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Bilibili

technology Maturity 11-13 Next article →

Bilibili is a huge video sharing website based in Shanghai, China.

It is a place where people can watch and share many different things. You can find videos about music, dance, and even science and technology. Many people use it to watch movies, dramas, and video games too. It has grown from a small group into a major streaming platform. By the third quarter of 2022, it had about 332.6 million monthly active users. About 28.5 million of those people are paying users.

The most famous part of the site is the danmu system. This is a way to see comments as a scrolling curtain of text. These are called bullet comments because they fly across the screen. They look a lot like a bullet curtain in a video game. Users can change the style, format, and movement of these words. Some people even make special translated subtitles or use special effects. You can see rolling comments, top comments, or bottom comments. This makes watching a video feel like a shared event with others.

Bilibili has an interesting history that began in 2009. A man named Xu Yi wanted to make a better website for fans. He first built a prototype called Mikufans.cn for fans of Hatsune Miku. He launched Bilibili on January 14, 2010. The name comes from a character named Mikoto Misaka from an anime. Because of this, the site celebrates her birthday every May 2. In 2011, the site had to change its web address to bilibili.tv. Later, Xu Yi started a company in Hangzhou to run the site.

The company has grown very fast through many big steps. In 2014, Chen Lei became the CEO and chairman. Bilibili began to buy things like e-sports teams and basketball sponsors. They even bought an e-sports team called Bilibili Gaming in 2017. In 2018, the company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in the United States. They also partnered with Sony to bring more anime to users. In 2021, they even listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This helped them grow into a much larger global business.

Bilibili feels like a special community for its many users. People use unique slang, like typing "2333" to show they are laughing. They also use symbols to give a "high energy alert." This tells other viewers that an exciting moment is coming soon. The site even has two official mascots named 22 and 33. These mascots were chosen by a community vote in 2010. They actually tied with 1,824 votes each, so both became winners!

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