Author | Wen Yehao

Editor | Wu Xianzhi

On March 5, 2026, Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as B stand , or Bilibili) released its financial report for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025.

The financial report shows that in 2025, Bilibili's total revenue reached 30.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13%. The full-year GAAP net profit was 1.19 billion yuan, compared to a net loss of 1.365 billion yuan in the same period in 2024—marking the first time Bilibili has achieved full-year profitability since its inception.

In the fourth quarter, Bilibili's revenue was 8.32 billion yuan, an 8% year-on-year increase. The single-quarter GAAP net profit was 514 million yuan, a significant increase from 88.9 million yuan in the same period last year.

Bilibili has long been a unique case in China's internet landscape—loved by users, where UP the Lord's (content creators) thrive. Despite some dilution in content ecosystem and community atmosphere, it remains distinct from other platforms, retaining a quality that is hard to replicate.

However, the capital market has been unwilling to pay for this 'uniqueness,' instead measuring Bilibili with external standards. Yet, over the past year, Bilibili seems to have proven, at least for now, that the 'depth' and 'stickiness'—the hardest parts to price—can also translate into tangible profits within specific cycles, thereby recalibrating market expectations.

Standing Tall and Earning

In internet narratives, no matter how unique a company's ecosystem or rare its ethos, if commercialization lags, it is easily labeled as unprofitable.

For a long time, both Bilibili and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) have faced such scrutiny. Compared to Xiaohongshu, which builds on community vibes, Bilibili's position seems more delicate.

For Xiaohongshu, the commercial value of 'grass-planting' (product recommendations) has long been recognized, just not fully realized. In contrast, Bilibili, long tied to 'young people' with little patience from the market, faces fundamental skepticism—not only is its monetization efficiency seen as slow, but even its community's commercial atmosphere lacks recognition.

Little did they know, young people eventually grow up. The overall growth of users has not only enhanced the platform's commercial atmosphere but also increased their own spending power.

A simple example: for a long time, Bilibili users viewed ads with almost instinctive caution. Whenever UP the Lord's inserted ads into videos, the barrage would quickly fill with jokes like 'earning a meal' or 'unfollow warning,' as if naturally opposing ads. This was once seen as evidence of Bilibili's weak commercialization genes.

But in the past two years, user sentiment has gradually shifted. Even if ads in videos have become longer, many users now express 'understanding.'

To some extent, this change reflects not just community tolerance for ads but a generational reunderstanding of internet commercial realities—young people still dislike abrupt, crude, or offensive interruptions, but as they age, they increasingly accept moderate commercial presence as the cost of sustaining content communities.

Chairman and CEO Chen Rui also pointed out in the earnings call: 'Our users are growing up. We are a young community, and now our average user age is 26. This growth benefits both B2B ad value and B2C paid value.'

As user scale and value stabilize, commercialization results naturally follow.

The financial report shows that in 2025, Bilibili's full-year revenue from value-added services was 11.93 billion yuan, an 8% year-on-year increase, accounting for about 39.3% of total revenue—still the largest revenue source. Advertising revenue was 10.06 billion yuan, a 23% year-on-year increase, accounting for about 33.1%, nearing value-added services.

Notably, during the earnings call, Bilibili's management mentioned that in the fourth quarter's advertising business, the retention rate of million-yuan-level clients was nearly 90%. This means Bilibili is not just securing one-off deals but becoming a long-term operating base for brands.

As for the gaming business, the financial report shows that in 2025, Bilibili's gaming revenue was 6.39 billion yuan, a 14% year-on-year increase.

Although last year's flagship title 'Three Kingdoms: Minding the Realm' shifted to long-term operations, fortunately, Bilibili incubated 'Escape from Duckov,' a dark horse in domestic gaming this year. Considering that the console and mobile versions of 'Escape from Duckov' have yet to launch, its incremental value to Bilibili remains to be fully realized.

If the Bilibili that once relied on single-point explosions in gaming revenue seemed at the mercy of fate, then from its revenue structure, the 2025 Bilibili has matured with user growth—value-added services maintain the base, gaming provides flexibility, and advertising is becoming the new pillar.

The market's biggest fear used to be that Bilibili would either stick to its ethos and struggle to earn or learn to earn and lose itself. But based on the 2025 financial report, Bilibili has, for the first time, provided a relatively positive answer—at least at this stage, it has proven that community growth and business closure can coexist.

This also means that Bilibili, long labeled as unprofitable and weakly commercialized, seems to finally be standing tall and earning.

New Cake, and Good Teeth

In recent years, AI has been reshaping nearly all businesses, and Bilibili is no exception.

On the surface, compared to players eager to dive into AI, Bilibili has neither hyped AI nor used it to 'remake' itself, nor has it released corresponding model products externally, seemingly keeping a distance from this tech wave.

But in reality, for Bilibili, AI is a major hidden thread in its 'proof of self.'

Take the increasingly 'valuable' advertising business as an example. Ad budget allocation often revolves around traffic scale, conversion rates, user demographics, etc.

If the spending power of young users once kept Bilibili at the waist or tail of budget allocation among mainstream platforms, then beyond user growth, the AI wave has also disrupted this pattern (landscape) to some extent.

Over the past two years, as AI players have moved from isolated model competitions to product-based friction and market expansion, industry competition has rapidly escalated. Almost all AI companies are doing one thing: finding ways to get more people to truly use AI.

But as cyber 'patriarch' William Gibson often said, 'The future is already here—it's just not evenly distributed.' At this stage, mainstream AI users are not randomly distributed.

In fact, those truly willing to try and continuously explore AI tools often concentrate in tech and knowledge communities. And Bilibili is precisely one of the places with the highest density of such people in China's internet landscape.

Compared to more entertainment-focused platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou, Bilibili has always carried a heavier knowledge and tool ethos beyond 'killing time.' Many users learn video editing, programming, PC building, or even exam preparation on Bilibili through UP the Lord's tutorials.

Data shows that AI content is becoming a new feature of Bilibili, with over 120 million people consuming AI content on the platform monthly. In the fourth quarter of 2025, AI content playback hours on Bilibili surged by 53% year-on-year.

Of course, this diverse and niche content landscape is mostly useless and hard to commercialize most of the time. But when AI players start large-scale (massively) buying traffic, its user value naturally stands out.

After all, for AI players, a core fan who is active and has stable demands is far more valuable than ordinary users who 'delete after claiming red envelopes.'

At the earnings call, Bilibili COO Li Ni also admitted that the fourth quarter's AI app boom and flash sale wars brought incremental ad revenue to Bilibili: 'In the medium to long term, the AI industry will face a major shakeout and budget reallocation. Whether short-term or long-term, this will be a significant positive for Bilibili.'

Thanks to AI adoption, Bilibili has also achieved cost reduction and efficiency gains in content production and smart ad placement. Data shows that in 2025, Bilibili's gross profit grew by 27% year-on-year, with the gross margin rising from 32.7% in 2024 to 36.6%.

This means that while AI hands Bilibili a new cake, it also acts as better teeth, helping Bilibili swallow the cake faster.

Reap Rewards First, Then Weather the Flood

Bilibili is undoubtedly delighted with this 'war profit' and might even hope the fires burn longer and hotter.

Judging by the 'red envelope wars' early this year, the mid-to-short-term reality aligns with Bilibili's wishes. As for how long this will last, no one can say for sure at this stage.

However, in the long run, AI will likely become as ubiquitous as utilities. The infrastructure battle will be brutal and fierce, allowing players like Bilibili to feast in the meantime. But in the distant future, there will come a day when a few players dominate the race.

On the other hand, right now, from last year's Sora 2 to this year's Seedance 2.0, as the war expands, AI is aggressively invading the video industry.

In this context, even Bilibili, which is profiting from the 'war,' cannot remain unscathed.

From a content production standpoint, while last year's Sora 2 mainly enhanced short-video supply and couldn't dilute Bilibili's content quality, Seedance 2.0 has already shown signs of potential disruption.

This presents both opportunities and challenges for Bilibili.

Compared to the abundant supply of short videos, Bilibili's mid-length videos entail higher production costs and longer cycles. AI video advancements can boost creation efficiency for existing high-quality UP the Lord's and enable users with good ideas but limited production skills to become creators, thus expanding supply.

The problem lies here: for content platforms, supply expansion does not equal value expansion, especially for platforms like Bilibili that carry a certain content depth. If a flood breaks loose and inundates everything, its essence may dilute or even wash away entirely.

In other words, if AI videos fully explode and everyone becomes a decent creator, the gaps between platforms maintained by creation thresholds will eventually vanish. If that day comes, how Bilibili—with its smaller scale and user base—will respond could become a major challenge.

Thus, 2025's profitability is just the beginning. As AI continues to disrupt existing industry landscapes, this player, now standing tall and earning, may also need to secure a more stable and spacious foothold in the new tech wave.