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China’s Bilibili Launches Pay-Per-View Channels Amid Crackdown

Bilibili’s market capitalisation has shrunk from its peak of about $54 billion last February to just over $10 billion this month


Bilibili has launched a premium pay-per-view video channel to boost revenue as Beijing's tech crackdown hits live-streaming and video-games.
The Shanghai-based company has built a paywall for some of its offerings, such as a series called "The World’s Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries". File photo: AFP.

 

Bilibili, often referred to as China’s YouTube, has launched a premium pay-per-view video channel to boost revenue as Beijing’s tech crackdown hits live-streaming and video-games.

The Shanghai-based company has built a paywall for some of its offerings, such as a series called “The World’s Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries”, which it charges viewers 30 yuan ($4.50) to watch.

So far, The World’s Top 10 Unsolved Mystery series has been viewed more than 10,000 times.

The move reflects a sense of urgency felt by Bilibili, known for featuring free-to-watch videos, to diversify its revenue sources as its existing growth engines have been heavily hit by Chinese regulatory changes.

The harsh crackdown last year is a bid to rein in the influence of large internet firms by limiting video-game licences and preventing children and teenagers from paying money to live-streaming hosts.

Bilibili’s market capitalisation has shrunk from its peak of about $54 billion last February to just over $10 billion this month.

The company reported its first-quarter result earlier this month where it recorded a deeper net loss of $360.3 million. While its revenue grew 30% year-on-year to $797.3 million, it slid by 13% compared with the fourth quarter last year.

Bilibili said that it expects to publish only one game in China and one game outside of China this quarter.

 

  • Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell

 

 

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.