Bilibili Inc. (BILI)

How it makes money

Bilibili does not charge for access to the platform. It earns money in four ways: from users, through premium memberships and through virtual gifts and other paid features in live broadcasting and elsewhere (grouped as value-added services); from brands and performance advertisers buying placements and in-feed formats; from mobile games, both exclusively licensed titles and in-house developed ones, monetised through in-game purchases; and from IP derivatives, merchandise and other smaller businesses. In fiscal 2025 total net revenues were RMB30.35 billion, up 13% year over year, and the company reported its first full year of GAAP profitability with net profit of RMB1.19 billion.

Revenue by segment

Bilibili's advantage rests on a community that is hard to replicate: creators post where the audience and the commenting culture already are, and the audience stays for content that exists nowhere else, which is the classic two-sided loop. The brand also carries unusual identification among young Chinese users. The limits are real: the platform competes for the same attention as much larger short-video rivals, its advertising business faces the same buyers as they do, and the games line depends on titles it often licenses rather than owns — so the advantage looks durable within its niche rather than across online video as a whole.

The four revenue lines behave differently. Advertising — a third of revenue in 2025 — moves with Chinese brand and performance marketing budgets, which are cut quickly when the economy slows. Value-added services are steadier: memberships and live-streaming spending are small recurring amounts tied to habit rather than to the business cycle, though discretionary spending on virtual gifts can soften. Mobile games are driven less by the cycle than by the title pipeline and by the pace of regulatory approvals: revenue can jump on one successful launch and fade as a game ages. IP derivatives follow consumer discretionary spending. The overall mix sits between defensive and cyclical, with the advertising line as the main swing factor.

Key risks

• The business runs through VIE contracts, not ownership — The 20-F states that the company relies on contractual arrangements with the VIEs and their shareholders for its mainland China operations, and that these may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership. If the PRC government found that these arrangements do not comply with rules on foreign investment in internet businesses, or if those rules or their interpretation change, the company could face severe penalties.
• Pervasive PRC regulatory oversight — The filing warns that the PRC government's significant oversight over the business could result in a material adverse change in operations and in the value of the ADSs, and that uncertainties in the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws limit the legal protections available to the company and to investors.
• Licences and approvals the business cannot operate without — The company lists as a risk that failure to obtain and maintain the licences and approvals required by the complex regulatory environment applicable to its mainland China businesses could materially and adversely affect its business, financial condition and results of operations.
• Game launches can slip or never happen — The filing states that the company cannot predict when new games will be commercially launched or how far they will penetrate the market: technical difficulties, lack of development capability, personnel and resource constraints, and failure to obtain governmental approvals can delay a launch or cause a game to be cancelled.
• US listing exposed to audit-inspection rules — The company discloses that the PCAOB had historically been unable to inspect its auditor, and that its ADSs may be prohibited from trading in the United States under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act.
• Keeping mobile users as habits shift — The company warns that if it cannot capture and retain the growing number of users accessing services through mobile devices, or is slower than competitors in developing attractive mobile products, it may fail to gain significant market share or may lose existing users.