哔哩哔哩 (Bilibili)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
哔哩哔哩 (bīlibīli, Bilibili; in China — "B站") is a Chinese video platform with a community built around animation, games and knowledge. It describes itself as "the leading Chinese video sharing and content community covering animation, games, technology, lifestyle and live streaming" — that is the wording of its machine-readable site description. In its first quarter 2026 report the company lists the tickers Nasdaq: BILI and HKEX: 9626.
Its signature feature is 弹幕 (dànmù, danmaku): comments fly across the video at the exact second of playback where they were left. Authors are called UP主 (UP-zhu, "the one who uploaded"), and a video identifier has the BV format.
One distinction to get clear before you start: bilibili.com is the Chinese site with a Chinese interface, while bilibili.tv is a separate international product serving, by its own description, Greater China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia. Different catalogues, different creator dashboards, different rules.
Who's here
The platform publishes its numbers in investor reporting. In the first quarter 2026 report (published on 19 May 2026) the company states: daily active users average 115.2 million, up 8 % year over year; average daily time spent is 119 minutes, 11 minutes more than a year earlier. A quote from the chairman of the board in the same document gives the monthly audience: "exceeded 376 million". The investor relations page also cites the number of monthly paying users — 34 million. These are the company's own claims; the counting methodology is not disclosed.
The same report shows the scale of the money: quarterly revenue of 7.47 billion yuan (1.08 billion dollars), of which advertising accounts for 2.59 billion yuan, up 30 % year over year.
We found no breakdown of the audience by country, language or age on any publicly accessible page.
Getting started
The help centre describes registration briefly: while logged out, click "register" in the header of the main site, and once registration succeeds, complete activation right away.
Next comes a quirk worth knowing in advance. Asked why a new account cannot comment or use coloured danmaku, the same help centre answers: a new user receives the status 注册会员 (registered member), and these rights are not open to them. The restriction immediately after you create an account is not a malfunction.
The creator dashboard lives at member.bilibili.com; the international version has its own at studio.bilibili.tv. We opened both pages: both require a login.
What you can publish
The format catalogue is wider than "video". The llms.txt file lists separate product lines: long video, anime (番剧), Chinese original animation (国创), documentaries, films, series, shows, live streams, manga, paid courses 课堂 and a ticketing platform. The same file lists around thirty topic sections; 鬼畜 (guǐchù) stands apart — a remix genre the platform calls its own signature.
We found no publicly available limits on duration, file size or codecs: the upload page requires a login.
How to grow
The platform gives no description of its ranking algorithm on the pages we verified. What it does describe are the entry points into what is popular: the aggregate section, the weekly selection 每周必看 and rankings by views and engagement.
The advertising dashboard for brands is hosted on the cm.bilibili.com domain, but at the time of our check the page returned only an ICP registration number, with no description of formats or prices.
Path to monetization
The platform pays its authors, and the scale is visible in its reporting. In the quarterly report a separate cost-of-revenue line covers "revenue sharing costs": 2.85 billion yuan (412.6 million dollars) for the quarter, up 7 % year over year. That is the combined amount shared with authors and partners; the document contains no breakdown by recipient category.
The official channel for brand deals is the 花火 (huāhuǒ, "Sparks") platform. We opened its login page: it describes itself as a platform for commercial cooperation and services for UP主 and asks you to pick a role — brand or agency, UP主, MCN, guild (公会), service provider. Advertising integrations are arranged through the official intermediary.
A separate programme is 创作激励计划 ("creation incentive plan"). Its page opens, but returns the page shell without the text of the rules, and the text version of the rules requires a login; the thresholds and conditions cannot be learned from outside.
Tools and automation
The platform has an open developer platform — 哔哩哔哩开放平台. The documentation catalogue lists groups of OPEN API capabilities: authorization through a B站 account and account linking; public user information; publishing, deleting and querying video material; user and content data after the user consents; publishing, deleting and querying articles (专栏); starting a live stream and holding a persistent connection for messages in its chat. The same place offers client SDKs for iOS and Android, server SDKs in several languages, webhooks, a sandbox and a status code reference.
Programmatic video publishing is officially provided for, but it requires registering an application and obtaining user consent.
Limits and rules
New account rights. Comments and coloured danmaku are unavailable immediately after registration — the help centre ties this to the 注册会员 status.
Developers. The open platform has operating rules, penalty rules and public penalty announcements.
Jurisdiction. The platform operates under Chinese law. The user agreement is hosted at account-useragreement.html, but at the time of our check the page redirected to a page builder where the text is served as images. bilibili.tv has its own set of rules: terms of use, advertising policy, penalty rules for violations in content and in account behaviour, and infringement complaints.
Programmatic publishing. Only through the official open platform, with an application registered. Circumventing restrictions and working around the API are not provided for by the platform's rules.
Who it's for
A fit if your topic overlaps with the interests of a young Chinese audience: animation, games, technology, knowledge, music. The format rewards long video — the average of 119 minutes a day points to that indirectly. A fit for technical teams: the open platform officially provides video publishing, work with articles, live streams and webhooks.
Not a fit if you need to check the terms without the Chinese language and without an account: the creator dashboard, the incentive programme rules and the file requirements are all behind a login. Not a fit for an audience outside China — there is a separate product for it, bilibili.tv.
Tools for this platform
The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.
Social listening:
Other tasks:
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: "哔哩哔哩（bilibili.com)是国内知名的视频弹幕网站，这里有及时的动漫新番，活跃的ACG氛围，有创意的Up主。大家可以在这里找到许多欢乐。"
This is the platform's statement about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: zh-CN
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
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