Most Western brands file Bilibili under "curiosity": a Chinese video site full of animation clips and gaming commentary. That classification is expensive. Bilibili is where a large share of China's urban under-35 consumers — the cohort that adopts premium imported goods years before the mainstream — spends close to two hours a day, and advertising revenue there grew 28% year over year in the second quarter of 2026 because brand budgets followed them in. This guide covers who is actually on the platform, how its two commercial routes work, what Chinese advertising law demands of a creator campaign, and how the content connects to a compliant cross-border checkout.
Bilibili is a Chinese interest-circle video community, used by brands to reach urban consumers under 35
Bilibili (B站) is a video community organised around interest circles — animation, games, technology, automobiles, home, knowledge — used by brands as a consideration channel rather than a sales channel. Its structure matters more than its size. QuestMobile data cited in the company's 2026 disclosures puts Bilibili's penetration at roughly 70% of China's Z+ generation (people born between 1985 and 2009), with an average active-user age of 26.5 and new users averaging 22.5. About half the audience is female, 51% sit in tier-1 and new tier-1 cities, and 40% of daily active users watch video or live-commerce content on the platform.
That profile is why the platform converts in high-ticket categories that need explanation: premium skincare, medical-adjacent devices, smart home hardware, outdoor gear and consumer electronics.
Mid-form video is content longer than five minutes, used by brands to explain products a 15-second clip cannot
Bilibili's core inventory is mid-form video, typically five to twenty minutes. The commercial case is not aesthetic. Bilibili and the measurement firm Miaozhen ran eye-tracking and EEG tests with more than a hundred participants and found that viewers recalled a brand name nearly 26% more often after mid-form video than after short video, with recall of complex product information measured at 74.0%. Bilibili users' comment rate was 2.8 times the video-media average in the same study.
The platform's own 2026 second-quarter numbers point the same way: watch time on videos longer than five minutes grew 18% year over year, and video podcasts alone passed 100 million viewing minutes a day. For a foreign brand, this is the one Chinese channel where a technically literate creator can spend ten minutes dismantling a product's engineering and be rewarded for it.
Huahuo is Bilibili's official creator-collaboration marketplace, used to brief, price and pay UP主
Huahuo (花火, at huahuo.bilibili.com) is the platform's official creator-brand marketplace, built so that paid collaborations run through a system handling creator matching, quoting, contracting, order management and post-campaign data rather than a direct message and a bank transfer. Creators on Bilibili are called UP主; a collaboration bought through Huahuo is called a 商单.
Boost is Bilibili's content-amplification product, used to extend a video that already works
The second route is Boost (起飞), Bilibili's content-amplification product. Once a video is published, Boost buys it additional distribution at CPM or CPC rates. The two are designed to work as a pair: seed with Huahuo collaborations across relevant interest circles, then concentrate paid amplification on the videos that earned organic traction. Bilibili and Miaozhen report audience overlap between the original reach and the amplified reach of around 10%, and that more than 20% of videos under this combined approach halve their cost per video view.
The operational snag for an overseas brand is account access. Advertiser onboarding on Bilibili expects a Chinese business licence whose registered scope matches the promoted content, industry qualification documents, a corporate payment account, and — for a standalone landing page — an ICP filing. An entity incorporated in Europe or North America cannot complete that file alone. In practice foreign brands either appoint a licensed domestic agency that contracts as the advertiser of record, or work with an in-market partner that already operates stores and ad accounts in China. Whoever holds the account also holds the legal exposure.
The Internet Advertising Measures are China's online advertising rules, used to decide when a creator video is legally an advertisement
The Internet Advertising Measures (SAMR Order No. 72, published 25 February 2023, in force since 1 May 2023) are the operative rules, and they are more specific than most foreign marketing teams expect. Article 2 applies them to any commercial promotion delivered through a Chinese internet medium, regardless of where the advertiser is domiciled — so a campaign targeting mainland users is captured even if the contract is signed in London or Los Angeles.
Four provisions that change how you brief a creator
- Article 9 requires internet advertising to be identifiable, and states that promotion through knowledge explanation, experience sharing or consumption review with a purchase link attached must be conspicuously marked "广告". A Bilibili review video with a Tmall Global link is therefore an advertisement, and must say so.
- Article 13 places responsibility for truthfulness on the advertiser and requires self-published advertising records to be kept for at least three years; Article 14 obliges the agency and the platform to verify the advertiser's real identity and keep the same three-year file.
- Article 15 extends that file to algorithmically delivered advertising, which must log the recommendation rules and the delivery records. On an algorithmic feed, that makes the media plan a compliance document.
- Article 19 provides that a seller promoting goods through live streaming bears advertiser duties, and that a host recommending a product in their own name bears advertising endorser duties.
- Article 25 routes a failure of identifiability to Article 59(3) of the Advertising Law: correction, plus a fine on the ad publisher of up to RMB 100,000.
Two further rules catch foreign brands specifically. Advertising Law Article 38 bars endorsers from recommending goods they have not used, with Article 61 permitting confiscation of gains plus a fine of one to two times those gains — so a UP主 who never touched your product is a liability. And Article 11 requires any figure, statistic or survey used in an advertisement to be truthful and sourced, with its scope and validity period stated. "Clinically proven" without the study, its date and its limits is a defect, not a flourish.
| Campaign element | What Chinese rules require | Who is accountable |
|---|---|---|
| Creator video with a shopping link | Conspicuous "广告" label (Measures, Art. 9) | Ad publisher; advertiser for truthfulness |
| Live-stream selling | Advertiser duties on the seller; endorser duties on the host (Art. 19) | Brand and host separately |
| Data, statistics, survey claims | Truthful, sourced, scope and validity stated (Advertising Law, Art. 11) | Advertiser |
| Creator endorsement | Creator must have used the product (Advertising Law, Art. 38) | Endorser, plus the brand |
| Ad and delivery records | Kept at least three years, including algorithm and delivery logs (Art. 13–15) | Agency and advertiser |
| Impacted categories | Pre-publication ad review for medical devices, health food and similar (Art. 7) | Advertiser, before publishing |
Content asset measurement is the practice of valuing a video after its posting window, used to decide where the next yuan goes
Content asset measurement on Bilibili means tracking a video's commercial value beyond its launch week, because the platform's recommenders keep serving good mid-form content long after publication. The signals are comment density and long-comment share, brand-name search lift inside Bilibili, cost per video view after Boost, and tracked store clicks. Set all four up before the first brief; Chinese agencies otherwise report reach by default.
What concentrated spend looks like in practice
The benchmark worth internalising is concentration. Bilibili's own 2025 marketing casebook, reported by Chinese business media, describes a beauty brand that paired a hero product with outdoor creators and an in-app themed campaign and ended up with 60% of its quarterly new customers on the platform, and another that reported an average return above 10:1 with a new-customer rate over 70%. A consumer electronics brand pushed a RMB 50,000 flagship through a hardcore technology creator and reported triple-digit return on a single video. The pattern in every case is fewer, longer, more technical videos, amplified hard after they prove themselves.
Cross-border retail import is the customs regime that lets a foreign brand sell to Chinese consumers without a domestic entity
Cross-border retail import is the customs regime under which consumers buy directly from an overseas seller, used by foreign brands to enter China without establishing a domestic company. Bilibili content does not sell by itself; it points to a storefront, and for most foreign brands that is a cross-border one — Tmall Global, JD Worldwide, Douyin or a brand-owned mini program — fulfilled from a bonded warehouse.
The tax arithmetic is stable. Under the Ministry of Finance, GACC and STA statement Cai Guan Shui [2018] No. 49, the single-order limit is RMB 5,000 and the annual individual limit RMB 26,000; inside those limits tariffs are temporarily 0%, and import VAT and consumption tax are levied at 70% of the statutory amount. For a standard 13% VAT good that is an effective 9.1%. High-end cosmetics priced above RMB 10 per millilitre or gram — or RMB 15 per piece — also attract the 15% consumption tax, which pushes the all-in figure toward 23.1%. Above the annual limit, the consignment reverts to general trade treatment.
Two consequences follow for a marketing plan. First, the price you can advertise in a creator video is a landed price your supply chain has to reach, so the media brief and the logistics quote are the same conversation. Second, the product must appear on the cross-border retail import list — 1,476 tariff lines as last adjusted. If your SKU is not on it, no amount of creator content will make it sellable through that channel.
How GOODSINFINITE fits into a Bilibili launch
GOODSINFINITE TRADE LIMITED acts as the Hong Kong importer of record and in-market partner for overseas brands entering mainland China. We hold the contracting position an overseas entity cannot hold on its own: the bonded customs entry, the compliance file behind a creator campaign, and fulfilment from bonded warehouses in Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Qingdao and Tianjin. We are not a media agency; we make the store, the tax position and the advertising file legal, and we brief specialist creator agencies against a product that is genuinely cleared to sell. Our launch sequence is set out in the China market entry guide, and the terminology here is indexed in the China import glossary.
FAQ
Can a foreign brand buy media on Bilibili without a China entity? Not directly. Bilibili's advertiser onboarding expects a Chinese business licence, industry qualification documents and a corporate payment account, and landing pages normally need an ICP filing. Overseas brands therefore work through a licensed domestic agency or an in-market partner that already holds the account and the contracting entity, and that partner becomes the party legally responsible for the ad file.
What is Huahuo on Bilibili? Huahuo (huahuo.bilibili.com) is Bilibili's official creator-collaboration marketplace. It handles creator matching, quoting, contracting, order management and performance data in one system, so a brand briefs and pays creators through the platform rather than through informal direct messages. It is the compliant route for a paid brand collaboration with a UP主.
Do Bilibili creator videos have to be labelled as advertising? Yes, when they add a purchase route. Article 9 of the Internet Advertising Measures (SAMR Order No. 72, effective 1 May 2023) requires that content which promotes goods through knowledge explanation, experience sharing or consumption review and attaches a shopping link be conspicuously marked "广告" (advertisement). Non-identifiable advertising exposes the ad publisher to a fine of up to RMB 100,000 under Article 59(3) of the Advertising Law.
How long does a Bilibili campaign take to produce results? Longer than on short-video platforms, and that is the point. Mid-form videos are indexed and recommended for months, so the realistic planning horizon is a quarter, not a week. Budget for a seeding phase of eight to twelve creator videos, measure comment and re-boost behaviour in the first two weeks, then concentrate spend on the videos that earned organic search lift.
How should a foreign brand measure success on Bilibili? Use four signals rather than view counts: comment density and long-comment share, on-platform search lift for your brand name, cost per video view after amplification, and downstream store traffic from tracked links. Platform-reported brand cases show that concentrated spend behind a proven video outperforms spreading the same budget across many creators.
Sources
- Bilibili Inc. announces second quarter 2026 financial results — Hong Kong Exchange filing, 27 August 2026: DAU 116.5 million, MAU 371 million, 113 minutes average daily time, advertising revenue RMB 3.13 billion (+28% year over year).
- Internet Advertising Measures, SAMR Order No. 72 — State Council Gazette full text, published 25 February 2023, effective 1 May 2023; Articles 9, 13, 14, 15, 19 and 25.
- Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China (2021 amendment) — MOFCOM legal database; Article 11 on sourced claims, Article 38 on endorsers, Article 59(3) on identifiability.
- MOF/ GACC/ STA notice on improving cross-border e-commerce retail import tax policy, Cai Guan Shui [2018] No. 49 — RMB 5,000 single-order and RMB 26,000 annual limits, 0% tariff, VAT and consumption tax at 70% of the statutory amount, effective 1 January 2019.
- How cross-border e-commerce retail imports are taxed (GACC policy briefing No. 16) — General Administration of Customs worked examples, including the effective rate on a RMB 4,000 item and the treatment of high-end cosmetics.
- Bilibili and Miaozhen content asset white paper coverage — mid-form video brand-name recall nearly 26% higher than short video, complex-information recall 74.0%, comment rate 2.8 times the video-media average.
Related reading
- China social platform comparison matrix — where Bilibili sits against Xiaohongshu, Douyin and WeChat for each brand type.
- China social media advertising compliance — the wider rulebook behind the identifiability and claims requirements in this article.
- How China KOL agencies work for foreign brands — casting, fee models and how to brief an agency you do not yet trust.
- What is the 1210 bonded import model — the customs regime that turns a Bilibili video into a deliverable order.
- Xiaohongshu marketing for foreign brands — the companion channel most beauty brands pair with Bilibili.