The Great Migration: Why Bilibili Creators are Heading to YouTube

Context: What is Bilibili?

Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI) is often described as “YouTube meets Crunchyroll”. It started as a niche community for ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) culture but has grown into China’s closest equivalent to YouTube for long-form video.

• The “Danmu” Culture: Its defining feature is danmu (bullet comments) — real-time user comments that scroll across the video screen like a barrage of bullets, creating a hyper-interactive, communal viewing experience.
• The Audience: It is the spiritual home of China’s “Gen Z,” known for high stickiness and community loyalty. However, unlike YouTube’s global ad dominance, Bilibili has struggled to turn this cultural relevance into consistent profitability, a factor that is now driving its top talent away.

The Financial Catalyst: Falling Incentives

For years, Bilibili’s Creator Incentive Plan was a primary income source for “hardcore” creators. However, as the company (BILI) faced pressure to narrow losses, it slashed these payouts drastically. This financial instability has made YouTube’s Google AdSense — which pays in USD and offers much higher CPMs (Cost Per Mille) for tech and finance niches — an essential economic lifeline.

A Decade of Change: Stricter Content Reviews

The most significant shift for veteran creators is the regulatory climate. Compared to ten years ago, content reviews in China have become exponentially stricter.

It is important to note that this is not Bilibili’s fault. The platform is legally obligated to enforce increasingly rigid national regulations and government oversight. However, this forced compliance has a devastating impact on the platform’s ecosystem.

The “Minefield”: Creators often don’t know they have stepped on a “mine” until their account is already gone. A technical tutorial, a historical reference, or even a background image can trigger a permanent ban.

Content that was once considered educational — such as explaining science or discussing history — can now be flagged for “inappropriate commentary”. For creators, the risk of a “lifetime ban” for a single misunderstood sentence has turned the platform into a minefield, driving them toward the relative editorial freedom of YouTube.

Case Study: Bigdongdong (大东东)

• The Ban: Bigdongdong is a prime example of a creator who “disappeared” from the domestic web. His Bilibili account was permanently banned recently because his core content — advanced networking, router firmware (OpenWrt), and tutorials on accessing the global internet — crossed the increasingly rigid “Red Lines” regarding cybersecurity and “circumventing” tools.
• The Shift: Ten years ago, tech enthusiasts could openly discuss networking protocols and overseas server configurations. Today, such content is often flagged as “illegal technical assistance,” leaving creators like Bigdongdong with no choice but to move to YouTube to preserve their work and community.

Case Study: PaperClip (回形针)

• The Total Wipeout: Perhaps the most famous example of a “political death sentence” on Bilibili. Despite being one of the most professional science-explainer channels in China, they were permanently banned and scrubbed from the Chinese internet following a series of controversies involving map inaccuracies and the political leanings of their staff.
• The Lesson: For creators, the “PaperClip incident” proved that even a massive, high-production team can be erased overnight. YouTube offers a “safety net” where creators can archive their intellectual property away from the immediate reach of domestic “cancel culture” or sudden platform-wide bans.

Case Study: Geekerwan (极客湾)

In China domestic market where tech giants (like Xiaomi, Huawei, or OPPO) wield massive influence over media and platforms, “whistleblower” content is extremely dangerous for a creator’s survival.

• The Exposure: Geekerwan gained international fame by exposing how several major Chinese mobile manufacturers “hack” or “cheat” on benchmark tests. He revealed how phones were programmed to detect testing software and artificially boost performance — a practice that stops during real-world use.
• The YouTube Advantage: On Bilibili, such “negative” reports on major domestic brands can lead to shadow-banning, legal threats, or pressure from the platform to “adjust” the narrative to avoid offending advertisers. By moving to YouTube, Jikewan can publish unfiltered technical audits. This independence has earned them global credibility, proving that YouTube is not just a secondary channel, but a primary home for unbiased tech journalism.

Conclusion

The migration from Bilibili to YouTube is a pragmatic diversification strategy. For creators, YouTube offers a more stable ecosystem: it provides predictable revenue, rewards technical depth, and — most importantly — provides the editorial independence needed to survive in an era where domestic platforms are forced to navigate an increasingly complex and restrictive regulatory landscape.

Reference

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