The online video platform Bilibili has set its sights on dominating the lucrative yet highly competitive global anime streaming industry. As part of its aggressive expansion efforts, the Chinese company is investing heavily in anime production and acquisition to challenge established international services like Netflix and Crunchyroll.
At its recent “Anime Made By Bilibili 2023-2024” event in Shanghai, Bilibili unveiled plans to premiere over 65 new anime series over the next year – nearly 20 more titles than it introduced last year and significantly more than Netflix or Crunchyroll typically debut in a year.
The new anime slate reflects Bilibili’s multi-pronged growth strategy, encompassing user-generated content, titles produced in partnership with major local studios like Shanghai Animation Film Studio, and series co-produced with leading international producers such as Sony’s Aniplex.
Additionally, Bilibili announced new seasons of several hit franchises like Link Click, To Be Hero X, and the acclaimed adaptation of The Three-Body Problem.
Through aggressive investment and a diverse production portfolio spanning domestic and global partners, Bilibili aims to claim the top spot in the high-stakes online anime distribution market currently dominated by the likes of Netflix and Crunchyroll.
BiliBili, a Chinese Anime Studio, Aims to Revolutionize the Industry
Bilibili’s bold claim to be the premier platform for anime content creation isn’t just flashy rhetoric. The company emerged from an anime fan’s efforts to ensure easy access to his favorite character, Mikoto Misaka from A Certain Scientific Railgun, overcoming common issues anime viewers in China face due to government restrictions.
Originally a fandom hub where users shared and discussed anime, manga, and games, Bilibili fostered passionate user engagement. This cultivated a thriving community that began producing original content – fan fiction, anime music videos, and fan art – based on popular series.
As Bilibili grew into a video-sharing platform, this organic content creation culture distinguished it from standard streaming services. The users curating and producing amateur anime content evolved into professional studios partnering with Bilibili today.
This foundation of user creativity, coupled with Bilibili’s investments in licensing and co-productions, gives credibility to its goal of not just streaming anime but generating it – with both fans and professionals.
The platform’s origins in fandom make it well-positioned to create original content that resonates with anime enthusiasts.
Rather than just promising anime dominance, Bilibili can demonstrate a uniquely supportive infrastructure for creative anime projects from grassroots fans to veteran studios.
That ecosystem helps validate its ambitions to dethrone current streaming giants like Netflix.
As Bilibili’s passionate user base grew, the platform unsurprisingly began attracting high-profile investors. This influx of funding helped resolve the site’s copyright issues while also enabling Bilibili to leverage user data to identify promising original content.
Given the community’s role in elevating certain anime and manga to popularity status through discussion and debate, Bilibili recognized the value of user-created content. Content that resonated widely among its discerning fandom typically indicated quality and mainstream appeal if given a visibility boost.
Capitalizing on this, Bilibili transitioned from an all-amateur hub to strategically promoting standout fan projects, providing resources that could transform dedicated fans into professional content producers.
This created a positive feedback loop – popular grassroots creators received support to refine and distribute their anime even more widely within Bilibili’s ecosystems.
Bilibili essentially fulfilled the ultimate fan fantasy – take the incredible anime concepts birthed by users and give them the means to bring those visions to polished fruition.
This cultivation of an authentic, homegrown pipeline between the best amateur creators and distribution at scale became Bilibili’s competitive advantage as a uniquely fan-powered anime factory compared to conventional media platforms.
Like Netflix, Bilibili realized that relying solely on licensing and fan content wasn’t enough – it needed to spearhead original productions to maximize quality control and content volumes.
Thus, the company started developing in-house animation studios, often recruiting talent from dedicated fan creators already producing hits independently.
For instance, Haoliners Animation Studio, the team behind the popular Bilibili title Link Click, originated from amateur fan animators before being brought into the company’s fold.
This internal pipeline allows Bilibili to systematically identify standout user content and propel those works into fuller series with professional resources.
Combining user-fueled content and homegrown studios with licensing popular external anime, Bilibili assembled an unrivaled anime ecosystem tailored to Chinese preferences.
This comprehensive infrastructure across grassroots, domestic corporate, and Japanese imports already makes Bilibili a top dog for China’s devoted anime fans.
With over 250 million engaged members driving and reacting to content, Bilibili’s data-powered, fan-centric content engine provides unique advantages.
As the company sets its sights on the global streaming crown held by Netflix and Crunchyroll, its demonstrated success resonating with Chinese audiences bodes well for resonating beyond national boundaries.
