The Scoop
China’s equivalent to YouTube is making a play for the rest of the world and courting non-Chinese creators to boost its appeal.
Bilibili this week relaunched its previously discontinued international app and quietly disclosed plans to launch an English-language website and staff up in key markets around the world, including Japan, the US, and Europe, according to new job listings and marketing materials distributed to creators.
Bilibili has already been pushing prominent Western celebrities, most notably MrBeast, to post videos on its main Chinese-language site, which is available globally and boasts 376 million monthly active users. A more concerted global expansion could challenge YouTube’s dominance, but it may also open up thorny questions about censorship, moderation, and data security for the company — the kind of fights that plagued TikTok in the US for years.
Bilibili didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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The revamped international app no longer requires identity verification — meaning users can sign up without having to provide a passport or ID document, which were long required of overseas users on its main Chinese platform, according to what appears to be a newly created account on X marketing the platform to global creators.
“Yes bilibili is going global,” the account wrote, adding that content-wise, the US and Chinese sites will be the same.
In a document recently shared in a Discord chat for Bilibili creators, the company pitched itself as a place for influencers to make money and connect with “Gen Z Coded, affluent and well-educated” users. A marketplace for international users to connect with brands for sponsored content is “in development,” according to the presentation.
The deck also showed creators how to post videos on its Chinese website, adding that an English version is “coming soon. We are working hard.”
The company is hiring for community managers in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Istanbul, and Tokyo, according to job posts. It’s also building global “AI-powered content moderation systems,” a Singapore-based listing detailed.