Bilibili (referred to as Station B) was exposed to illegal content on the hot search.
Recently, some netizens exposed on social platforms that someone uploaded a large number of video surveillance footage from public places such as classrooms to Station B, and the netizen said that he saw an account on Station B that was suspected of cracking videos in public places such as schools and hospitals and uploading them. On January 17, Station B responded to its official account that it had removed relevant content and banned the account that uploaded relevant content, and reported the account information to the competent authorities. Follow-up investigations are ongoing.
In recent years, Station B has developed rapidly and successfully "broken the circle". Founded in June 2009, after more than ten years of development, Station B positions Generation Z's respect for community culture and consumption capacity and development prospects, gathering more than 200 million users and covering more than 7,000 interest circles.
However, the other side of the successful "breaking the circle" is the continuous decline of the capital market and the frequent problems of content review. In recent years, Station B has been repeatedly exposed to content violations, and it has been interviewed many times to urge its offline content violations of online animation products and related videos to properly handle controversial issues.
【A-side】
"The content you are interested in is in station B"
On June 26, 2009, Xu Yi, a student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, typed a line of code, and Station B was born. By 2021, closely following its slogan of "the videos you are interested in are in the B station", the influence of the B station is getting bigger and bigger, surpassing the platforms of Zhihu and Douban in the field of two dimensions.
Although Station B has always emphasized "quadratic yuan", in recent years, it has not been satisfactory in terms of ACG content involved in quadratic yuan, which is related to the company's commercialization strategy. Since 2014, Station B CEO Chen Rui has made it clear that Station B's goal is not to become a vertical video content site built on ACG content, but to become a large comprehensive video site similar to YouTube.
Since then, the content ecology of Station B has gradually transformed, involved in film and television variety shows, e-sports and other fields, and tried to integrate into the mainstream cultural field to reach a wider range of Z generation users.
The "out of the circle" of content in the mainstream cultural field once expanded the influence of Station B and became a label for the development and growth of Station B in recent years. During the May Fourth period in 2020, the speech video "After the Wave" launched by Station B became popular, recognizing, praising and sending a message to the younger generation: "You have the privilege of meeting such an era, but the times are even more fortunate to meet such you." The data shows that the number of views of "Houlang" exceeded 1 million in 3 hours after the launch of Station B, and the word "Houlang" has also become one of the top ten internet hot words in 2020.
During the May Fourth period in 2021, the speech video "I don't want to be such a person" launched by Station B once again swept the screen of the whole network, and the video was given by two junior high school students to express the observation of social phenomena and the thinking of the younger generation on the future. The video reached 2.516 million views in just ten hours after it was released on Station B. In addition, the "Most Beautiful Night" New Year's Eve party created for three consecutive years has also been on the hot search several times.
【B-side】
The current situation of continuous losses
The strategic transfer and the rise of influence have indeed brought "highlight moments" to Station B. In March 2018, Station B went public in the United States for the first time. The listing price is $11.50 per share and the market capitalization is $3.2 billion. In 2020, after 24 hours of "Back Wave", it also made the market value of Station B rise by 4 billion against the trend. In March 2021, Station B went to Hong Kong for the second time, and the stock price had reached $97, with a market value of $33.9 billion. In terms of revenue, from 2018 to 2020, the revenue of Station B increased from 4.129 billion yuan to 12 billion yuan, a three-fold increase.
In addition, Station B CEO Chen Rui revealed in June 2021 that as of the first quarter of 2021, the average number of monthly active users of Station B was 223 million, which was more than double the 71.8 million listed in 2018. Among them, users aged 35 and under accounted for more than 86%.
However, from the peak to the trough, the B station only took less than a year, and the content out of the circle is also difficult to solve the dilemma of continuous loss. Since the beginning of 2021, Station B has been performing dismal in the capital market, and as of January 18, it has fallen to $38.69 / share, which is already less than the historical high of $157.66 / share in February 2021.
Station B has never had a breakthrough in the advertising business, it seems to be one of the factors leading to its loss, so far, Station B still gives up the profit model of adding opening advertisements. In the financial report of the third quarter of 2021, the overall loss of Station B in the third quarter intensified, with a net loss of 2.686 billion yuan, an increase of 144% year-on-year.
Deeply involved in content moderation and other difficulties, he has been interviewed many times
In addition to the dismal performance of the capital market, Station B, which continues to break the circle by relying on self-made content, is also deeply trapped in the dilemma of being repeatedly interviewed for content review and other related issues. Nandu reporter combed and found that on June 23, 2020, the official WeChat public account of the State Internet Information Office "Netinfo China" had released the news that the Cyberspace Administration of China, together with relevant departments, conducted a comprehensive inspection of the content ecology of 31 major online live broadcasting platforms in China, of which Station B had problems such as the dissemination of vulgar and vulgar content, and failed to effectively perform the main responsibility of the enterprise.
On December 21, 2020, the official WeChat of the National Anti-Pornography Office reported that since 2020, the National Anti-Pornography Office Reporting Center has received more than 500 clues from the masses to reflect the problems of Station B, and according to the transferred clues, the relevant departments of Shanghai Municipality have punished the administrative case of Station B 6 times and interviewed more than 10 times.
The video that was exposed to crack the surveillance that infringed on the privacy of others once again pushed Station B to the cusp of public opinion. In the incident, Ding Jinkun, a lawyer at Shanghai Dabang Law Firm, said that the act of cracking and disseminating surveillance video may bear three responsibilities. According to the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, those who infringe on personal privacy must apologize, eliminate the impact, and compensate for losses. The second is administrative liability, that is, the illegal responsibility for spreading privacy and violating the Public Security Administration Punishment Law will be administratively punished. The third is the crime of suspected intrusion into a computer, and if the circumstances are serious, criminal responsibility must be borne.
As for Station B, Ding Jinkun believes that if the website finds illegal videos or deletes them in time after receiving the deletion notice, it does not need to bear civil liability; if it is lazy in deletion, or if it should be found but the illegal video is not found and the transmission is caused, it must bear the network infringement liability.
Written by: Nandu reporter Yan Zhaoxin