Chinese video sharing site Bilibili has made a number of moves to establish itself as a mainstream entertainment platform, including spending hundreds of millions on exclusive streaming rights of a major e-sports event and planning a major New Year’s Eve show, an entertainment genre dominated by major state television stations.
Why it matters: Bilibili has been actively expanding beyond the anime, comic, and games (ACG) content that it has became known for to more mainstream entertainment offerings. The company has also been working towards reaching a market capitalization of $10 billion, a goal recently set by its CEO.
Details: Earlier this month, Bilibili spent RMB 800 million ($113.7 million) to acquire the exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the League of Legends World Championship from 2020 to 2022, according to a Reuters report.
- The company also on Thursday announced its plans to hold a New Year’s Eve concert, “The Last Night of 2019,” breaking the monopoly of extensive, gala-type shows held by state-owned Hunan Television, Jiangsu Television, Dragon Television, and China Central Television.
- Bilibili said the 3.5-hour event will be tailored to interests of China’s Generation Z, featuring acts anchored around popular online game “World of Warcraft,” fantasy television series “Game of Thrones,” and 3D virtual idol “Luo Tianyi.”
- The site also on Friday announced that it has joined US platforms Youtube, Hulu, and Netflix to provide content for Tesla’s in-car entertainment center, Tesla Theater.
- According to a statement sent to TechNode, Bilbili’s streaming service will become available on all Tesla models globally, including the upcoming Cybertruck.
Context: In addition to these bigger budget moves, Bilibili also launched a series of smaller programs to help build its content ecosystem and boost growth.
- The company started beta testing a paid course system in October, offering classes that teach practical skills such as programming as well as informational topics such as art and history.
- In November, Bilibili also launched an incentive program to grow the number of music content creators on the site.
Correction: an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Bilibili was spending hundreds of millions on streaming rights for its New Year’s Eve show, not for the e-sports championship streaming rights.