What Actually Changed in 2026
In August 2026, Bilibili made two decisions that matter for foreign brands.
First, the platform removed its identity verification requirement. Until then, overseas users needed to submit a passport or government ID just to register and post content. That barrier is gone. Foreign accounts can now sign up with an email address, an international phone number, or a Google login.
Second, Bilibili announced a full global expansion: a relaunched international app, an English-language site, and hiring in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Tokyo, and Istanbul. This is not a soft test. The company is staffing up across markets and building AI-powered moderation to support foreign-language content at scale.
The timing follows a strong financial year. In 2025, Bilibili posted its first-ever annual profit on total revenue of RMB 30.3 billion. Ad revenue reached RMB 10.1 billion, up 23% year on year. Q1 2026 continued the trend with ad revenue growing 30%. The platform now has roughly 340 to 348 million monthly active users, based on Q3 2024 financial data, and over 80% of them are under 35.
This is not a platform experimenting with brand access. It is a profitable platform actively inviting foreign brands in.
What This Actually Means for Your Brand
The global expansion is real, but the brand marketplace for international creators is still in development. That matters. Right now, Bilibili is primarily an audience play, not a direct revenue channel. You can build presence, but the commerce infrastructure for foreign accounts is not fully live yet.
That said, the certification path is open. Here is how it works.
Bilibili’s brand account system uses a Blue V (蓝V) designation. It is the equivalent of enterprise verification: your account gets a blue badge, unlocks analytics, access to paid ad tools, and priority review queues for ad creatives. Without it, your content competes in the open feed without the credibility marker that Chinese audiences use to distinguish official brand accounts from fan pages.
To apply, you need: a valid business registration (your overseas business license, with at least 3 months of remaining validity), a clear scan of the license with no alterations, and an account that has completed basic setup with no serious violations. The registration name on your account must match the business license exactly. Processing takes 7 to 15 business days. Foreign companies submit the same documentation as Chinese companies, plus a certified translation if the license is not in Chinese.
Once certified, you can run paid campaigns directly, and your content gets boosted in the branded search results that appear when users look up your company name.
Now, the algorithm question. Bilibili is not Douyin. The platform rewards long-form content (videos of 5 to 20 minutes), depth, and what the community calls “knowledge value.” A 30-second product clip that performs on Douyin will underperform here. Bilibili’s recommendation engine weights watch time, completion rate, and the quality of comments, not just click volume. The users who leave 200-word comments on a video review are the audience you are trying to reach. They do their research before buying, and they trust creators who explain things clearly.
This makes the platform harder to use as a pure awareness channel, and more valuable as a consideration channel, especially for products with a learning curve: cars, tech, premium skincare, professional tools.
Who Is Actually Affected
Automotive brands get the clearest signal. Mercedes-Benz has run campaigns with popular science creators on Bilibili who explain technology in depth. The format works because the audience wants to understand how a car works before they consider buying it. BMW, Porsche, and Tesla all have active official accounts. If you sell a car above RMB 200,000, your potential buyer is on Bilibili, watching 15-minute video reviews before visiting a showroom.
Gaming and tech brands are natural fits. DJI ran a campaign with tech UP主 (creators) that drove a 40% increase in drone pre-orders, according to platform case data. The audience already researches products through Bilibili videos rather than brand pages.
Premium lifestyle, including beauty, spirits, and high-end travel, is growing. The user base is aging into 25 to 35 year-olds with purchasing power. A French cognac brand that worked with a food and culture creator built a channel with 120,000 subscribers in 18 months by focusing on the craft story rather than product promotion.
FMCG pushing daily consumables is harder. The economics of building a 10-minute video to sell a shampoo do not work unless you have a clear differentiation story. If your product requires explanation to justify a premium, Bilibili fits. If it is a commodity purchase, your time and budget go further on Douyin or Xiaohongshu.
How to Start: The Actual Steps
Start with certification before you spend on content.
Apply for Blue V enterprise certification through Bilibili’s business portal. Prepare your business license, a certified translation if needed, and your account credentials. Expect 7 to 15 business days for review. Do not start paid campaigns before this is approved: unverified accounts face ad restrictions and lower content reach.
Once certified, build your channel strategy around long-form content. The benchmark is 5 to 15 minutes per video. Your first four videos set the algorithm’s understanding of your channel. Make them educational, not promotional. A skincare brand that explains ingredient science outperforms one that posts product demos. An automotive brand that reviews the engineering decisions behind a model outperforms one that runs a glossy launch film.
Then find your UP主. Bilibili’s creator collaboration runs through Huahuo, the platform’s official influencer marketplace. Brands typically allocate 70% of their Bilibili budget to creator partnerships and 30% to paid amplification through Qifei. This split matters: organic creator content builds trust, paid amplification drives reach. Start with two or three mid-tier creators (100,000 to 500,000 subscribers) in your product category rather than one top creator. The audience trusts niche expertise over celebrity reach on this platform.
On paid ad formats: splash screen ads (开机广告) deliver high visibility at app launch, useful for product launches. News feed ads (信息流) are the standard entry point for most brands, appearing in the video feed in image or video format. Budget reality: a meaningful test on Bilibili requires at least RMB 50,000 to 80,000 per month for paid media, plus creator fees on top. Below that, the data is too thin to optimize from.
If you want support setting up your certification and first content strategy, our China social media marketing team handles the process end to end, from Blue V application to creator briefing and paid campaign setup.
For context on how Bilibili fits into your broader short video strategy, this breakdown of China’s short video platforms is a useful starting point before you decide where to put your budget.
For a side-by-side look at how audio and video channels compare, the underused channels guide covers where different brand budgets go further in 2026.
The Question Worth Debating
Bilibili’s core Gen Z audience is getting older. The platform’s 18-to-24 cohort from 2019 is now 25 to 31, with real purchasing power. But the next generation of 18-year-olds is growing up on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, not Bilibili. Does that demographic shift make the platform more valuable for premium and lifestyle brands right now, or does it signal a window that closes in three to five years? Leave your take in the comments or write to us directly.
