China’s largest user-generated video-sharing platform Bilibili (comparable to YouTube), was recently the center of attention and even became the top trending topic on social media.
Several major content creators on the platform announced their decision to halt the release of new videos, raising the question of whether this was the start of a trend of creators abandoning the platform altogether.
A screenshot of LKs' video where he announced his hiatus from creating new content.
Initially, on March 30th, a video creator named LKs, who has 3.11 million followers on Bilibili, announced that he would be taking a break from content updates. LKs previously worked for a Riot Games branch in Shanghai and has been on the platform for four years following his resignation from Riot. He covered interesting topics related to gaming, technology, and lifestyle.
Likewise, on March 31st, a gaming video creator known as "Beauty Blogger King Xu" (靠脸吃饭的徐大王) announced in a video that he would be taking a break from the platform due to lack of profitability. Xu has a following of 3.86 million on the platform.
A screenshot of “Beauty Blogger King Xu (靠脸吃饭的徐大王)”s video about halting new content
The consecutive events led many to speculate that the timing of these announcements was not coincidental. On April 2nd, the topic "Bilibili creators initiating content pauses" climbed to the top spot on Weibo’s trending topics, which provided an opportunity for many creators to share their personal experiences.
On April 2nd, the topic "Bilibili creators initiating content pauses" began trending on Weibo
One of the most eye-catching posts was from Argent (-A路人-), who criticized Bilibili by listing seven problems. The post highlighted the frequent changing of agents, the platform's mistreatment of older creators, as well as a lack of business trust among corporations.
Additionally, in media reports, a Bilibili video creator told 21 Jingji that a video with similar statistics to last year might only generate 1/3 to 1/2 of the revenue for creators this year.
In contrast, a few video creators have shared their belief that the recent surge of content creator hiatus announcements was overblown and misinterpreted.
According to some analysts, with the increasing popularity of short video platforms such as TikTok and Kuaishou, Bilibili is facing stiff competition and has relatively lower viewership statistics. Although its high-quality videos are well-received by anime fans, the platform is struggling to monetize them effectively.
Currently, Bilibili has not made an official response to this incident. But as an example of Bilibili's performance, in the third quarter of 2022, the platform had an average of 3.8 million active content creators per month, a 40% increase compared to the previous year.
After days of debates and media analysis, it is apparent this trend of ‘abandoning ship’ was, to a degree, overly exaggerated. Most major creators are still posting content at a consistent pace. But the slow decline of Bilibili is showing, and the trend of content creators leaving the platform could one day become very real if Bilibili cannot turn the table around in time.
Source: Bilibili