The company achieved more-than-expected financial results – but also raised some concerns due to imprudent content management.
On February 25, Bilibili released its financial results for the entire year of 2020.
For 2020, total revenue increased by 77% to CNY 12 billion; the net loss rose by 134.2% to CNY 3.05 billion. For the fourth quarter, the revenue posted a 91% rise to CNY 3.84 billion; net loss was 844 million yuan, an increase of 118.08% year-on-year. Li Ni, the vice chairman and COO of the company, explained the expanding losses as the result of the ecological construction of the platform in the current stage. However, the gross profit of Bilibili rose by 24.6% despite the widening losses, ushering growth in the seventh consecutive quarter.
The income mainly comes from games, value-added services, advertising, e-commerce. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the revenue contributed by game business increased by 30% to CNY 1.13 billion, value-added services increased by 118% to CNY 1.25 billion, advertising ran up by 149% to CNY 720 million, e-commerce and other business went up by 168% to CNY 740 million.
The operations are outperforming the competition as well. During the last quarter of 2020, the monthly active users (MAU) of Bilibili increased by 55% to 202 million, of which mobile terminal contribution ran up by 61%, and the daily live users also rose by 42%. What is more, the monthly average paying users posted 17.9 million, a growth of 103%, with the payment rate rising from 6.8% in 4Q 2019 to 8.9%, a record high for the company.
According to iResearch, by the end of 2020, over 86% of the MAU are under the age of 35. The high concentration of the young population also brought many brands, such as McDonald's and KFC, to launch on the platform.
For 2021, Bilibili believes that the revenue in the first quarter will be CNY 3.7 to 3.8 billion, slightly lower than that in the fourth quarter of 2020.
However, there are some concerns raised as well. The content management seems unprofessional enough, as the platform hosts a large amount of discriminatory and insulting content, which caused several famous brands, like ukiss, Shike eyeglasses and Sophie, to terminate cooperation with Bilibili.
In sum, Bilibili, as an online community and video sharing platform, benefited from the lockdown 2020. We are confident about its future – but only if under better content audits can occur.