How did Bilibili, which started out as a two-dimensional website, win 130 million active users?

On the Youth Day that just passed, B Station’s “Houlang” dominated the screen and was considered the biggest hot topic of the day. In a short time, "Hou Lang" swept the entire Internet, and the circle of friends was flooded with messages crazily, with more than 30 million people watching it on the entire Internet. At the same time, the United Nations, note that the event jointly organized by the United Nations and Tencent was also drowned out by the screen swiping.

24 hours after the video was released, Bilibili’s market value soared by US$480 million.

With labels such as 2D and ghost animal, Bilibili now has 130 million active users, equivalent to one-tenth of China's population, and the youngest Generation Z (young people born after 1995) accounts for as high as 81.4%.

Since 2017, the 12-month retention rate of Bilibili users has exceeded 80%. With an average daily usage time of 83 minutes per person, it has become the APP with the highest average usage time per person except for mobile games .

Since its listing on Nascar in 2018, Bilibili has continued to gain favor from capital, and Tencent and Alibaba have been investing in Bilibili. In April this year, Sony also provided a strategic investment of US$400 million to Bilibili. Sony's official Weibo account said: "Leveraging its (Bilibili) young core user base and strong online entertainment capabilities, we will promote the further development of Sony's entertainment business."

Today, I will use the theoretical method of super products to comprehensively deconstruct Bilibili, and explore how Bilibili, which started out as a two-dimensional website, has won 130 million active users and achieved 40 million daily active users.

01. As long as users stand on B's side, B will be invincible

The core users of Bilibili are Generation Z, whose outlook on life and consumption are very different from those of the older generation.

First, people are living a more affluent life and are beginning to shift from material consumption to the pursuit of spiritual and cultural pursuits. This is also the reason why the proportion of young people in the current "fan circle" is relatively high.

Second, the Internet has entered every aspect of their lives. The emergence of the Internet enables people with similar interests to communicate, share and transmit information to each other.

Maybe many people don’t know what the second dimension is. The second dimension mainly describes people who like Japanese anime, or characters in games, or people who dress like anime characters. They are all called the second dimension.

"They know what they like and they won't just follow the crowd."

This user group is so special! Bilibili has grasped the core needs of this group of Generation Z users and created a two-dimensional video website for them. This group of 2D users is highly concentrated. They are all relatively young people who are the first batch of people surfing the Internet. They have their own ideas, are more keen to express themselves, and like to share.

This is what is often discussed in super products: find a user group that is as small as possible and explore their needs . The two-dimensional world is indeed a niche industry, but it has a huge Generation Z group. There are not many products that can meet their needs. By transferring high-quality animation series, tuning ghost area and various secondary creations, Bilibili quickly gathered a large number of users in the early days.

Many people don’t understand why Bilibili has 130 million active users and 40 million daily active users.

The answer from Chen Rui, CEO of Bilibili, is: loneliness .

What is Bilibili? Bilibili is not a video website, it is a community where users watch the barrage .

Many people go to Bilibili for the barrage of comments. Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent are just tools for watching videos. You just leave after watching a video. If there is no drama to catch up with, you will have to wait until a sudden urge comes one day to open them again. Bilibili has a three-part series of barrage comments and reposts, which creates the most intense atmosphere for discussion and exchange. Even though other websites now basically have barrage, it is just a function.

"When I have nothing to do, I open Bilibili and watch the comments floating by. It's like many people are watching a video together. Even if there are messy verbal battles, it's better than being alone."

Barrage makes people who watch the video at different times and places feel like they are watching the video together in a cinema and making comments together. In the Zhihu question "What does the barrage on Bilibili mean to you", the answer with the highest number of votes is: partner.

Bilibili is similar to Zhihu, Douban and other platforms. It is an interest community. For example, people who like the second dimension or dancing, these people with different interests and hobbies will spontaneously form circles and then output their own content. Currently, Bilibili has 32 sections, under which there are more than 7,000 large communities with core interest circles.

Bilibili is a large fan club. Users like Bilibili itself rather than celebrities or internet celebrities.

An important sign of whether a community has been formed is whether it has its own exclusive language. Zhihu has “Thank you for the invitation”, but Bilibili’s is “I love this little broken site”.

Different communities have different user groups with different interests and hobbies, and many products separate different users. But on Bilibili, different groups are not treated the same, but are interconnected. You are a League of Legends player. In the League of Legends community, you are also an IG fan. You can also be a Peking University student...

You are not singular, but exist in groups. Different groups live together, communicating, discussing and integrating together because they have a common identity of "Bilibili users".

"How do users feel about Bilibili? This is my place, this is my home."

This group of users often like to claim that they "only watch small broken sites." Although they don't make overly radical remarks, their strong sense of self-superiority can be clearly felt in their words.

Bilibili has seized upon Generation Z, which has a niche culture but strong unmet demands, and created a two-dimensional barrage video website tailored to their needs. This group of users with their own ideas are incredibly loyal to Bilibili. The 12-month retention rate of new members on Bilibili is over 80%, while the retention rate of platforms such as iQiyi is less than 60% after 14 days . The huge user base lays the foundation for 130 million active users, and the users' love of expression and sharing creates the possibility for 40 million daily active users.

After selecting a user group, many companies discover many user needs and want to add all the functions. We see that Bilibili is very restrained and only produces content that users need most. This gives Bilibili very strong characteristics and allows users to have a clear understanding of it. Why must I go to Bilibili? Because Bilibili is made for me!

"As long as users stand on your side, you will be invincible. As long as users stand on Bilibili's side, Bilibili will be invincible in the future. This is my belief." - Chen Rui, CEO of Bilibili

02. Too few companies in China treat users as equals

"Chinese users are the cutest, because there are too few companies in China that treat users as equals. As long as you treat them as equals, they will be very protective of you." - Chen Rui, CEO of Bilibili

Treat users as "people" rather than "traffic" . Bilibili's product is a community based on video content, which is fundamentally different from platforms such as iQiyi, Youku, and iQiyi. The core of the former's operation is users, while the core of the latter's operation is videos.

The products provided by Bilibili are to satisfy your interests, and you can meet people who share the same interests as you.

For example, most of Toutiao’s products are aimed at competing for users’ time, which is also the user’s demand. But Tik Tok is just a pure tool. A video is one minute long, you swipe up, and then another minute, you swipe up again. It’s like a conditioned reflex. Its algorithm is extremely sophisticated, infinitely close to your real desires and firmly grasps all your time.

The videos on Bilibili last from ten minutes to an hour, and each story has the author’s theme and his thoughts.

"A panda bites me. Can I kill it?"

"Is it illegal for me to rape myself?"

"Is it considered 'torture' to lock you in a dog cage and let the dog lick you?"

Mr. Luo Xiang, who gained over a million followers on Bilibili in one day, is not only a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, but also the Guo Degang of the criminal law community. Each video segment is like a crosstalk, which makes you unable to stop at all. He is not trying to make you laugh or to hold all your time, but to let you understand what criminal law is in an interesting way.

On the other hand, many companies facing large user communities often set up official administrators to restrict and manage user behavior. Bilibili has more users than the population of Germany, and its management methods are also varied, but its values ​​are completely different. For example, a punishment called "Little Black Room" includes an arbitration office, allowing users in the community to manage users together.

During this year's Spring Festival, many people are taking a course called "Bilibili Party". The evening party had 80 million simultaneous online viewers, with a total playback volume of over 60 million times and a total of nearly 1.3 million barrage comments. The entire screen was filled with comments such as “Wow, this is awesome” and “I am so upset that I am in tears” almost simultaneously, and people on major social media platforms were spontaneously promoting this “party that understands young people the most.”

The official WeChat account of People's Daily reprinted an article from the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League titled "Netizens: This "New Year's Eve Party" understands young people very well! ” commented that when most satellite TV stations were inviting celebrities to sing popular singles, they took the interests of young people as their entry point and satisfied the most delicate emotions deep in the memories of fans through careful planning of the program content.

"Warcraft", "Harry Potter", "League of Legends", "Spirited Away", "Digimon", "The Wandering Earth", "Drawing Sword"... They are closely centered around the content that current Bilibili users like. The show scenes are full of cheers, and there are countless barrages on the live broadcast.

In the past, evening parties always wanted to cater to the needs of users of every age group and the different needs of each group of fans. The result was a mediocre product. However, Bilibili’s evening parties are made for Bilibili users, and all the content is their common favorite, so it is hard not to be exciting.

When the B station party starts, you will exclaim, this is the voice of young people, the voice of a generation. The gaming spirit of the post-80s and post-90s generation was instantly ignited, and comments like "Orcs will never be slaves" and "For the Horde, for the Alliance, for the glory of the Holy Light" floated across the screen...

Compared with various evening parties, this party held by Bilibili is not the best, but it is loved by its users. The user truly felt that he was truly treated to this New Year’s Eve party, and that it was a party prepared just for him.

03. Everything we want to do is not based on how others do it.

When many people recall why they went to Bilibili, they always think of the pleasant experience of the first time without advertisements. After spending a long time on Bilibili, when you open other video platforms, you will be greeted by all kinds of advertisements.

Even if you have paid the membership fee, there are still "advertisements customized for members" waiting for you, as if they would like to stick the Kun in the Classic of Mountains and Seas that swallows everything in its mouth onto your face so that you can see it as soon as you open your eyes.

Refreshing and simple, Bilibili is simply a breath of fresh air and has won a large number of users who like to watch videos.

We oppose commercialization at the expense of user experience and forcing users to make choices , which is why Bilibili insists on not using interstitial ads.

"Everything we want to do is not about looking at what others are doing, but about being clear about what we don't want and what we want."

For a video website, user growth and fission are inseparable from good content.

"What we are doing is not good content, but a mechanism to produce good content. If the soil is good, all kinds of flowers can bloom on it."

Currently, there are more than 1 million UP hosts on Bilibili, which means there is one UP host for every 125 users, and on average each UP host releases 2.8 videos per month . Bilibili ensures the output of content by mobilizing the creative enthusiasm of UP hosts. In 2018, Bilibili launched the "Creation Incentive Plan", through which content creators can earn income by producing high-quality videos.

In September 2019, Bilibili provided support to creators of knowledge-sharing live broadcasts and videos, providing exposure, special funds, and operational support for UP hosts in the knowledge payment field. It was also from that time that some high-quality knowledge-based UP hosts began to emerge, such as Mr. Luo Xiang, who taught legal knowledge and attracted 5 million fans in a month.

A culture of making money by eating is prevalent at Bilibili, and the stickiness between fans and UP is terribly high. 85% of the fans of the famous UP host Banfoxianren have had barrages, comments or private messages with him, compared to only 20% on his official account.

Because of this, UP hosts can win fans by producing high-quality videos and realize monetization by taking on commercial advertisements, thus forming a virtuous circle.

In terms of profitability, Bilibili has adopted a compromise approach, which is to rely on converting game IP into profits. In 2019, gaming revenue accounted for 53.08% of Bilibili's total revenue. It is not an exaggeration to say that Bilibili is a gaming company disguised as a video website. This is precisely why it insists on user experience.

According to Bilibili’s Q3 2019 financial report, the monthly active users reached 128 million, a year-on-year increase of 38%. If the number of new users continues to increase at this rate, the number of users will reach 176 million in Q3 2020.

Conclusion

Many people like to compare Douyin with Bilibili. When Chen Rui was asked: What can we learn from ByteDance, which has excellent organizational management?

“I think the product itself is the most important thing. Organizational ability can only help you reach the topline of the product faster. The success of Douyin is essentially due to its advanced product form. Toutiao has strong organizational ability, but its incubation ability has not been proven. I even think that there is no mechanism that can fundamentally improve the success rate of new products.”

When we deconstruct Bilibili, you will find that the logic behind its huge number of active users is very clear: it is user-centric and builds super products . This is what super products mean by serving a small group of core users well, meeting their needs, building extremely strong product power, and ultimately achieving exponential growth in products and users.

Focusing on content and deepening product development is the most solid step taken by Bilibili. Some people say that Bilibili may become China's YouTube, while others say that Bilibili will be the Chinese company closest to the Disney model.

Chen Rui said: “Notonly online! "It will eventually become a company with a strong product culture brand.

Today's Bilibili is like QQ and Weibo in the past. It carries the lives and aspirations of contemporary young people. The difference is that the future of Bilibili is not determined by the company behind it, but by every Bilibili user.