage days per capita:

In terms of user stickiness, Xigua Video has the highest average daily usage time per person, followed by Bilibili, and finally iQiyi and Tencent Video Youku Video. The reasons may be:

The content on Bilibili and Xigua Video is shorter, the threshold for users to open them is low, the content is diverse, and can meet the different needs of users. The excellent usage days of Xigua Video suggest that Xigua Video benefits from ByteDance's excellent recommendation system, which can continuously push video content that meets user needs, and users can easily immerse themselves in the use without realizing it.

Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video users usually open the platform only when they have a clear goal of watching a drama, and they may leave after the video ends. In the absence of the goal of watching dramas, Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video mainly focus on long videos, which will inevitably make users think that it will take a long time. In contrast, users prefer to open Bilibili and Xigua Video, where videos are shorter.

Next month retention rate:

Bilibili’s next-month retention rate is only about 30%, while the other four are all above 60%.

Possible causes:

• The quality of content is uneven, which is also a common problem of the UGC creation model. It is difficult to continuously produce high-quality works.
• The community atmosphere is strong, and it may be difficult for non-standard community users to integrate into it.
• The high user retention rate of Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video indirectly reflects the large number of copyrights of popular dramas.

In recent years, Bilibili's next-month retention rate has been slowly declining. This may be because Bilibili's strategic goal is mainly based on growth, trying to acquire more users, but the overly strong community characteristics and distinctive platform content cannot well satisfy the newly attracted users, thus resulting in a large number of user losses. The user range of the four competing products has been defined.

2.2.4 Summary of advantages and disadvantages

The main reason why bilibili video network can occupy a large amount of traffic when competition among various video websites is fierce is its unique advantages.

Bilibili’s biggest advantage is its product positioning. Its clear positioning as a two-dimensional community quickly attracted popularity and formed a stable user group of a certain size. Bilibili’s biggest disadvantage is also its product positioning. Its specific user group is destined to have difficulty competing with the giants iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video, which are open to the entire Internet. If you want to continue to develop, you have to keep innovating. The various changes brought about by the influx of users from different circles require hard work in operations. The difficulties of commercialization are also a necessary path, and the process of breaking the circle is destined to be painful.

3. User Analysis

3.1 User role map

3.2 User Profile

4. User Research

In terms of content viewing, users mainly watch two-dimensional content and general life UGC videos. With the continuous development of Bilibili's UGC content, users now sometimes regard Bilibili not only as an entertainment software, but also as a learning tool or life tool. Other sections like live broadcast and film and television are not involved much. The reason can be attributed to the fact that these users are not interested in other content through interviews.

In terms of daily usage frequency, these users completely regard the Bilibili app as an integral part of mobile entertainment. They will take it out and play for a while whenever they are free, and the longest period of time they play is during their free time at night. It can be seen that the user stickiness of old users to Bilibili is still very high, while new users are more aware of active searches and will only open Bilibili when necessary, and will not use Bilibili as a daily entertainment option.

From the commercialization perspective, the opening of premium memberships, the sale of peripherals and figures, etc., most of these are evolved based on the anime that users watch, and out of their love for anime, they are very willing to spend money. However, the user experience is not that good. For example, the prices of goods on the platform are generally not reasonable. Considering that most of the users are young, there is a lack of low-priced goods and the product categories are not rich enough.

From the perspective of the user community, Bilibili has a very good user atmosphere. Whether it is between users or between up-hosts and ordinary users, it is very harmonious. At the same time, users will get to know each other through Bilibili and form a circle among users. Their interactions will not be limited to Bilibili. It can be seen that Bilibili has penetrated into the lives of some users. However, from the conversations with users, it can be seen that Bilibili does not provide users with many ways to communicate, mainly through private messages and comments.

In recent years, as Bilibili's influence has grown and its commercialization process has progressed, on the one hand, more and more new friends have entered B Station. Because of B Station's popularity, they are full of expectations for B Station. High expectations are always prone to disappointment. The content pushed on B Station cannot maintain continuous satisfaction and it is difficult to quickly integrate into the mainstream cultural atmosphere of B Station, making it difficult for new users to become dependent on it. On the other hand, the accelerated commercialization process and the influx of a large number of people from different circles made old friends feel uncomfortable. After repeatedly clicking on advertisements by mistake and seeing someone posting fan circle comments on the barrage, they felt that the small broken station had changed.

This means that if Bilibili develops other businesses, there will be more limiting factors. It must consider not only the feelings of its main users, but also factors such as not destroying Bilibili's current atmosphere and user circle.

Therefore, for subsequent optimization, I will consider user retention, basic function optimization, commercialization, business expansion and other aspects, so that new friends can quickly integrate and old friends can have a great time.

5. Product Optimization

Suggested changes:

5.1 Optimal system for new users to send bullet comments

5.1.1 Demand Background

Judging from the big data, Bilibili's user retention rate has been declining year by year, from 70 to 80 percent in 2017 to over 30 percent this year. There may be many reasons for the decline in retention rate. The author found a similar problem while investigating a new user of Bilibili. After registering as an official member of Bilibili, the new user could not send barrage immediately, and there was no clear index. He did not know how to reach the membership level requirements of Bilibili to become a Lv2 member to send barrage. This link dampens users' enthusiasm for joining Bilibili, which may be one of the reasons for the lower retention rate.

The official upgrade guide currently has a long and deep search link, making it difficult for users to find it.

This is the official upgrade guide:

This is the upgrade strategy summarized by netizens online:

From the above, it can be seen that if you do not bind your email address, set up a security code, and complete real-name authentication, it will take about 10 days to upgrade to a second-level member and send barrages. The solution is as follows: Solution 1: Comply with the current account upgrade rules 1. Change the original prompt (current level is not enough, only LVE2 can send barrage) to (you only need to watch 5 videos/watch for 30 minutes, bind your email, set up security, and perform real-name authentication to quickly upgrade)

Modify the current account rules: Simplify the steps (you only need to watch 5 videos/watch for 30 minutes, bind your email address, set up security, and complete real-name authentication to quickly upgrade)

You can become an official member of lve2 and get the privilege of sending barrage:

Option 2:

Comply with the current account upgrade rules, explain the current rules and upgrade steps to users, and provide upgrade guides to help users upgrade quickly.

5.2 Optimization requirements for the must-check sections when entering the site

The "must-see" section upon entering the site brings together the most representative, most played, and most liked treasure videos among B station's UGC videos. It should be known to the majority of B station users, especially new users who are attracted as the circle continues to break out.

The content in the must-have section for entry may be the most efficient way to stimulate user interest, understand the cultural atmosphere of B station, and integrate into the environment of B station more quickly, so it is necessary to optimize this section.

The current arrangement of videos in the must-see section upon entering the site is simply displayed in the form of number of views + number of barrages and a one-sentence summary of achievements. There is a lack of guidance for users to discover more videos of interest in the channel or collection of the video.

The solution is as follows: The videos in the must-watch sections when entering the site are mainly concentrated in the four typical areas of B station: games, ghost animals, music, and animation. Four sets of sliding windows can be set under the module title. The window has five interactive points: click the video cover image in the window to enter the video playback interface (1); click the top three channels in the ranking list to enter the video playback interface (3); click More in the channel to enter the channel interface (1).

Two more tags can be added to the original video introduction: the channel to which the video belongs and the video topic.

By attracting users to enter the channel or the topic through the representative works of each channel, users will be interested in the corresponding channel and better able to discover interesting content.

One more thing to add is that the section that must be viewed upon entering the site is currently hidden quite deep. In order for the section that must be viewed upon entering the site to play its due function, we cannot rely solely on the changes in the internal layout, but should also cooperate with some special effect prompts within the platform. For example: Similar to the 6.0 Android version update, when a new user uses Bilibili for the first time, some animation effects are used to inform the new user that the section that collects Bilibili’s treasure videos is a must-watch upon entering the site, guiding the new user to watch them. In this way, the two measures can be combined to maximize the role of the must-swipe section when entering the site.

5.3 Add the background requirement for the return to homepage function

After watching a video, the user clicks on the recommended video below to watch it. After repeating this several times, if the user wants to return to the homepage, he needs to click back several times again. This function can be optimized by increasing the user usage steps.

The solution is as follows: Swipe up to return directly to the home page. This function can remind users after they click to enter the video playback interface. Frequency: During the first three logins, the pop-up appears each time the user enters the video playback interface.

5.4 Search module optimization

5.4.1 Demand Background

Take the study area as an example:

During the interviews, both old and new users will engage in one activity when on Bilibili - learning. Even in the interviews with two new users, it was found that the most used function was learning. Combined with the macro data, most of Bilibili users are young people aged 18-38. This group of people has a strong desire to learn, so Bilibili still has great development potential in the field of education. However, there are still many shortcomings in the learning process of Bilibili. For example, as we learned in this interview: people are not satisfied with the search results, the courses are not systematic enough, they are scattered and messy, and the quality of courses is uneven. If we can help users reduce the time they spend on screening learning videos and help them find the resources they need quickly and accurately, we can provide users with a better product experience.

The existing mobile search results interface only has a simple video partition, and the subdivisions under the comprehensive partition are only based on the number of views/latest releases/many barrages, playback time, partitions and other categories, which cannot solve the pain point of users needing to find the video that suits them best.

The solution is as follows:

Solution 1: Change "Play more" to "Collect more"

Option 2:

Add tags: more collections, more likes, more coins. If the number of collections exceeds the top three collections of the search results containing the keyword, you can get this tag. The method of using the number of likes and coins is the same as above.

Notice:

• If there are likes on a video, the collections are all shot in the top three similar situations, and the form is added according to the top ranking.
• If you have already been ranked first in a certain item (likes, coins, collections, barrages), and have obtained a label, you will not occupy other rankings and your place will be postponed to the next video.
• If the video occupies the same ranking in other lists, the priority will be deferred according to Collection > Coin > Like > Barrage.

5.5 E-commerce (membership purchase) module optimization

5.5.1 Demand Background

Bilibili's e-commerce business is mainly divided into two parts. One is the member purchase placed at the bottom bar of the APP, and the other is the "products" hidden in the main items of the UP. The former is self-operated by Bilibili, and the latter is considered to be the UP's personal store.

The current sales model of the member purchase module is mainly: direct sales by category + magic reward (blind box) + beautiful pictures (column articles)

The current model is relatively simple, with insufficient product categories, and there is much room for expansion.

The solution is as follows: [New module] Magic Club.

The [Magic Society] module provides users with a richer product display platform, where UP hosts or users can showcase products through videos or column articles. There is also a product link on the video or article display page, and users can directly click to enter the product details page to make a purchase.

Practical Guide

【Practical Guide】

The practical guide module mainly displays relevant content such as video and other content production to users. Provide users with methods and techniques in product display to help users better display products.

It is divided into four small sections: makeup and hair guide, photography techniques, post-production elements, and costume production. Click a module to enter the corresponding channel page.

5.6 Added the "Play with me" module

5.6.1 Demand Background

The gaming market is growing day by day, not only has the live streaming platform risen rapidly in recent years, the potential of the companion gaming market cannot be ignored. Compared with live streaming, the threshold for accompanying play is lower, and with the expansion of user base, various non-game projects such as singing, radio, etc. are also equally popular. E-sports games are becoming more and more popular, with typical representatives such as League of Legends, Honor of Kings, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, etc. The overall market size has reached tens of millions of users. For new players who are trying this type of e-sports game for the first time, the game exploration process is too long and too painful. They hope that there will be experienced players who can help them get started quickly and enjoy the fun of the game quickly. The field of companionship is currently in its early stages of development and has huge market potential.

In addition, with the continuous development of mobile Internet technology, players hope to team up with others anytime and anywhere, find good teammates to cooperate with, and improve their own skills to score points. Driven by such rigid demand and supported by various companionship platforms, the companionship industry has developed rapidly.

The solution is as follows: Accompanying play mode: log in → select accompany play → place an order → communicate → enter the game → end.

The schematic diagram of the accompanying play function module is as follows:

The modular strategy companionship platform itself does not have good stickiness and user loyalty is low. For the "bosses", they will go to the platform with lower prices and better overall experience; for the "companions", they will go to the platform with higher profits and higher subsidies, where the user replacement cost is lower. Once big capital enters, a subsidy war may form.

In this case, the user churn problem can be solved by increasing the user's silent cost curve.

The plan can focus on the two core aspects of "increasing revenue" and "optimizing experience" to reduce user churn rate.

Increase your profits:

The solutions adopted by major platforms in this area are similar, which can be summarized as follows:

• Recharge Offers
• Establish a sign-in mechanism and redeem corresponding gifts
• Sell ​​virtual gifts, such as buying diamonds, etc.
• Expand platform business. On the one hand, it is to expand the types of accompanying play services horizontally and develop in a diversified way; on the other hand, it is to dig deep into the accompanying play market vertically, such as launching tutor teaching business, introducing KOL teaching, and external auxiliary wonderful video live broadcast and recorded broadcast to increase user activity.

Optimized experience:

Each companion gaming platform has launched a user growth system, including a complete membership system with multiple dimensions such as upgrades, conversions, medals, etc. These systems come in various forms and, to a certain extent, motivate user retention, activity, and conversion of user value.

In addition, in order to further expand the platform business. Various companion game companies have tried the following directions: on the one hand, they have expanded the types of companion game services horizontally and developed in a diversified way; on the other hand, they have explored the companion game market vertically, such as developing tutor teaching business, introducing KOL teaching, and increasing user activity.

Entrance 1:

Set up the entrance on the home page and click to enter the companion play interface.

Entry 2: Main page of the [Live] page - tab section.

【front page】

Click on [All Channels] from the home page

Click [Online Strongest] to enter [Rankings]

Click on your travel companion's avatar or other related messages on the homepage to enter the [Travel Companion Page]

【Personal Center】

VI. Conclusion

Now open Bilibili. According to the official introduction, Bilibili is a cultural community where young people gather. From the initial UGC video content platform to today's comprehensive original video platform, it has been deployed in games, live broadcasts, e-commerce and other businesses.

Bilibili no longer emphasizes its two-dimensional attributes. Its label has become youth and it is beginning to reach the general public. Breaking the circle has expanded the possibilities for Bilibili's future, making this content platform in China, which gathers the largest number of young people, full of imagination. The road to breaking the circle is full of thorns, but the new users brought by breaking the circle are fresh water.

As a listed company, both the diversification of revenue and the hope of future profitability are built on a huge user base and a diverse user group. The road to breaking out of the circle is not easy, but since it is the right direction, we must continue. We look forward to the transformation of its business model and innovation of its gameplay. Cheers to Bilibili (゜-゜)つロ~

illustrate:

I am a student and a new product person. I wrote this analysis report after one month of study and experience.

Due to lack of experience, there are inevitably many errors and shortcomings in the article. I hope you can give me more advice so that we can improve together.

During the writing process of this article, I referred to and borrowed the content of the articles written by my predecessors in Everyone is a Product Manager. If I have offended you, please leave a message to let me know in time.

have a nice day!

Author: A Wanderer

Source: I am a traveler