bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Xinmei Shen

Given its origin as a niche streaming site for fans of anime comics and games (ACG), Bilibili’s success has been a surprise for many. But behind the company’s rapid rise is a group of dedicated users known as “uploaders” who create content for the platform, helping turn it into China’s YouTube.
A unique combination of original features and an avid fan base has helped make Bilibili the go-to platform for many content creators. This has made the company a big success, both with its users and with Wall Street. Since going public on the Nasdaq in early 2018, Bilibili’s share price has increased more than tenfold. The Shanghai-based company is now seeking to further capitalise on its success by raising US$3 billion with a second listing in Hong Kong, joining other Chinese tech firms that have recently sought to tap into investors’ appetite for such stocks.
The company’s growth does not mean profit, however. Bilibili has been in the red for 13 consecutive quarters, with losses of 844 million yuan (US$130.7 million) in the fourth quarter, more than twice the losses from a year earlier. For the company’s backers – which include Sony, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post – burning cash in the pursuit of new users and content is just part of betting on China’s future. The average Bilibili user is just 21 years old, potentially giving it an advantage for future growth in a country with a median age approaching 40.
Among these young, dedicated users is Chen Pinsen, an uploader who started in 2016, when he was still in high school. On the day he turned 17, he used a 30-yuan microphone to create a video tutorial that he later published on Bilibili.
Bilibili doubles advertising revenue with new content beyond anime
“I wanted to add something to my birthday and do something meaningful,” Chen said.
His first video initially drew fewer than a hundred views, but it has now been watched more than 460,000 times. Now in his final year at the Beijing Film Academy, Chen has nearly 500,000 followers on Bilibili, where he regularly publishes videos sharing his knowledge about filmmaking.
Bilibili has about 1.9 million monthly active uploaders like Chen, who are known as “up zhu”, a Chinese term similar to “YouTuber”. While Tencent Video, Baidu’s iQiyi and Alibaba’s Youku, China’s three biggest video streaming sites, are locked in an expensive war over exclusive films and television series, Bilibili is building on its reputation as a home for anime fans to become a vibrant community for all kinds of video creators and users.
The platform’s unique culture has turned out to be an asset, and it was able to grow without the commercial attachments of larger video streamers. Bilibili’s success was also aided by its signature feature called “bullet chat”, or danmu, which are comments that fly across the screen while videos are playing. This helped make the platform more interactive, increasing the appeal for users and content creators alike.

This is why Chen decided to stick with Bilibili over other platforms. Early on, Chen also uploaded his videos to Youku, where he had more followers, but the experience of interacting with people on Bilibili was so much better that he later gave up on Alibaba’s platform.
“You certainly want to gain something from creating. It could be money or some kind of relationship that keeps you going,” Chen said. “Nobody was willing to leave comments on [my videos on] Youku, but many people on Bilibili are encouraging.”
That supportive community has made Bilibili a positive environment for uploaders.
“It’s quite friendly for content creators,” said Zake Zhang, a Shenzhen-based product manager at a tech company.
Zhang produces videos about personal development and vlogs for his Bilibili channel with 53,000 followers. He said Bilibili uploaders, like all content creators, sometimes suffer verbal attacks, but fans defend them. “There’s this culture where people protect things they like,” Zhang said.
Bilibili faces a boycott over anime show said to be insulting to women
With larger Chinese video platforms chasing a business model that looks more like Netflix than YouTube, both blocked by China’s Great Firewall, Bilibili has no direct competition in its home market. The main challenge the company faces is how to reinvent itself from a niche site for young ACG devotees – 80 per cent of its users were born after 1990, according to the company’s 2018 prospectus – into a mainstream channel for viewers in their 30s and 40s who are willing to pay.
After its US listing, Bilibili accelerated this transition, known as “breaking out of the circle”. So far, the company is seeing success.
Bilibili said its paying users doubled to 17.9 million in the fourth quarter year on year. The platform’s “official users” – a classification that requires passing a 100-question quiz on community rules, copyright policies and geek culture – were also up 56 per cent in the third quarter, according to a financial filing.
The company is now entering a “virtuous cycle”, according to Founder Securities analyst Yan Renwen, who wrote in an earlier research note that the Bilibili is gaining more quality uploaders that help increase the platform’s commercial value, further boosting its influence.
This is a significant change from when Chen joined the site five years ago. Bilibili is now a mainstream entertainment destination.

One move towards this end was starting a New Year’s Eve gala at the end of 2019, which it put on in partnership with state-run news agency Xinhua. The following year, the gala featured piano superstar Lang Lang and Hong Kong heartthrob Nicholas Tse, and it was aired by Hong Kong’s dominant broadcaster TVB after the fireworks display over Victoria Harbour was cancelled because of rising cases of Covid-19.
As Bilibili tries to appeal to a broad spectrum of viewers, its content is expanding from ACG culture into areas like lifestyle, education and career development.
One of Bilibili’s popular uploaders in 2020 was Luo Xiang, a criminal law professor at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law, who was born in 1977. Luo now has more than 10 million followers on Bilibili since becoming known for his lectures on Chinese criminal law.
For many uploaders, including Chen, the sense of recognition is a better reward than financial gain. When he first joined Bilibili in 2016, the website had about 100,000 uploaders, mainly individuals, and now his department at the university is trying to open an account.
“Bilibili broke out of its circle after all,” Chen said.


Bilibili is transforming into China’s YouTube as dedicated ‘uploaders’ look beyond niche anime, comics and games

Bilibili has grown in popularity from a niche site known for anime, comics and games into a mainstream entertainment destination, thanks in large part to ‘uploaders’ who remain dedicated to the platform. Photo: Bloomberg

Rui Chen, chairman and chief executive officer of Bilibili Inc., stands for a photograph during the company's initial public offering (IPO) outside of the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Bilibili, China's top online platform for streaming animation, is poised to raise $483 million in its U.S. initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Bilibili's New Year's Eve celebrations, streamed on the video platform on December 31, 2019. Photo: Handout

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Users known as ‘uploaders’ are the lifeblood of Bilibili, helping it maintain appeal among avid fans as Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku chase films and TV shows
Content creators who have stuck with Bilibili say it is because of its supportive community and more interactive features



Avid Bilibili fans known as ‘uploaders’ remain dedicated to the platform for its supportive community, turning it into China’s YouTube as Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku chase exclusive films and TV shows.


Bilibili is transforming into China’s YouTube as dedicated ‘uploaders’ look beyond niche anime, comics and games

Users known as ‘uploaders’ are the lifeblood of Bilibili, helping it maintain appeal among avid fans as Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku chase films and TV shows Content creators who have stuck with Bilibili say it is because of its supportive community and more interactive features

Users known as ‘uploaders’ are the lifeblood of Bilibili, helping it maintain appeal among avid fans as Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku chase films and TV shows

Content creators who have stuck with Bilibili say it is because of its supportive community and more interactive features