More than ten years have passed, and from the initial two-dimensional barrage video website to the current hotbed for young people of Generation Z, the scale of Bilibili has grown.

This article will start from product disassembly, competitor analysis, user analysis, user research, function optimization and other aspects to deeply explore B station's path to breaking the circle. If you have different opinions, you are welcome to comment and discuss.

This article will analyze from the following aspects:

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

1. Product disassembly

The author breaks down Bilibili into eight business modules, namely content community, membership purchase (e-commerce), live broadcast, commercialization, game center, classroom, mine and search, and shows in detail what services and main functions each business line provides.

Bilibili product architecture

2. Competitive product analysis

2.1 Product Positioning

"I've finally finished the college entrance exam mock test. It's so boring! Hey, Mr. A! What are you looking at? You've been smiling like a fool from the beginning till now. Let me take a look!"

"Eh? This anime has words all over the screen, blocking my view everywhere. What the hell is going on? What? These are the words you see? What's so good about this?"

"Bilibili? What a weird name. What about barrage or no barrage? I don't believe it can be more interesting than anime?"

“Hahaha, you can even think that way? This is an interesting joke! Oh my god, the comments are exactly what I thought, and I feel like I’m watching it with everyone else! Okay, I’ll hurry up and download the next one too!”

The above is the scene when I got into Bilibili, and I still remember it vividly.

Now that I think about it, what attracted me the most at the time was the novel form of interaction such as barrage videos; behind the rows of words floating across the screen were people who shared the same interests as me.

A few years have passed, and even though I have changed several mobile phones, Bilibili is still firmly on my desktop. You ask me why?

I would have different answers at different times: the countless high-quality anime, the excitement of receiving a reply from a UP host for the first time, the satisfaction of receiving many likes on my own comments, the joy of watching other people's homemade ghost videos, the wonderful operations and memes of the anchors in the game live broadcast room, the surprise of finding detailed tutorial videos when searching for courseware materials, and the knowing smile when the famous teachers in my school appeared on the classroom platform...

As time urges me to grow up, I have also witnessed the growth of Bilibili step by step: from the hotbed of ACG video barrage to gradually becoming a comprehensive cultural community for entertainment, interaction, communication, creation, and learning for young people of Generation Z with video as the main carrier.

2.2 Identify competing products

On the one hand, Bilibili has been the leader in the two-dimensional vertical field with ACG entertainment as the main content form for many years.

On this basis, its positioning is shifting towards a comprehensive video community targeting young people, which will inevitably lead to a "competition" with the three major video giants that focus on mass entertainment services: Tencent, iQiyi, and Youku, both now and in the future.

On the other hand, take advantage of the "wind of reform" blowing from the audio industry. On the road of developing and improving the PUGC ecosystem, while Bilibili is moving forward steadily, a new force has emerged: After ByteDance's Xigua Video has stabilized its position in the short video field, it has been advancing rapidly into the long video field, vowing to get a piece of the pie.

There is a high degree of overlap in the core businesses of the two companies, and from a commercial perspective, they are poised to keep pace with each other.

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

2.3 Business Distribution

The above figure shows the business distribution of bilibili and its competitors. It can be seen that:

2.3.1 Distribution of core businesses

The market positioning and core business nature of Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku Video are highly consistent, and they are backed by the three giants of BAT.

With sufficient capital support, the market was quickly divided into a three-way competition through a series of copyright battles for high-quality content. The positioning of the three was initially to meet the general public's demand for high-quality programs.

However, limited copyright resources obviously cannot support long-term fierce competition. In order to avoid eating up all the resources and at the same time to be superior or even stand out in future competitions, broadening the production channels of high-quality videos is undoubtedly a feasible and profitable method.

Therefore, the three companies have invested heavily in self-produced variety shows and web dramas, and have achieved success one after another.

Although Bilibili’s core business is also video, the priority given to UGC and even PUGC content is obviously higher than others.

As a video barrage website in the field of the second dimension in the early days, in order to increase user stickiness and loyalty, Bilibili has continuously developed and expanded its community business since its inception, connecting young people together through interests. The excellent community atmosphere has provided a stable foundation for building the UGC to today's PUGC ecosystem.

At the same time, Bilibili continues to enrich and consolidate the interaction between UP hosts and fans, and launches activities one after another to encourage user creation, making the entire ecosystem increasingly mature.

On the other hand, in the competition for copyrighted content, facing the fierce offensive of the three giants, Bilibili is obviously not on the same level; however, Bilibili uses its two-dimensional advantages to actively meet the needs of core users and spares no effort in introducing real-time high-quality animation works such as animation dramas and domestic creations.

At the same time, in order to ensure community norms and the quality of users, a small black room system has been established, and efforts have been made to screen new users, such as 100 questions for new users, in order to avoid the spotlight by means of self-governance.

After securing the top spot in the two-dimensional vertical field, it will gradually develop the categories of copyrighted content, expand the core user group, and finally launch a "comeback".

As a rising star, Xigua Video's core business is also based on UGC content, supplemented by copyright content. In terms of business nature, this is highly consistent with Bilibili. However, there are certain differences in the content distribution of the two, which stems from their different user portraits and different community attributes.

The users of Bilibili have been cultivated and screened over time, while the majority of Xigua Video users are attracted through Toutiao, and their quality is mixed.

In addition, Bilibili focuses on long videos with high content quality, and although Xigua Video's strategic deployment is to enter the long video field, its initial reliance on the short video ecosystem under ByteDance.

2.3.2 Distribution of other businesses

Thanks to the high-quality and harmonious community atmosphere, Bilibili started from its own two-dimensional core culture and expanded its businesses such as games, live broadcasts, membership purchases, and paid classes; at the same time, it insisted on shaping Bilibili's unique cultural elements, such as acting as an agent for two-dimensional games in the game business and setting up a WIKI collaboration module.

In the live broadcast field, content includes not only games and life entertainment, but also learning and interaction. In addition, the live broadcast function of virtual anchors is also actively promoted.

The member purchase section also adheres to the e-commerce services related to the second dimension, and at the same time has launched the Magic Reward function ingeniously to stimulate user consumption; and the latest knowledge payment platform that is being explored also initially features the invitation of celebrities from various industries who are most respected by B station users as speakers.

Firmly increasing the depth of target users' needs is the strategy that Bilibili adheres to in its business expansion.

As for the three video giants, all three have made achievements in entertainment sectors such as live streaming, comics, novels, and gaming businesses.

On the other hand, UGC content has become a cultural trend among contemporary groups, and the Big Three will obviously not miss the opportunity.

However, to shape a mature UGC ecosystem, financial offensives alone are obviously not enough; the high threshold of the UGC ecosystem for community cultural attributes and the requirement to resonate with users' sense of belonging are obstacles that the three giants cannot avoid in developing UGC videos into core businesses.

Thanks to the IP effect of self-produced variety shows and online dramas and the traffic effect of popular stars, the current advantages of the three giants lie in creating a community platform for interaction between stars and fans and vigorously promoting the fan economy.

Compared with the other four products, apart from the core business, the rest of Xigua Video's business is relatively simple. The live broadcast section mainly focuses on life and entertainment, relying on powerful algorithm technology to provide corresponding more "down-to-earth" content for target users, mainly Toutiao users.

2.3.3 Commercialization structure

Membership services and advertising are the main monetization methods for Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku Video, which are highly dependent on the quality of platform content. At the same time, while enriching the content categories, the platform also cooperates with other well-known companies in the industry to launch cross-field joint membership rights, which is also a powerful way to monetize.

Bilibili's commercial structure is relatively rich. In addition to using game agency as its main monetization force, it has also had certain monetization capabilities in the live broadcasting, e-commerce, and paid classroom fields in recent years.

However, as a video platform, due to the relatively thin copyright content resources and different focuses, the monetization ability of Bilibili's paid membership system is relatively weak.

In addition, in order to maintain user loyalty, Bilibili's information flow ads can only be published in the form of pictures and texts with low presence, which makes it difficult to bring in significant profits.

Limited to the current stage of Xigua Video, the platform mainly relies on ByteDance's excellent recommendation algorithm and advertising distribution platform to monetize through traffic. Although the monetization method is single, the monetization capability is very strong.

2.4 Development History

The above is a summary of the business development history of bilibili and its competitors. It can be seen that:

2.4.1 When Bilibili was first launched in 2009, it was positioned as a two-dimensional bullet screen website. The following year, its development positioning changed to the two-dimensional vertical field.

Since its establishment, Bilibili has attached great importance to the atmosphere and development of the community. This can be seen from the determination of station girls 22 and 33 based on user voting in 2010, as well as the annual online New Year's Eve events and New Year's Festivals held since 2011.

The high-quality community attributes have attracted a large number of veteran users who have a strong interest in the two-dimensional field and have certain creative abilities. This has also laid a good foundation for the development of high-quality PUGC content business in the future.

In 2014, Bilibili launched a drama contracting plan and officially entered the copyright video field. In the same year, the purchase of the exclusive broadcasting rights of the anime "Fate/stay night (UBW)" attracted a large number of Fate series fans to join, and also laid the user base for the later Fate mobile game.

Since then, Bilibili has continued to expand its categories of copyrighted videos, investing a large amount of money in domestic animation, documentaries, bilibili film and television, and audio. In terms of live broadcast content exploration, it has also actively explored the e-sports events and virtual anchor markets, and even signed the well-known anchor Feng Timo at a high price.

In addition, Bilibili officially launched a creative incentive program in 2018, aiming to support UP hosts on the site and promote the continuous production of high-quality video content. At this point, Bilibili’s positioning has further developed into a comprehensive community for young people to communicate, interact, create, and learn using video as a medium.

In the commercialization process, Bilibili has been actively exploring.

From the earliest transition to relying on agents for monetization of two-dimensional mobile games represented by FGO, to the subsequent live broadcast of the Grand Navigation, e-commerce service platform; the establishment of the membership system and the latest paid classes, Bilibili's monetization capabilities have gradually diversified, making up for the weakness of its unsatisfactory single commercial monetization capabilities.

On the road to development, maintaining Bilibili's core competitiveness in high-quality long videos and starting from deepening the needs of target users is a viable and controllable "breaking the circle" strategy.

2.4.2 The development history of the three video giants supported by strong financial support has many similarities

From the beginning, it was clearly positioned as a comprehensive video platform for general public entertainment. The main battlefields of the three companies are copyrighted videos and platform-made videos.

In the areas of copyright content that they each focus on, the three giants have purchased a large number of copyrighted videos, and also produced their own variety shows and web dramas, striving to continuously provide users with high-quality content and comprehensively grab user traffic.

Relying on this foundation are the core monetization capabilities of the three companies, namely membership and advertising. However, the increasingly saturated user market and soaring costs of copyrighted videos continue to put tremendous pressure on the operations of the Big Three.

In an attempt to escape from the quagmire of losses, the three companies have had to make innovations in paid services, such as Tencent Video's "egg yolk ads" and the controversial "advanced on-demand" services, which are gradually testing users' bottom line.

On one hand there is urgent commercialization pressure, and on the other hand there is real user demand. It remains to be seen how the three giants will transform next.

2.4.3 Xigua Video, which is backed by Toutiao, has been targeting the short video battlefield since its establishment, investing huge amounts of money and continuously launching bonus activities.

On the one hand, it stimulates users to actively create high-quality videos, and on the other hand, it guides users to monetize their content.

In addition, relying on ByteDance's powerful algorithm recommendations and huge advertising client base, it quickly built a complete business closed loop of "user content consumption - platform advertising monetization - creator content sharing".

Today, Xigua Video is advancing into the field of long videos. Before it prepares to compete with Bilibili, it needs to urgently consider how to solve the content homogeneity caused by algorithm-driven development and help content creators accumulate private traffic and strengthen their connection with fans, thereby further changing the usage scenarios and purposes of the main users.

2.5 Data Analysis

(Data source: Analysys Qianfan, November 2019)

The above are the performance data of bilibili, Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku Video and Xigua Video, from Analysys Qianfan, and the statistical time is November 2019. It can be seen that:

2.5.1 From the perspective of industry monopoly rate

Bilibili's industry monopoly rate in the vertical video field is as high as 6%, which directly reflects Bilibili's leading position in the two-dimensional vertical field; Xigua Video's industry monopoly rate in the short video aggregation platform field has also reached 28.1%, thanks to ByteDance's excellent short video ecology.

In the comprehensive video field, Tencent Video and iQiyi are on par with each other, both at 10.2%; in comparison, Youku Video is relatively weak, at only 2.7%.

The author speculates that the gap between Youku and the other two giants' products is mainly due to the fact that Youku video is far less competitive among young people than Tencent and iQiyi, and its detached attitude towards copyrighted content in the two-dimensional field has led to a lack of stamina.

Judging from the next-month retention rate, Xigua Video’s is as high as 1%, the Big Three also have good performances, while Bilibili’s data of 32.9% is not satisfactory.

This is actually related to B station’s recent “out-of-circle” strategy:

On the one hand, the gradually expanding business platform serves young people with different interests and orientations, providing new space for the growth of B station's users;

On the other hand, how to match the transformation progress of the unique atmosphere of the community based on the two-dimensional world with the new user types, how to maintain the quality of the platform's UGC videos, and further improve the PUGC ecosystem are the core issues in coping with retention pressure.

2.5.2 From the perspective of active users

Tencent Video, iQiyi Video, and Youku Video are far ahead, several times larger than bilibili and Xigua Video, and bilibili's user scale is slightly smaller than that of Xigua Video.

The main reasons for this kind of gap are market positioning and product positioning: the market positioning of the Big Three and even Xigua Video is all Internet users, and the Big Three are backed by BAT and have strong capital; while bilibili is aimed at young people, which means that it is destined to be difficult for B Station to surpass the Big Three in terms of user size, and there is also a certain gap with Xigua Video.

2.5.3 The average number of daily launches per person, the average daily usage time per person, and the average monthly usage days per person reflect not only user stickiness, but also the core business content and form of the platform and the core user attributes.

Xigua Video has the highest data in all three categories:

On the one hand, the platform's current core business is popular entertainment short videos, which are short in length and have a relaxing and entertaining style, providing sufficient conditions for users to use them in their spare time;

On the other hand, powerful algorithm recommendations cater to user preferences, ensuring an immersive user experience.

In terms of user attributes, the largest group of Xigua Video users are low-end users. This type of users has more free time and spends more time on the product.

As for the three giants that focus on copyrighted content, the video duration on their platforms is relatively long, which ensures the average daily usage time per person, and their main variety shows and TV series are all broadcast in installments and episodes, which also ensures user stickiness.

Bilibili's average daily launch times and average daily usage time are both at the bottom, but the average monthly usage days are quite considerable. It is speculated that this may be related to user usage scenarios. As a platform with UGC content as its core business, the video length is moderate.

The creator group is large, but what Bilibili provides is more of an uploading function and post-interaction function. The time-consuming process of creating works does not need to rely on Bilibili.

On the other hand, as a user group of viewers, in addition to those who regularly follow anime and TV series, the channels for obtaining content mostly rely on the updates of the UP hosts they follow, which also ensures the performance of the average monthly usage days data.

2.6 Summary and Analysis

As summarized in the table above, bilibili's current advantages and disadvantages are:

Success depends on the community, and difficulty also depends on the community. Although the community atmosphere that has been carefully managed for a long time is good, providing a good foundation for users' interactive and creative experiences - however, the increasingly mature community style and form are becoming increasingly fixed. How to maintain a balance and trade-offs between community construction and popular needs is a problem that must be faced today.

As a video platform, disputes over copyright content are inevitable. How to resist the offensive of the three giants with strong capital and seek a roundabout way to carve out a piece of land in the market is also a guarantee and challenge for maintaining one's own hard power.

Although Bilibili has a good UGC/PUGC ecological environment and the UP hosts on the platform have high creative passion, how to provide practical guarantees for the UP hosts' continuous output rather than just an "incentive plan"; at the same time, strengthening the review of content quality is a tough battle that Bilibili currently has to fight with itself and its direct competitors such as Xigua Video.

Bilibili has been actively exploring commercialization, and cautiously launching new types of commercialization channels is also a promising strategy at present. However, the commercial monetization capabilities of each product are insufficient, and the establishment of new platforms has not yet gained a firm foothold, so how they will develop is still uncertain.

3. User analysis

3.1 User role map

3.2 User Profile

4. User research

In order to put forward more reasonable suggestions for function optimization, the author conducted in-depth user interviews with 5 deep content consumers and 1 light content consumer of Bilibili, 1 UGC video UP host and 1 PGC video UP host in late July 2020.

4.1 List of survey questions

4.1.1 Basic Situation

1. gender
2. age
3. Status (student/employed) If you are employed, could you please tell us about your occupation and approximate salary range?
4. location
5. Can you recall the first time you knew about Bilibili and downloaded it? What made you decide to download Station B?
6. How long have you been using Station B? Have you ever not used Bilibili for a long period of time? Can you recall why you don't want to use it? Why did you continue to use it later?
7. Under what circumstances will Station B be opened?
8. During the time you use Bilibili, what do you generally use it for?
9. What do you usually do when you open Bilibili? Can you recall the path used?

4.1.2 Others

1. Do you often check updates? Do you have any updates of your own? What kind of content is usually published?
2. Do you often follow new UP hosts? Under what circumstances would you follow a UP host?
3. Bilibili also has a channel subscription function. Have you subscribed to any channel?

4.1.3 Video

1. Do you usually watch copyrighted videos on Bilibili? For example, animation series, movies, TV series, variety shows, documentaries?
2. If you have a specific video you want to watch, how do you usually find it?
3. If there is no specific video to watch, how do you usually click on a video? In this process, what are the factors that attracted you to click?
4. How do you usually learn about video updates or information about newly released videos?
5. What do you usually do when playing a video? (Full screen/half screen? Picture quality selection?) Will you choose to play in a small window? Do you encounter any inconvenience when playing videos?
6. Do you post comments to interact when watching videos? Do you read the comments in the comment section before and after watching a video or write your own comments? When you come across good content, will you share it with your friends?
7. Have you noticed the "Watch Later" feature? In what scenarios is it generally used? Will you finish watching all the videos that you want to watch later?
8. Do you use other video apps? What is it generally used for?

4.1.4 Learning

1. Have you ever watched any videos on hardcore skill teaching or general knowledge popularization on Bilibili? What's your mentality when watching these videos?
2. Do you usually study on Bilibili? Which of the above do you prefer to study? Or both?
3. Can you tell me what you learned specifically on Bilibili? How did you see these videos? Why are you willing to click to watch it?
4. Have you ever searched directly for a learning video? Is it a hard-core skill or a knowledge popularization?
5. Have you ever encountered a situation where you searched and found a lot of similar videos? What criteria did you use to filter them?
6. Do you follow some UP hosts who often post hardcore skill tutorials or general knowledge popularization? What are your reasons for paying attention? Will you follow his progress?
7. What do you usually prepare when you study at Bilibili? What do you usually do? Did you encounter any difficulties during this period?
8. Do you know how to open the barrage? Why? Will you post barrage? Why? Do you pay attention to the content in the comment section? What do you want to get from the comments section? Do you write reviews yourself? What do you usually write about?
9. Have you used other classroom apps? Compared with Bilibili, what are the shortcomings of Bilibili?
10. Have you purchased any courses on Bilibili’s classroom? What are the factors that influence your choice and purchase of courses?
11. Have you had any inconvenience while using the classroom section so far?
12. What is the difference between learning paid classroom content and free knowledge materials?

4.1.5 Member

1. Have you recharged your membership? Why did you decide to recharge your membership?
2. Do you understand the relevant rights and interests of VIP members?
3. Is there any difference in your experience of using Bilibili after becoming a VIP member?
4. Will you continue to recharge your VIP membership in the future? Why?

4.1.6 Using city attributes as a test block

1. Do you usually watch videos with regional characteristics on Bilibili? Where did you see this video on Bilibili? Why do you want to watch these things?
2. What is the main content of the local videos you like to watch? Do you have any city or region preferences when deciding whether to watch these videos?
3. Do you follow some UP hosts with local characteristics? Why do you follow him? Have your viewing preferences changed since following him?
4. Have you watched some free travel videos on Bilibili? Where did you see this video on Station B? Why do you click on this type of video?
5. Have you watched some local food videos on Bilibili? Where did you see this video on Station B? Why do you click on this type of video?
6. Have you watched some folk customs videos on Bilibili? Where did you see this video on Station B? Why do you click on this type of video?
7. Have you watched some videos of colleges and universities on Bilibili? What are these videos about? Where did you see this video on Station B? Why do you click on this kind of video?
8. Have you ever searched for relevant content through any channel or platform? If so, for what reason?
9. Why choose this platform? What do you want to know? Do you think there is anything in the search results that does not meet your expectations or that you are dissatisfied with?
10. After learning about the relevant videos, have you tried watching other special videos about the area and city on Bilibili?

4.1.7 UP Master

1. Why did you decide to upload your own original videos on Bilibili? For example, recall the scene of your first submission.
2. Can you tell me what your creative positioning is on Bilibili?
3. Did you encounter any factors that affected the operation during the process of uploading your works?
4. How do you usually interact with your fans?
5. After uploading your work, what data will you pay attention to? For example, the number of views? Number of fans? Number of likes? Number of coins? Can you sort them by priority?
6. Have you ever experienced a sudden increase in the number of fans during a period of time? Have you ever tried to understand how your fans know and follow you?
7. Can you tell me what keeps you creating videos on Bilibili? Eat food? interest?
8. Do you publish your own original videos on other platforms? Compared with Bilibili, do other platforms have any advantages?
9. If Bilibili launches a section divided by cities, and the type of video you create happens to have regional characteristics or advantages, will you support and cooperate with this decision of Bilibili?
10. If you find that people from other regions are very interested in the food culture, ethnic customs, colleges and universities, festivals, and entertainment methods in your area, would you choose to create some related content and upload it to Bilibili?

4.2 Survey Results

4.2.1 Content Consumers

4.2.2 Content Creators (UP Masters)

4.3 User Research Summary

Bilibili's user groups are mainly divided into content consumers and content creators. However, whether it is UGC or PGC, personal use will also meet the attributes of content consumers. At the same time, UP hosts' demands for Bilibili are more about non-direct functional indicators such as playback volume.

Therefore, in the direction of function optimization, content consumers are still the main focus, supplemented by the creative intentions of UP hosts. According to the responses from the surveyed users, from the perspective of content intake, users have their own clear interests and usage methods:

Some users who follow the UP host use the dynamics more frequently;

The other part relies heavily on the B station homepage to recommend similar videos of their preference. Both types of users attach importance to the quality of the videos. The author believes that B station should take care of both types of user groups at the same time.

4.3.1 Video

Judging from the answers of 6 users: Bilibili’s original videos are the most attractive type of content, and the lack of distribution and resources of copyrighted videos will directly affect the frequency of users’ use.

From the perspective of the video search process: all five users highly rely on the app's search function to quickly and intuitively obtain results. One of the users also chooses to actively browse from the partition module, but has some complaints about the page navigation.

The author believes that the adoption of the feed flow and abandonment of the filtering function of previous versions is part of Bilibili's strategic policy, so I will not elaborate on it.

All four users focused on the immersive experience when playing videos, and all adopted full-screen playback and the highest picture quality. In addition, when only one user frequently sends barrage interactions, users all have clear barrage requirements when playing and will pay attention to the content in the comment area, which is also attributed to the excellent community atmosphere of Bilibili.

4 users hope to optimize the playback experience. Three of them said that it was difficult to directly give the overall content of a video that was too long, and one user hoped that the fast-forward and double-speed playback functions could be optimized.

4.3.2 Study/Classroom

The author divides the learning content on Bilibili into hard-core skill teaching and general knowledge popularization. The former has a high threshold, is accompanied by hardware requirements, has clear learning standards and usage scenarios, and a long learning cycle; the latter has a low threshold, has a certain degree of entertainment and viewing value, has no clear learning standards, and a short learning cycle.

In addition, learning resources are divided into free and paid. There are many free resources, and their quality varies. There are fewer paid resources and higher quality. Users have higher requirements and experience for paid courses. Although only 1 out of 5 users uses the classroom, the launch of the paid classroom shows the commercialization direction of Bilibili and its tendency to popularize paid knowledge. It is also conducive to solving the corresponding issues of intellectual property rights and cultivating users' copyright awareness.

At the same time, it encourages original knowledge UP hosts on the site to further promote the maturity of the PUGC ecosystem. Therefore, the author will focus the optimization direction on paid classes rather than free learning areas.

Among the 5 users, 3 clearly stated that they have a need to learn on Bilibili. In addition, when screening similar resources, users pay attention to the number of video views and the content of the comment area; this further reflects that users have a strong demand for learning at Bilibili and the user group is relatively large, all of which are the target user group for the class.

On the one hand, learning goes against human nature, especially the teaching of hard-core skills. Two users explicitly stated that the interactive feedback with netizens boosted their own learning motivation. In addition, after users pay for the course, they are more serious in attitude and pay more attention to the learning results;

On the other hand, the courses currently offered lack relevant evaluation information. There are also some hardcore courses that require supporting textbooks and have high barriers to entry. There are also cases where the textbooks and video content are not completely consistent. At the same time, we hope to increase the course feedback channels.

Regarding the user's request to provide single course purchase, the author believes that this is Bilibili's commercialization policy and therefore will not adopt this request.

4.3.3 Members

Among the four users surveyed, two have currently recharged their VIP membership and both are willing to renew.

One of them chose the membership out of pursuit of a higher visual experience and sentiment, while another had a clear demand for joint membership; one had recharged the premium membership before, and another was a light user who had not recharged the premium membership.

On the one hand, users' main intention is to watch original videos, and they do not have a high demand for copyrighted videos. On the other hand, since Bilibili itself promises not to insert advertisements into videos, and the playback experience for general members is sufficient, Bilibili's premium membership rights themselves are not attractive enough.

4.3.4 Launch of city test module

The figure below is the regional distribution map of B station users. It can be seen that most of B station’s existing users are in coastal provinces and cities and some inland provinces, while there are fewer users in border provinces and underdeveloped inland provinces.

The author believes that under the market positioning of Bilibili for young people of Generation Z, with cities as the dimension, and relying on its excellent creative environment, it can increase the attention of users in coastal and developed areas to other provinces in the country through the creation-integration-recommendation method, thereby promoting the demand for the use of Bilibili by users in border provinces and underdeveloped areas, and can more effectively convert target users into actual users.

(Data source: iResearch data July 2019)

Through the survey, it was found that all five content consumers have watched video content with regional characteristics on Bilibili. The viewing channels mainly came from homepage recommendations and some from active searches. All five users have a certain city preference.

Among them, two users from non-first-tier cities had searched for their own cities; one wanted to better understand the current living conditions in the rural area of ​​his hometown; and one wanted to find a gourmet restaurant with a good reputation in the same city. However, all said that the displayed content was unsatisfactory in terms of both variety and presentation.

In terms of content classification: most of them are free travel and local food, and 2 users also pay attention to national customs and daily life. Regarding the reasons for watching, 2 users said it was for travel needs, and 3 users said it was for points of interest. Users all feel that the videos on Bilibili are credible and of high quality. At the same time, the lengthy content affects the experience of using it as a reference for strategy guides.

Regarding city-related content: According to the survey, if video push is made more proactive, convenient and user-friendly, and the search cost is reduced, 5 out of 5 users will increase the frequency of watching similar videos.

From the perspective of content creators: Both UP hosts surveyed expressed their willingness to make related videos, indicating that Bilibili has the foundation for creating city-related video content.

5. Functional optimization

According to the analysis of the results of in-depth user surveys, Bilibili's optimization will be carried out in three directions: adding city testing modules, optimizing classroom partitions, and optimizing long video playback experience.

The specific function optimization mind map is as follows:

5.1 Adding city test module

According to the results of a survey of 5 users, 2 users clearly stated that they had actively searched for their hometowns or other city locations on Bilibili; on the other hand, 4 users were interested in areas with ethnic and regional characteristics, such as the northwestern border areas, and all clicked on the videos on regional culture, customs and food recommended on the homepage.

Combined with the user distribution map of Bilibili, currently, the platform's existing users basically come from coastal provinces and cities, near-coastal provinces and cities, as well as some provinces in the central region with a strong Internet atmosphere.

It is not difficult to find that the user distribution ratio in the concerned regions is low, but this also means that there are large potential markets in the relevant regions.

The current problem is:

1. There is not enough relevant content in second- and third-tier cities;
2. Relying solely on existing search logic and content screening methods cannot efficiently obtain target videos.

My optimization direction is:

1. Add a city section entrance on the search results page to increase city exposure and enhance users' city awareness;
2. Optimize the integration of relevant content, increase the exposure of urban creative activities, and stimulate the creative enthusiasm of UP owners;
3. Add user city authentication to facilitate accurate video delivery and UP host attribution.

Advantages of doing this:

1. For content consumers: on the one hand, it satisfies the needs of existing users to understand urban culture; on the other hand, it enhances the attention of lower-tier users to the platform from the city dimension, promotes user growth, and improves user stickiness;
2. For content creators: It increases the creative motivation of regional UP masters and provides more creative markets for potential UP masters;
3. For the platform: It further enriches the PUGC ecosystem and provides new ideas for future commercialization.

5.1.1 Enter the city name in the search bar to display the city test module

The survey found that the existing city search results only have videos sorted in lists, and the partition positioning in the filter bar is not practical, which further leads to inaccurate video delivery and users are unable to quickly obtain the desired videos.

Therefore, a new city integration module entrance is added to the search bar result page on the home page. As long as the user's search keyword contains a place name, the corresponding city module entrance will appear at the top to provide users with a new integration module; at the same time, the original search results will still be presented, which will not affect the normal use of other users.

5.1.2 Optimize content integration

Users can click on the newly added stickers to enter the city test module. The main interface can be shared and collected through the top icon. The module provides active UP hosts in the region and official certification numbers of the city.

At the same time, the video content is integrated according to the more frequently visited free travel, food exploration, colleges and universities, and daily folk customs. The navigation bar defaults to recommendation: displaying local cities or platform online creation activities, encouraging UP hosts to create local-related content and increase the volume of content.

The videos in the recommendation column are sorted by the number of views and displayed in a double list.

Click on other navigation (such as colleges and universities), and the page will display the corresponding location tags. Click to go to the corresponding tag content, and the video will be displayed in a single list. The new content integration method can reduce user search costs and increase user access rate.

5.1.3 New regional authentication for users

The survey results show that 90% of users will browse videos based on the homepage recommendations. In order to increase users' attention to their hometown or location, and to facilitate algorithm recommendations for urban UP owners, new user area authentication, and floating window reminder authentication when users log in to B station for the first time on the same day, they can also be authenticated directly on the account information page.

For content consumers, after the authentication is successful, the homepage can push nearby hot videos based on the distance. For UP owners, they are classified as the corresponding city after successful certification.

5.2 Optimize classroom partitions

The survey results show that 3 of the 5 content consumers have actively searched for course videos on B station and studied. The contents they learned include mastering hard-core skills and popularization of general knowledge. The reason for using B station is that rich learning resources and recognition of video quality, and high-quality community interaction can improve users' learning enthusiasm.

It is worth noting that the launch of paid classes by B station shows a new direction of commercial exploration of B station; it also shows the trend of platform knowledge payment. The platform's optimization of learning must be focused on classroom partitions. Attracting more users to use classroom learning is one of the current goals of B station.

Therefore, the author concentrates users' learning needs in classroom experience optimization.

The research found that the current problems are:

1. The course lacks relevant evaluation information, and users do not have effective channels to understand the courses launched.
2. After paying, users pay more attention to the results of their studies, but at present, there are fewer feedback channels for users in the classroom, and there is also a lack of effective interactive methods to improve users' learning enthusiasm.
3. The course publisher is also the UP host of B station, which is a unique attribute of B station. Currently, the direct interaction between the UP host and the user is lacking.

Therefore, my optimization direction is:

1. New comments and scoring functions are added to the course interface, and new scrolling display high-quality comments are added to the main interface of the classroom to further increase the exposure of the course.
2. The course introduction page adds a follow button in the lecturer introduction section to increase the user's attention to the lecturer.
3. For users who purchase courses, a classroom circle is specially set up to improve the interaction between users and users and the speakers, and at the same time improve the effective feedback channels related to the course.

The benefits of doing this are:

1. For content consumers: Optimize classroom learning experience, improve users' acceptance of the classroom, and at the same time cultivate users' copyright awareness and promote user consumption.
2. For content creators: Attract more professional teachers to enter the classroom, and at the same time provide new monetization channels for existing teaching UP owners to inspire UP owners’ creative enthusiasm.
3. For the platform: broaden the platform's commercialization channels and make knowledge payment a reliable commercialization path.

5.2.1 Enhance the recommendation level of courses

Through in-depth research with users who use the classroom, the author found that the course interface lacks a scoring system; at the same time, the permissions in the comment area are available to all users, so that the comment content is mostly user interaction, and is rarely related to the course, which hinders users' desire to purchase to a certain extent.

Therefore, the author has added a comment function in the course navigation bar, which is set to users who have watched at least 3 lessons can write comments; at the same time, the comments bar is open to all users, and users can have an intuitive understanding of the course based on the scores and comments.

At the same time, a new section on the scroll display of high-quality comments has been added in the classroom area, which is arranged below the seven-day hot-selling list, displaying the content of the high-like comments, and also displaying the source of the comments.

Clicking the card can directly enter the corresponding course interface to increase the user's click rate and course exposure.

On the other hand, the course publishers are all UP owners of B.com. Adding a follow button in the introduction column to encourage users to follow the publisher can enhance the interaction between the two; it can also improve users' understanding of the course, dynamically increase the exposure of the course, and further enhance users' desire to purchase.

5.2.2 Added a new classroom circle

The difference between paid users and free users is that paid users pay more attention to the course learning experience and learning results, that is, at least they should be worth the money.

At the same time, paying users are more serious about their attitude towards learning, because the cost of sunk is greater. Therefore, for course purchase users, a new classroom circle is added for each course, and the entrance is located on the course introduction page. Click the icon to enter the circle, the main sections are announcements, works and discussions.

5.2.2.1 Bulletin board

For many courses in the classroom at present, users also need other hardware assistance while watching videos. Therefore, in addition to the teaching videos released, video publishers will also provide some additional services in the comment area such as resource sharing, live Q&A arrangement, etc.

However, the problem with this is that on the one hand, it is positioned as a comment area for all users (including non-course users) to interact with, and some non-topped information posted above cannot be accurately transmitted to purchase users; on the other hand, the timeliness of the information sent by the comment area is not satisfactory when the relevant message reminder is lacking.

Therefore, set up the bulletin board as a section for course publishers to publish messages and notifications in text. Course users can unilaterally understand the resource link sharing, course arrangement, live broadcast arrangement and topic activities initiated by course publishers in this section.

5.2.2.2 Works column

Paying courses users attach great importance to the results of their studies. After completing the course, if the user can complete a work and obtain positive feedback from teachers and other students, it can greatly improve the user's learning confidence and help users understand their mastery of the course.

The work column is the section where users submit their learning results. The works can be viewed by other users, and the course teachers can also comment and guide the content to make users feel that they have achieved success in their studies.

Users click on the "I want to publish" page and jump directly to the upload page. The page supports users to enter text and upload pictures, and add the expression form of the work to meet the needs of different types of courses.

5.2.2.3 Discussion Area

It is not difficult to find from previous user surveys that one of the reasons users choose to study on B station is that interaction with others can have the effect of being supervised and motivated. Currently, only the comment area in the classroom is used as an interactive functional module, and it is available to users on the entire platform.

The author found that there is almost no discussion on the course content in the comment section under the course, which makes it difficult for users of video learning to get a healthy learning atmosphere during the entire learning process, and there is no direct channel to find solutions to the doubts encountered during the learning.

Therefore, the course circle has a special discussion area, with two submodules: course Q&A and classroom speech to solve users' concerns during the learning process and improve the user's learning process experience.

The course Q&A area mainly involves users posting personal concerns about the course knowledge points to obtain Q&A help from other students and teachers.

The classroom speech area is a test question published by the teacher unilaterally around the core knowledge points and understanding difficulties of each class. While users answer, they also help users refine the focus of the course knowledge.

All relevant messages in the classroom circle are reminded by notification bar. The notification bar displays the message type (announcement, answer or work), and also displays courses, allowing users to intuitively understand the information while reducing interference during daily use.

5.3 Optimize long video playback experience

High-quality original long videos are the core advantage of B station. Most of these videos involve teaching, strategies, and evaluations. According to user surveys, three users said that watching long videos is more troublesome when sliding the progress bar; at the same time, they put in the videos that were watched later and often forget to watch them.

On the other hand, two users made it clear that before watching some long videos of review guides, they would specifically look at whether there is a content outline and video explanation compiled by UP owners or "wild class representatives" in the comment area for easier understanding.

And the current problem is:

1. When watching long videos, it is difficult for users to have a overall grasp of the video content;
2. Some content in the long video does not reach the user's interest point, and when the user slides the progress bar to skip the content, the operation is not convenient and accurate enough;
3. Users often forget to put the videos they watch later, and they have a lower presence when watching later;
4. The comment area is an excellent place to supplement videos, but the current content sorting comments are relatively low and there is no fixed pattern.

So my optimization direction is:

1. When the UP master uploads videos, it can set nodes. When the user watches the video, he can click on the node on the progress bar to jump to play;
2. The viewing function will add a new setting time reminder;
3. Added full screen playback after pressing the screen for 2s and entering the 2x speed playback mode, and added 15s fast forward and fast reversal function;
4. The comment area is set up with a "class representative area" to display high-quality comments such as long video content sorting, plot explanation, and resource integration. At the same time, coin rewards are provided to improve user enthusiasm.

The benefits of handling this are:

1. For content consumers: improve user viewing experience, enhance user acceptance of long videos, and further optimize the community atmosphere;
2. For content creators: Increase UP owner’s creative motivation for producing high-quality long videos, provide UP owners with a good long video creation environment, and attract potential creators to join B station;
3. For the platform: Further consolidate the UGC/PUGC ecosystem of original long videos and improve user stickiness.

5.3.1 Added node playback function

On the video upload page, the UP master can click the Settings node to set the node, set the nodes of his video according to different content modules, and serve as a directory function; or set the nodes in the exciting parts of the video as a highlight function.

When the user plays the video of the setting node in full screen, click the yellow dot on the progress bar to see the corresponding node preview map. Click the preview map again to jump directly to the corresponding time point, which is conducive to the user's grasp of the content of the entire video.

In addition, the above picture also shows the new fast forward function of pressing the screen. After the user holds the screen and does not play for 2 seconds, the video will automatically enter the 2x speed playback mode; at the same time, the screen flashes and displays the words "x2.0". When the user lets go, the video will automatically return to normal playback at the same time.

In order to make up for the inconvenient dragging of short-term progress bars, a 15s fast forward/fast rewind function is added. Clicking the corresponding icon once can achieve a 15s fast forward/fast rewind effect.

5.3.2 Added the reminder function to watch later

When the user's usage scenario cannot meet the conditions for watching long videos, the viewing function later provides a good way to collect and watch again. However, the presence of viewing later itself is low, and users can easily forget the videos they have added.

The reminder time function has been added to the later viewing page. Users can set how many minutes (1-60 minutes) after logging in to B station next time (1-60 minutes) to remind videos to increase the playback rate of the videos in the later viewing.

5.3.3 New class representative area in the comment area

Through the investigation, it was found that some long videos under the comment area will have key outlines or related explanations about the videos carefully compiled by UP owners or other users. Comments in this category are often praised, confirming users' demand for comments in this category.

However, the frequency of this type of comments is low at present, so you can set up a special representative area in the video comment area of ​​B station. The comments in the special area are only arranged by the number of likes. When the number of likes reaches 500, the 2 coins (platform virtual currency) rewards the comment publisher as an incentive measure.

When a user wants to post a comment in the class representative area, click the input bar and click the class representative icon. The icon and publish button will change from gray to pink to enter the class representative mode. The comments sent to the class representative area will be synchronized to the ordinary comment area.

6. Conclusion

I still remember a widely circulated meme on B station a few years ago: As soon as I enter B station, I feel like the sea.

Indeed, from a secondary barrage video website in 2009 to the current comprehensive video community of young people in the Z era, B station's business has been continuously expanded; it has successively improved and added communities, including live broadcasts, games, e-commerce and classrooms, and has also developed multi-modal monetization on the road of commercialization.

I clearly understand that B station will continue to grow like I keep growing, and there will inevitably be bumps and bumps on the road to growth.

Just as Bilibili is currently suffering some criticism and obstacles in its current measures to become popular: the running-in and challenges between new and old users brought about by the increase in user scale; how to develop a commercial model of efficient monetization.

But so what can this happen?

Society gives us young people an interesting title - the old wave, which means that it will never stop flowing. It’s not the same for B station. Whether B station can get rid of the dilemma of enclosure autonomy and achieve transformation can only be proved by time.

Everyone, as soon as you enter B station B, you can see how the sea embraces all rivers.

Author: It's the Porcupine

Source: It's the Porcupine's