As Internet users in China are becoming more fluent in short-form video content creation such as Douyin(TikTok), new research suggests that longer form video blogs (vlogs) are also on the rise in China. If you watch a lot of Youtube, you’ve probably seen at least one video where a YouTuber basically documents their day with a camera and puts all the clips together into a 10-minute-ish video. According to the 2019 China Vlog Business Model and User Behavior Report by iiMedia Research, the number of vlog viewers in China has reached 368 million in 2020 and will grow by another 32.6% to reach 488 million by 2021.

Founded in 2009, Bilibili began as a niche video platform focused on anime culture in China. With this new wave of vloggers, marketers are paying more attention to this platform. While Bilibili still has its roots in anime culture, it has since diversified its video content to cater to many more audiences such as music, tech, lifestyle, and fashion.

Is BiliBili the right choice for your business? 

Before any brand decides to start on a new platform, they need to know exactly who their target audiences are and what kind of culture they want to create. Building a loyal fanbase and culture is hard to come by these days with so many brands trying to grow an audience on every platform such as Facebook and Instagram. 

The majority of the users on BiliBili are young with 90% of them under 25 years old. More than 50% of the users are young urban netizens and more than 80% of high school students are on BiliBili. With over 7000 core subculture communities and over 2 million subculture hashtags connecting the users, do you believe your brand has the ability to create a culture similar to that?

Due to the collective nature of Chinese people, most BiliBili users would pay just to be connected to their community where they can find others they can identify with and share interests with. Culture and community are the core and the foundation of Bilibili.

So what can I do?

Don’t let this super tight-knit culture scare you away. In fact, this is actually a huge advantage for us marketers. If you know exactly what type of customers will respond and resonate with whatever your service or product is about, then you will definitely be able to utilize your ads and influencer campaigns to their fullest potential to increase your own brand exposure.

Here are 3 ways you can market your brand on Bilibili

Like every social media platform, brands can also buy display ads in the newsfeeds of Bilibili users. Brands and products’ info can show up in a natural and friendly way to get users’ attention, and then to maximize the rate of reach in different interest communities.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the top left picture is an advertisement because it has the logo “广告” which means Ads in Chinese. Same as the green banner displayed under the videos, in the bottom left corner under the BOSCH sign, you’ll see it’s also an ad.

However, in the current generation of social media, a simple display ad will not cut it. This is why you should also consider...

Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) are basically China’s version of Influencers. There are a huge number of Gen Z’ers and live streamers who make a living in this ecosystem. Cooperating with these types of influencers will help your brand reach your target audience more precisely and efficiently. The influencers would eventually have some type of “call to action” for their followers and then bam… brand exposure.. or sales.

Above is an example of KOL marketing where the Chinese influencer recommends a restaurant to his followers. It has been viewed over 360,000 times.

Users and influencers on Bilibili are so creative that some terms originating from their video content could even become viral. For example, Bilibili announces the “Bullet Comment of The Year'', which is the most popular keyword/term which was used by Bilibili users over 5.42 million times last year. Imagine having a “Hashtag of the Year” on Instagram or Twitter. Watch our Youtube video for a more detailed explanation of why bullet comments are so popular in China. Even a particular lyric of a song can go viral on Bilibili.

Brands can also start their own official accounts to create original content on Bilibili. This way, they could attract more users to their own private channels. It can be easier for them to manage brand reputation and to maintain relationships with users. One perfect example is KFC’s 80-year anniversary campaign where they stayed No.1 on Bilibili’s trending list for 12 days.

In this particular video, you can see that even though it’s an original video from KFC, they still managed to include some Chinese influencers saying happy 80th anniversary to KFC and everyone. This goes to show how important and big KOL marketing is in Asia.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, a Bilibili marketing guide in a nutshell. Do you have what it takes to succeed on such a platform like this? Do you have any further questions on what you’ve read today? Or are you ready to take your brand to the next level? Send us an email at info@catalystagents.com or fill in the contact form below and let us help you get it started.