You Shouldn’t Post The Same Video On Douyin And Bilibili: Here’s Why
Although it is not a new platform by any means, video platform Bilibili has become one of the most buzzed about Chinese content platforms of 2020. Noticing this trend, many influencers, particularly those on popular video platform Douyin (China’s Tiktok) have begun opening accounts on Bilibili. This seems to make sense. They are already creating videos, why not repurpose these videos and grow an audience on Bilibili as well? However, this strategy isn’t working, and many of the creators are struggling to growth their accounts and some are even receiving backlash from the platform’s more loyal users.
One example is a Douyin account called “毒舌电影”, which shares content about the film industry. The account is extremely successful on Douyin, gaining 30M followers within its first six months. In March, 毒舌电影launched an account on Bilibili, hoping to see the same results there, but to date, the account has only 77k followers and videos that have over 1M likes on Douyin typically only get several thousand views on Bilibili.
Why is this happening?
User Base
Before discussing content strategies, let’s have a look at a few basic statistics about user base sizes. Douyin has 400M Mau while Bilibili has 51M. On Douyin, you often see content creators with over 100M followers, while on Bilibili, this is very rare. The only one we’re aware of is called @老番茄.
Therefore, KOLs and brands need to think about follower growth, engagement, and reach in the context of Bilibili’s size. A KOL that has 1M followers on Douyin and the other one has 1M followers on Bilibili are definitely not the same thing.
Content Quality Expectation
Bilibili is optimized for landscape format videos while Douyin’s videos are mostly filmed vertically giving viewers a feeling that Douyin’s videos are more casual and are filmed with a mobile phone, while Bilibili’s videos are filmed with a camera. Bilibili users value higher quality filming and editing and will avoid clicking into or watching videos that look like they were made for Douyin.
Unspoken Chain of Contempt
Many loyal Bilibili users actually boycott Douyin videos as they think these videos are very ‘low’ or crass. One of the main reasons for this is that there is a phenomenon on public transport in China, especially on the high-speed railway, where passengers often watch Douyin or Kuaishou videos without putting headphones on, and they often play it so loud that other passengers can’t take a nap or focus on their own activities. This has given Douyin and Kuaishou a bad rap and makes Bilibili users look down on these platforms.
How can Brands and Content Creators be Successful on Both?
Video Content
Get to know the subtleties of Bilibili’s Gen Z user preferences. For examples, while both Douyin and Bilibili platform’s users love entertaining content, prank videos do much better on Bilibili than young girls’ dancing videos which do well on Douyin.
An account called “疯狂小杨哥” which has 34.2M followers on Douyin has performed well on Bilibili. It entered Bilibili in March this year, and so far it has over 420k followers. An important reason for its successful development is that its content is about the influencer playing pranks on his twin brother and dad who are addicted to playing online games. This suits Bilibili users’ appetite.
And although Bilibili’s content types are expanding, AGC culture is still the heart of the platform, so content that taps into this will do well.
Cover Image Is Important
Similar to YouTube, video cover images should have consistent branding and contain information about the video contents. For example, an account called “毛光光” has 12.5M followers on Douyin. It joined Bilibili in July 2019. For a very long time, its views and likes on the platform were very low.
Its turning point came in April this year when the actor started dressing as a female sales associate and created stories around this character. While the content changed, at the same time, he also started paying more attention to the cover images, which now give viewers a better idea of the video content. Since then, views of his videos have increased dramatically.
Another example is “毒舌电影”, the account mentioned at the beginning of this article, which is performing poorly on Bilibili. It’s account name and profile image are not consistent with the ones on its Douyin account, and its cover images are very poor.
The thumbnails on its Douyin account are sophistically designed, giving a really cool look to the account’s home feed where several video cover images will make a complete image. It’s Bilibili thumbnails, on the other hand, look like they are randomly suggested screenshots. They don’t deliver any message to viewers except those actors or actresses happen to be shown on the cover.
Treat Your Bilibili Users Seriously
In the end, it all comes down to having a specific content strategy for Bilibili and making users feel like you’re trying to understand them instead of just slapping up content from other platforms.
A good example is an account called “摆货小天才”. He has 6M followers on Douyin and is famous for his street vendor spoof videos where he sells super cheap products on the side of the road while acting like he is a luxury sales associate selling to a VIP client. @摆货小天才 just joined Bilibili in June and instead of rushing to publish his Douyin videos on the platform, he first published a video saying hi to Bilibili users. This makes users feel that they are valued and respected, instead of just it being just another Douyin influencer who wants to gain more traffic.
