Knowing about Bilibili is crucial for those who want to enter the Chinese market and target young Chinese consumers. It is surprising to learn that Bilibili can also be used for eCommerce. Let’s explore this topic further:
- What is Bilibili?
- How fast is Bilibili growing?
- Which target can you reach through Bilibili?
- What are Bilibili’s main features?
- How can you do e-commerce on Bilibili?
- Not only e-commerce. You need to work on E-reputation to promote your brand in China
What is Bilibili?
Some say Bilibili is the most popular platform among ACG (anime, comics, and games) lovers, some say it is the Chinese version of Youtube. In reality, one thing we can say for sure is that Bilibili, also known as “B-site” or “哔哩哔哩”, is one of the most popular video-sharing platforms in China nowadays.
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Although the focus of the platform was to share ACG content for a niche market at the beginning, the mission has become wider over the years. Bilibili, in fact, hosts topics about ACG, lifestyle, science, entertainment, and technology.
“Offer a high-quality video streaming service for an audience that wants to learn something”, this is the true essence of Bilibili at present.
How fast is Bilibili growing?
The video-sharing platform released its financial statement, showing impressive results: 326.0 million monthly active users reached in the fourth quarter of 2022, (a 20% increase from the same period in 2021), including 92.8 million daily active users reached in the fourth quarter of 2022, (a 29% increase from the same period in 2021).
To understand the importance of the above-mentioned data, one should consider the number of Chinese internet users in the first quarter of 2022, around 1.02 billion. And, even if numbers are very high, there’s a lot of potential for growth, since internet penetration in China had only reached 70.9%.
Videos platform bigger than ever in China
In addition, the growth of the online video industry seems to be unstoppable too. As the number of Chinese video platforms’ active users in December 2022 surpassed the 1.03 billion benchmark.
Which target can you reach through Bilibili?
Bilibili has a well-defined audience. It is the mobile video app with the highest share of Gen Z users, 81,4%. A feature relevant to luxury brands, that is not by chance, has shown a great interest in the app in recent years.
According to content preferences, while males seem to prefer video games, most females show interest in lifestyle-related content.
Finally, we know that the app is very popular among inhabitants of second-tier cities, where, also, the amount of e-commerce services is growing fast, due to a smaller number of international brands present in these cities compared to that of first-tier cities.
What are Bilibili’s main features?
Bilibili “loyal community” is what makes it different from all other platforms and the reason why many famous brands decide to invest in it in recent years. Below you can find some other features, which contribute to creating Bilibili’s target audience loyalty.
“Danmu”: Bilibili’s distinctive feature
One of the most important features is the “Danmu”, a bullet comment that appears in the videos and live-stream. This feature is mainly related to the first audience of Bilibili (the one addicted to ACG content), which is very involved in writing during the “Danmu” for the sense of community that resulted from it.
On the contrary, the new audience doesn’t seem so interested in using this feature as many new users prefer to watch videos without any kind of interference.
Bilibili Live-Streaming
Bilibili also provides live-streaming services, where users have the possibility to communicate with KOLs and KOCs.
This function is very useful to create high engagement.
How can you do E-commerce on Bilibili?
Not sure where to begin? These main functions to promote your brand on Bilibili are:
- opening a store in the “commodities” column of the homepage
- adding links to the videos
- partner with popular KOLs or KOCs
- using Ads
- using Mini-programs
- creating high-quality content
Opening a store in the “commodities” column of the homepage
Users can purchase products by clicking on the “commodities” column present on the homepage, without jumping into third-party sites. The main products sold on it are cosmetics and skin care products.
Adding links in the videos
Content creators can insert links to their goods in the “Danmu” or under the videos. Also, there is an area on the purchase page where users can post and comment to review.
Partner with popular KOLs or KOCs
Cooperation with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) or Key Opinion Customers (KOCs) can be a perfect solution to promote your brand on Bilibili.
Considering the dislike of Chinese customers for aggressive advertising, choosing KOCs, whom they trust more because appear more sincere than KOLs, or creating an impressive and good–looking campaign with KOLs, can be the key to success.
Bilibili content creators are on Taobao
In 2018, Taobao let Bilibili’s content creators open their own KOC accounts on it. They mainly sold goods and services related to fashion, lifestyle, and ACG novels and movies.
The cooperation between Taobao and Bilibili gave the second the possibility to explore “content-related e-commerce”, letting Bilibili use Taobao analytics tools and improve the user experience.
Bilibili Native Ads
To advertise products on Bilibili, there is also the possibility of placing ads in the channels of KOLs or running traditional display ads. This helps advertisers gain their target audience’s awareness.
Bilibili Mini-programs, what is it?
Since Alibaba invested in Bilibili, in April 2019, the focus of the platform has moved from user acquisition to e-commerce. This is mainly due to the appearance of new e-commerce mini-programs on Bilibili, which are the most efficient way to sell on the platform at present.
If you have a cosmetic brand could be interested to know that Bilibili launched a mini-program in 2019, it is called “势能种草机”, where celebrities sell cosmetics.
Creating high-quality content for your Bilibili Marketing
High-quality content is Bilibili’s biggest competitive advantage. The interest of Bilibili users toward high-quality content and great storytelling should not be forgotten. Companies that want to invest in Bilibili should absolutely rely on excellent content creators and imagine very creative campaigns. It would work even better if campaigns have something related to ACG.
Fendi created a very original campaign for its Peekaboo handbag. Bilibili’s design team illustrated the campaign with a comic-style design, a move that reaches the attention and engagement of many users.
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If you are interested in entering the Chinese market or just want to know more about topics related to China, feel free to contact us. GMA’s goal is to help foreign companies to thrive in China with digital solutions. We can work with you to create your e-reputation in China and a KOL marketing campaign using Bilibili.