An introduction to Bilibili

YouTube is less surprising than its peers, especially TikTok. While the latter has an almost telepathic capacity for serving you a wide variety of content it thinks you’ll like, YouTube is instead a platform designed for long-term buy-in. Creators are less likely to go viral on a one-off video on YouTube than they are on TikTok, but they’re more li... See more

-Bilibili is built around shared interests and purposefully builds friction into community. In order to join a community, users have to pass a 100-question exam. A representative question to join the Harry Potter community, for instance, is: “How many horcruxes does Voldemort have?” (Any self-respecting person should know the answer is seven.)

-The most interesting feature of Bilibili—and the one most central to community—is bullet commentary. When you consume content on Bilibili, comments from fellow community members flash across your screen, time-stamped to when that user had that reaction. Only members of the community—those who passed that 100-question exam—can leave comments, ensur... See more