Bilibili moves from ACG platform to key advertising destination

Chinese long-form vlogging and livestream platform Bilibili is in the ascendant with young people and is fast approaching the mainstream – as it does so, it becomes a target for brands like Louis Vuitton and Nike.

Why it matters

Bilibili's platform offers something quite different from the other Gen-Z super app, TikTok.

Despite a young following, Bilibili’s users come for longer engagement shows – videos tend to be around 20 minutes long – compared to Douyin’s (TikTok in China) bursts of 20 second content.

While the current advice is that this is mainly a brand/community building channel where successful brands tend to show give-and-take with users, it is possible to link directly to a handful of different e-commerce stores, in contrast to other apps in a similar vein.

What’s happening

The company tells the Business of Fashion, which profiles the platform, that half of China’s population between 10 and 29 are active users. In Q1 2021, the platform boasted 223.3 million MAUs (monthly active users). It is, reportedly, extremely sticky: users are known to spend around 82 minutes a day on Bilibili.

Part of its appeal to the core audience was its strength among anime, comic, and game (ACG) culture. To preserve the authenticity of the community, new users must pass an ‘entrance exam’ based on this nerdy trivia in order to post or upload.

Brands on the move

• Luxury players like Louis Vuitton and Fendi have used the platform for direct-buy advertising on the platform, BoF reports.
• Other brands, like Dior, Nike and Shiseido have tried to build their own communities through accounts that upload content directly.
• The most popular way to use the platform is with KOLs (influencers), especially if you aim to carve out an audience in the ACG community specifically, like skincare brand L’Occitane. Others, like Kraft-Heinz, have worked with influencers across Bilibili and TikTok.

Sourced from Business of Fashion, WARC