Bilibili Inc.

Founding and early development (2009–2013)

During the first half of 2009, due to some internal factional conflict in the similar video sharing website called AcFun, the website had experienced some server downtime that lasted a month and issues with content creators regarding video submission approvals. During this period, Xu Yi ( Chinese: 徐逸; pinyin: Xú Yì, known as "⑨bishi"), who was an early AcFun user, had left the platform and took advantage of the downtime to create a fandom community website for Hatsune Miku called "Mikufans.cn" on 26 June 2009, which would eventually be the predecessor of Bilibili. As the website grew in popularity, he modified its focus to specialize on video sharing and launched it on 14 January 2010, with the name Bilibili; a nickname for the protagonist Mikoto Misaka in the anime A Certain Scientific Railgun. Bilibili also names many of its features after the anime and celebrates Mikoto Misaka's birthday on its homepage every year on 2 May. Bilibili switched domains from "bilibili.us" to "bilibili.tv" on 25 June 2011. In late 2011, Xu Yi founded Hangzhou Huandian Technology. (Chinese: 幻电; pinyin: huàndiàn; lit. 'fantastic electricity') based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang to develop and operate Bilibili. In April 2012, Bilibili obtained an agreement with Nico Nico Douga to webcast the latest Chinese- subbed episodes of the newly airing anime Fate/Zero starting from 7 April. However, the program was censored after three episodes for unauthorized operation of Internet audio-video broadcasting services, and Hangzhou Huandian Technology was penalized and fined ¥10,000 by the local government. Bilibili started to display logos on its homepage in August 2012 to indicate its affiliation with the state-owned Shanghai Media Group and make use of Shanghai Media Group's content provider licenses in the hopes of avoiding future legal risks. Meanwhile, anonymous visitors to its website were redirected to a subdomain of Shanghai Media Group Broadband subsidiary (bilibili.smgbb.cn). [ citation needed ]

Leadership change, expansion, and acquisitions (2014–2018)

In November 2014, Chen Rui [ zh ] ( Chinese: 陈睿 ) was appointed CEO and chairman of the board of Bilibili. Chen was an early member of Bilibili's community and started watching anime on the platform in 2010. In 2014, he met Xu Yi, who convinced him to become the company's earliest investor. He was the fifth member of the company.

In October 2016, Bilibili announced that it would become the sponsor of the Shanghai Sharks basketball team, whose name was later changed to Shanghai Bilibili. Bilibili chose to sponsor the Shanghai Sharks as both entities originate from Shanghai. In December 2017, Bilibili purchased an e-sports team originally called IM which played League of Legends under the new name: Bilibili Gaming (BLG). In January 2018, Bilibili purchased the broadcasting rights to the spring competition season of LPL, League of Legends World Championship, and League of Legends Rift Rivals. In September of the same year, Bilibili purchased Hangzhou Spark, an Overwatch League team, which took part in the 2019 Overwatch League season. In March of that year Bilibili filed for an initial public offering of up to US$400 million on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company listed on the NASDAQ on 28 March 2018.

Partnership with Sony, original programming, and second stock listing (2019–2021)

On 23 March 2019, Bilibili announced at AnimeJapan that they had partnered with Sony -owned American anime distributor Funimation to jointly license anime titles for both the U.S. and Chinese markets. On 9 April 2020, Sony Corporation of America announced it would acquire a 4.98% minority stake in Bilibili for US$400 million, valuing Bilibili at US$8 billion. Upon completion of the deal, Sony and Bilibili signed an agreement for the expansion of anime and mobile games within the Chinese market.

Later that year, Bilibili Gaming, its e-sports arm, signed a partnership deal with Ping An Bank. Bilibili began its foray into original programming by joining the production of a fourth season for Informal Talks. In August 2020, Bilibili produced the show Rap for Youth. In December 2020, it produced a competition program for voice actors called Voice Monster. [ citation needed ]

In September 2020, the company launched Bilibili Video Satellite. On 3 February 2021, Bilibili announced that it had acquired Shanghai Yarun Culture Communications Co., Ltd, the parent company of animation studio Haoliners Animation League and its subsidiaries. On 23 March 2021, it was reported that Bilibili would raise US$2.6 billion on the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKEX). This would be the company's secondary listing, as it is already public on the NASDAQ in New York City. On 29 March 2021, Bilibili was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at an opening price of HK$790. In the third quarter of 2022, the number of average monthly active users reached about 332.6 million, including 28.5 million paying users.

Discontinuation and Re-launch on International Platforms and Regions (2026–)

On August 19, 2026, the official X (formerly Twitter) account for the BiliBili Creator Hub confirmed that they would relaunch to an international audience after the discontinuation of the old app in August 2025. As of October 2026, the app is available for Android and iOS