A few days ago, Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as "Bilibili") released its financial report for the third quarter of 2023, showing that in the first nine months of this year, the platform's IP derivatives and other businesses achieved revenue of 162.9 billion yuan, down 17% year-on-year. As a first-class platform rooted in the second dimension, the IP business layout of Bilibili focuses on subdivided categories, and has formed a set of business operation models from IP, products, channels, landing activities, etc.
As a ***b station, the most important thing is content. From the various types of up masters or power generation for love, or work needs to be released**, to the TV, movies, animation and other works introduced by the platform, to the animation works produced by the platform, the content of station B is very rich.
Since the initial stage of the establishment of station B focused on the two-dimensional circle, and the users were mainly young people and pan-two-dimensional users, the platform put more effort into the content that this part of the users liked, especially in animation.
Station B has more exclusive anime works. The platform's drama channel mainly focuses on overseas animation works such as Japan and the United States. As of December 11th, there are a total of 3,601 works (including different language versions) under the platform, of which there are 686 exclusive works, including "Demon Slayer Blade", "Miss Kaguya Wants Me to Confess", "King Ranking", "Working Cells", "Sword Art Online", "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", "In Shimosakamoto, what are you doing?"."Natsume's Friend's Account" and other popular works series.
In the channel tab on the homepage of station b, next to the drama channel is the "Guochuang" channel. Just by looking at these two words, you can roughly guess that it is related to Chinese creation and Chinese originality. It is understood that Guochuang is a new division launched in 2017 by station B, which is different from the drama channel that includes overseas works, and the main content of the channel is Chinese original animation. Since then, Station B has also started the road of producing domestic animation, and in 2018, it opened the first national animation work press conference.
In the 6 years since, Station B has produced high-quality animations such as "Town Soul Street", "Time ** People", "The Legend of Mortal Immortals", "Spirit Cage", "Three-Body Problem", "The Daily Life of the Immortal King", "Heavenly Official Blessing", "Chinese Strange Tan", "There Are Beasts", and exclusively launched "If History is a Group of Meows", "Bumpy World", "Sword Network 3", "Please Eat Red Beans", "Tomorrow's Ark", "Luo Xiaohei's War" and other popular domestic animations. The data shows that in the past 6 years, more than 600 domestic works have been broadcast on station B, and the number of monthly active users has increased by nearly 6 times.
The surrounding development of Station B was initially focused on its official image. Users who are familiar with station b know that the platform has two station mothers, namely 22 Niang and 33 Niang, referred to as 2233;It also has one representative image, which is a small TV. Around these three images, Bilibili has developed a series of peripheral derivatives, such as dolls, figures, card holders, water cups, pendants, mice, folders, etc.
In 2020, BilibiliGoods launched the cultural commodity brand Bilibiligoods, which is positioned to create a leading brand of consumer goods in line with the life scenarios of Generation Z users, and its main products include official products such as 2233 and small TVs, its own IP external licensing cooperation and related products, well-known IP licensing products, etc.
For example, the capsule project anime official setting set vol1. "Heavenly Official Blessing - People in the Painting" series, "Hatsune Miku" Snow Future Super Happy Pain Bag Cute Body UWA Series, "Time ** Man" animation launch commemorative series, etc., the product types are mainly badges, stands, dolls, colored paper, postcards, etc.
In addition to bilibiligoods, station B also has a cultural and creative derivatives brand bemoe, known as Meng Box in Chinese, which is a brand focusing on providing users with official genuine, high-quality, and cost-effective peripheral products, such as 2233 Life Hundred Play Stationery, Chinese Strange Tan Goose Goose Goose Fox Plush Pain Bag, "Butterfly Effect" series of products, etc. are all produced by Meng Box.
Magnetic Reward, which is also a cultural and creative brand, is committed to creating high-quality IP derivative products with both beauty and texture for all kinds of IP users, and is characterized by sales in the form of lucky draws. For example, there are a total of 65 rewards around the theme of the fairy tale fantasy series of "The Blessing of Heavenly Officials", and consumers can get 1 lottery ticket for every 1 collection card of the series purchased, and 100% of the lottery tickets can be torn to get one of the rewards. It is similar to the gameplay of drawing blind boxes and collecting series of products.
Figures are an important category of two-dimensional peripherals. Station B specially creates a figure brand bebox, focusing on creating genuine and high-quality figure products, especially the main cute beautiful girl series products, and has launched Genesis Evangelion 2233 co-branded scenery figures and other products.
The mode of carrying out e-commerce is usually a combination of entering mainstream e-commerce and building its own e-commerce, and the same is true for station B.
In July 2017, Bilibili officially launched the membership purchase within the company, mainly carrying out IP consumption experience service business, with the dual attributes of sales platform and crowdfunding platform. In 2021, the "rookie dog" with a crowdfunding amount of 13.9 million yuan and the "spirit cage" with a crowdfunding amount of more than 16.65 million yuan are all purchased by members.
Based on the genes of the platform and the characteristics of the user group, the services provided by the members are mainly related to the second dimension, such as the ticketing service of the comic con show, and most of the large-scale comic exhibition activities in the country will take the member purchase as one of the ticketing channels.
There is also a sales service for ACG-related products. Such as comics, ** and other books;Trendy toys such as figures, statues, blind boxes, etc.;badges, posters, stands, cards, pendants, dolls and other grains (the homonym of goods, generally referring to ACGN peripheral derivatives);Scenery (goods obtained from entertainment events, sales at specific events, lottery tickets), art books, and other peripheral products.
Initially, the products sold by members were mainly cooperative products between the platform and the copyright owner, and self-collected products. With the expansion of influence, there are also many third-party merchants who have settled in the membership purchase, such as Ruihuaxing, Senbao building blocks, top toy, Xinghui, Sunrisepop, Youzhi Chaopin, Wan Ruibao, model play bear, card game, Bubble Mart, etc., so that the product category covers building blocks, models, car models, cards and other categories.
Although there are many types of products sold by members, their reputation in figurines is significantly greater. With the fidelity, richness, exclusivity, freshness and other advantages of figurines, this ** is considered to be the preferred platform for Generation Z and high-spending people to buy figurines.
The channel layout of station B also includes the opening of Tmall and the cooperation with physical stores such as Sanfu Department Store, Bookstore, Cool Tide Play, and The Green Party.
Nowadays, when it comes to offline activities of Bilibili, the first thing that comes to most people's minds is Bilibili World (hereinafter referred to as "BW"). But in fact, long before BW, Bilibili had already launched an offline gathering activity for fans in 2013, Bilibili Macro Link (hereinafter referred to as "BML"). BW and BML are the core of Bilibili's annual offline activities.
According to the live broadcast of BML over the years released by station B, BML belongs to offline activities in the form of ** and concerts, with the core content of station B as the theme, inviting first-line animation singers, popular up masters, and representatives of young online culture to participate, and cultural users of station B can participate in the event by purchasing tickets.
Judging from past activities, virtual singers such as Luo Tianyi, Yanhe, Le Zhengya, and Hatsune Miku, as well as real singers such as Rika Matsumoto, Snake Foot, and Mei Yi Liya have all appeared in BML. From 2013 to 2016, the audience participating in BML increased from 800 people all the way to 3600 people, more than 8000 people, 180,000 people. BML2023 is the 10th session of this theme event, and the peak number of online ** people once exceeded 50 million. It can be seen that BML has formed a strong influence in the two-dimensional circle.
Different from the BML concert form, BW is the form of an animation exhibition, which not only gathers more IP, brands, and peripheral products, but also has activities such as author signing meetings, voice actor meetings, UP main stage, game check-ins, theme competitions, etc., which can meet the different needs of the ACG group.
Thanks to the deep cultivation of the two-dimensional field of B station and the foundation laid by BML, BW was a success when it was first held in 2017 and attracted great attention. In 2019, BW also carried out touring exhibitions in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu, and the venues were almost full. BW2023 held this year is the first event after the optimization of China's epidemic prevention policy, and the three-day event has attracted more than 100,000 people.
In addition to the above two major activities, Bilibili will also prepare small activities such as pop-up stores and IP theme exhibitions, such as the special activities of the painting series of "The Blessing of Heavenly Officials", the time retrospective Shanghai Shimao limited theme exhibition of "Time ** People", and the extraordinary lake tour theme exhibition of "The Legend of Mortal Cultivation of Immortals".It will also participate in exhibitions such as the Macao International Brand Chain Franchise Exhibition to further strengthen brand promotion.
The above article summarized the layout and practices of station B's IP business development, but what is its revenue?As a listed company, the financial report data of Bilibili can intuitively show the actual situation of its IP business.
According to the 2018-2022 financial report, the revenue of station B e-commerce and other businesses is 14.3 billion yuan, 72.2 billion yuan, 150.7 billion yuan, 309.7 billion yuan, accounting for the proportion of total revenue. 14%。The overall growth rate is very significant. Although the financial report does not mention the profit margin of this business, it can be estimated that the gross profit margin of station B will not be low in combination with the fact that the business of station B is mostly online, and the gross profit margin of Bubble Mart, which is similar to its business, is 60%.
Since the beginning of this year, Bilibili has changed the "e-commerce and other businesses" in its financial report to "IP derivatives and others", showing the platform's focus on IP business. According to the 2023 semi-annual report and third quarter report, as of June 30, the IP derivatives and other businesses of Station B achieved revenue of 104.9 billion yuan, down 13% year-on-year, mainly due to the decrease in revenue from the transfer of e-sports rights;IP derivatives and other businesses achieved revenue of 5800 million yuan, down 23% year-on-year, mainly due to the decrease in sales revenue of IP derivatives.
In the first half of this year, the daily active users of station B exceeded 95 million, and the monthly active users reached 31.9 billion people, with an average daily usage time of 95 minutesMore than 200,000 BW and BML tickets sold out immediately this year. These data show that Bilibili has a strong influence among the younger generation of the second generation and China, and users are more willing to pay for the relevant services provided by the platform and the peripherals. Therefore, although the performance of IP derivatives and other businesses of Bilibili has declined this year, the strong stickiness of a large number of user groups and users and the platform will be an important support for the platform to carry out IP-related business in the future.
*: Chinese and foreign IP licensing Shenzhen Exhibition (ID: LikensingChina).
Source: The official website of Station B, the official Weibo of each brand.