Does Bilibili's live streaming involve inappropriate content, are you unhappy with it?

Produced by Pai Finance

Article | Chen Qingzhi Editor | Pai Gongzi

B station is in the spotlight again, but this time it's because of pornography.

Recently, there have been reports in the media that B station's live broadcasts have serious issues with crossing the line into adult content. Investigators used several mobile phones to conduct a week-long random inspection of the B station live broadcast area after midnight using commonly used accounts, new registered accounts, and guest accounts, finding that the live broadcasts on B station had controversial titles and content. Some anchors not only provide adult services, but also use B station gifts and monthly fees as payment methods.

After the report was released, B station was affected by the adult content scandal, urgently shutting down a large number of live rooms on the site, and the previously adult content-related live broadcast section has been canceled. However, in recent years, B station has been involved in adult content incidents multiple times, involving adult content, rectification, and then re-involvement in adult content... It seems to have become a fixed process for B station in such incidents. So, why is B station willing to take risks and not learn from its mistakes?

01, B station is closely following P station.

Focusing on the second dimension, B station, while regulatory efforts continue to strengthen, male hormones become more intense, especially after midnight, the anchors and viewers in B station's live rooms start to become restless.

Open the B station live page, everywhere you can see provocative live titles, such as 'Can't use hands', 'Morning exercises / night exercises', 'Warm inside, come in quickly', 'Juicy', etc., the sexual implications are very obvious. At the same time, seductive photos are indispensable, and the anchor IDs usually also include nouns like 'soul-snatching', 'plaything', etc.

Attracting viewers is just the first step for the anchors, the live content is the main event. In soft porn live rooms, the majority of edgy, improper live radio mainly consists of provocative and suggestive content, mainly frequent sounds simulating females in specific exercises, some anchors also place tempting photos on the side to guide users to join groups or add WeChat for exclusive benefits; another part of the main content is the interpretation and recitation of suggestive texts, with a large number of sentences composed mainly of intimate terms like 'brother', 'baby', and some verbs and adverbs.

This is not all, soft porn and edgy content in B station live streams can only be supporting roles, the main roles are erotic transactions achieved through gifting. Media investigators entered the live room of a top anchor in the B station radio area through popular recommendations in the B station radio area, after only paying a 200 yuan monthly fee, the anchor sent a large number of improper photos, two low-quality self-portrait videos, and a recorded vulgar audio clip. After that, the anchor inquired whether more 'exciting' services were needed, and displayed a price list, all adult services in the price list are priced in B station gifts, and transactions are completed using virtual gifts in the B station live room.

Even more terrifying is that such pornographic live streams and transactions are not uncommon within B station.

Many netizens have revealed that they paid 198 yuan on B station, and a female anchor named 'Xiao Jing Bao' messaged him his QQ number, but the result was that 'this anchor sells videos in space all day long.' 'Xiao Jing Bao' also asked users to add B station nicknames to become cloud storage friends, 'all files can only be sent in compressed packages, the password is 521, because some of them have been harmonized.'

After giving male users a taste of some benefits, the female anchor said, 'The admiral is on the line.' Then she sent two 'stimulating audio previews', the audio content sounded similar to the sound of eating a lollipop. After the preview audio ended, the female anchor urged the user to 'unlock more' by adding a crown, and also mentioned, 'If you like, you can go all the way.'

In fact, over a month before the massive removal of inappropriate content creators on Bilibili, similar incidents had occurred. Initially, a Weibo influencer criticized Bilibili's live streaming for flirting with the line of decency, openly implying inappropriate content. This influencer pointed out that upon visiting a certain content creator's page, there was a cover image of long legs in stockings, with a caption hinting at seductive fashion choices. After midnight, this content creator revealed lace visuals from the cover image and even performed seductive actions.

After the influential article was published, it seemed that the Bilibili moderators noticed the tweet and immediately suspended the account of the content creator. However, this incident clearly did not harm the core of Bilibili's live streaming platform. Once the controversy settled, the inappropriate live streams continued as usual.

In January this year, Bilibili faced an incident where a male doctor live-streamed a female patient's gynecological surgery and was caught secretly filming the patient's private areas, which was exposed by the media. After multiple warnings and live stream shutdowns by Bilibili, the account was permanently banned. Additionally, there were cases where users uploaded videos that appeared to be surveillance footage from public places such as schools, hospitals, and hotels, only being banned after exposure.

In 2020, the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications received over 500 reports related to Bilibili. At that time, Shanghai's authorities had administratively penalized Bilibili on six occasions and held over 10 meetings with them. In December of the same year, due to prominent issues like inappropriate and vulgar content on the Bilibili platform, the Shanghai Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications demanded Bilibili to rectify within 2 weeks, conducting a thorough investigation on illegal and inappropriate information, and enhancing the scrutiny of videos, live streams, comics, images, comments, and replies.

However, evidently, despite repeated regulatory demands for improvements, such fundamental changes have not occurred. In this environment, it is the law-abiding content creators and the live streaming ecosystem of Bilibili that are affected.An ASMR content creator mentioned that after streaming for 6 years, the presence of inappropriate content creators disrupted the entire ecosystem. They expressed frustration, saying, 'I can't compete with them, the adult content creators are being well controlled.'

02, Schrödinger's Bilibili Review

Undoubtedly, all of this is happening right under the supervision of Bilibili's regulators.

In fact, from the perspective of paper data, Bilibili has a daunting review team, including a 'human-machine combination' model typically used by UGC platforms, with machine screening first and then supplemented by manual review, including Bilibili. By the end of 2020, Bilibili had a total of 2,413 content audit staff, accounting for 27.9% of the company's total employees. Following a recent incident where an auditor died suddenly, Bilibili pledged to add 1,000 more auditing positions.

However, despite the large number of staff, the workload of Bilibili auditors remains very high. It is reported that the work status of auditors is calculated in seconds, with a daily task volume of 500 to 1,000 pieces of content, yet still ranking at the bottom. A reviewer revealed privately: For short videos of about 90 seconds in length, I have to review 800 pieces every hour.

With such a large number of auditors and high-intensity work indicators, Bilibili's content audit has become the strictest among major companies. For example, some users expressed their dissatisfaction, saying: "Just had an article rejected on Bilibili because it contained the word 'underwear,' XX. Can't even write 'underwear' now? How do you say it when you go to buy underwear at a store? Or do you all not wear underwear?"

In terms of live broadcast review, Bilibili's most glorious record dates back to an incident six years ago.

On May 25, 2016, a user named 'Fen Fengyu Ying' registered as a Bilibili user at 10:57, with the registration IP showing an address in Yulin, Guangxi. At 11:32 in the morning, the user passed the real-name authentication through live broadcasting in room number 265932 and started broadcasting pornography at 12:18:35 noon. This broadcast was immediately discovered by the audit team. At 12:19:27, the broadcast was cut off, and the room was permanently closed. From the start of the obscene broadcast to the shutdown, it lasted a total of 52 seconds.

However, this strict anti-pornography review mainly applies to explicit content. When it comes to softcore content on the edge, Bilibili's attitude becomes ambiguous.

According to netizens, when opening the Bilibili App, some users searched for the keyword '美德' (virtue) - an adult erotic game. In the search results, the top-ranking game video had nearly 0.07 million views, without any explicit content in the video. But when users clicked on comments for more information, the pinned comment from the publisher would guide them to join a group chat to share the game. Some users commented, 'The ones with conscience might genuinely share it with you for free, while the ones without will ask you to pay, or even try to swindle your money.' Some users expressed concern that when you get hooked on playing this type of game, you're likely to be scammed out of your money.

Yet, despite the blatant promotion of adult games, Bilibili's audit team has remained indifferent.

If the above pornographic gaming videos are still relatively discreet, B station is inevitably somewhat negligent, then this live yellow content exposure incident completely highlights B station's default or even indulgent attitude. In the incident, the investigators deliberately selected a certain top anchor's 'Hundreds of Ships live room' - indicating that the anchor has acquired over 100 captains-level or higher monthly fee users in the past month. On B station, the rare Hundred Ships live rooms are key live rooms on the platform, and are the main focus for B station, the platform will recommend these anchors.

This is not just talk, many users, even if they provide feedback that they don't like it, will still be forcefully recommended. 'I'm a girl, I usually watch various gaming content, but the homepage recommended live streams are all on the edge, I don't know if it's intentional by B station, this makes me very uncomfortable, after clicking 'not interested', after a while it will come out again.' An anonymous user on Zhihu expressed that even if reported, there are no consequences.

Another reflection of B station's review attitude is a previous anime called 'The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter', scored 7.4 on B station. Baidu Baike introduces that this anime is adapted from the Japanese light novel 'The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter ~ Become the World's Strongest through Quiet Training~', from the plot summary on Baidu and the aired content, there are instances of suggestive 'edging' towards sexual content.

However, in the content introduction of the show on B station, 'sensitive information' has been removed or modified, but the content of the anime remains unchanged. Furthermore, to avoid supervision, the show did not appear on the 'Follow show schedule' page on B station, if you want to watch it, you need to manually search to access, and the update time is set for early Saturday mornings at 2:55.

It can be seen that B station's review standards regarding yellow content are not set in stone. When faced with hardcore porn content explicitly prohibited by the country, for regulatory requirements, B station can still cooperate for review and management. However, when it comes to a grey area with softer porn content where there's more room for maneuvering, B station's review supervision is clearly lacking, from this perspective, B station is clearly at fault.

03. Symbiosis and Win-Win with Pornography?

Behind B station's Schrödinger's Review, inevitably some might ask: What is B station really after? The answer is simple, traffic and profit. Using porn to attract traffic and make money, this may not have much effect on other websites or communities, but on B station, it is practically everyone's golden ticket.

The answer is simple, traffic and profit. Using porn to attract traffic and make money, this may not have much effect on other websites or communities, but on B station, it is practically everyone's golden ticket.

Japan, the birthplace of two-dimensional culture, is also a major country in the adult industry, which directly leads to the inseparable connection between two-dimensional culture and adult content since its inception. To this day, various adult products can be easily purchased in Akihabara, the holy land of anime. According to statistics from Japanese institutions, Japan's anime industry can reach $5.6 billion annually, with one-third or more of the amount coming from adult and soft adult publications, dolls, clothing, and other downstream industries. It can be said that adult content has become a part of the genetic makeup of Japan's two-dimensional culture.

When two-dimensional culture was introduced domestically, adult content naturally followed, almost becoming one of the biggest labels in two-dimensional culture, and also one of the original genes of Bilibili (B station).

Regarding Bilibili and content creators, how big is the influence of adult content? Panpiano was originally a piano tutorial video creator on Bilibili, earnestly playing the piano and sharing favorite anime songs with everyone, but the video view count remained only in the tens of thousands. When she started wearing cosplay costumes and revealing her figure, the increase in views was very significant. As she wore less and revealed more skin, the video view count increased by at least 50 times from the beginning, reaching over 1.7 million views.

Previously, a Bilibili content creator named 'xx Xiaoning' joined the platform. After just one live stream, she gained 0.06 million new followers within two days. It is worth noting that as a newcomer, gaining that many followers without effective promotion after just one live stream is already quite impressive. One important reason for xx Xiaoning's popularity is her identity as a popular cosplayer mainly engaged in 'benefit' projects, such as selling explicit selfies. In her one and only live stream, xx Xiaoning received more than 0.02 million in tips.

Due to the love for these borderline adult content, many Bilibili users even unite to collectively avoid regulation. For instance, in the case of the anime series 'The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter' mentioned earlier, to avoid being taken down, some Bilibili users urge each other not to follow the series, not to donate, not to like, and to keep the rating slightly above seven. Otherwise, if discovered and reported resulting in removal, it would be very troublesome. Some users even suggest, 'Actually, Bilibili can have a late-night mode where certain series can only be viewed at night.'

It can be seen that,In Bilibili's two-dimensional cultural circle, adult content still thrives in a fertile environment. As a platform, Bilibili should guide and create a clean platform environment for users. However, the reality is quite the opposite; Bilibili, relying on these eye-catching soft adult contents, has found new profit growth points outside of its gaming business.

Currently, Bilibili's live streaming ecosystem encourages users to tip content creators through paid subscriptions, with three types of user monthly payment standards: 'Captain', 'Admiral', and 'Governor', corresponding to monthly fees of 200 yuan, 2000 yuan, and 20,000 yuan respectively.

And all of this income, Bilibili will take a 50% commission in the name of the platform. Of course, in the process of using gifts to pay for prostitution as mentioned earlier, Bilibili's commission will not be reduced at all. That is to say, in the tolerance of soft porn, Bilibili is actually the ultimate beneficiary, balancing both traffic and money.

Relying on traffic and rewards attracted by soft porn, Bilibili's live streaming business has been thriving. In the fourth quarter of last year, Bilibili's value-added services, including live streaming business, exceeded mobile gaming business to become Bilibili's largest source of revenue, accounting for over 30%. Shortly after, a Bilibili spokesperson responded to layoff rumors, revealing that the gross profit of the live streaming business has been increasing for three consecutive years.

According to Bilibili's financial report, in 2021, the annual revenue of its value-added services was 6.931 billion yuan, an 80% year-on-year growth, making it Bilibili's top revenue-generating business. By calculation, the live streaming business accounts for at least 60% of this share, meaning that live streaming has contributed at least 4 billion in revenue to Bilibili.

Is 4 billion a lot? Perhaps not for the general internet giants, but for Bilibili, which had a net loss of as high as 6.8 billion yuan last year, it is truly life-saving money. Therefore, after rumors surfaced last month about Bilibili planning significant layoffs due to an ecological imbalance in live streaming, Bilibili responded by stating that not only will there be no layoffs, but that live streaming will continue to be a focus for Bilibili in the future, with over 40 new positions opening up.

At the same time, the latest guild profit-sharing policy shows that new streamers who join this year will enjoy a 70% no-fault bonus profit sharing for the first 3 months. After 3 months, they can also receive a 50% base profit sharing, with an additional 20% bonus profit sharing by completing tasks. Outstanding performance may also lead to corresponding basic salary support and traffic resource support.

It should be noted that according to a Fangzheng Securities analysis report, Bilibili has the youngest user group, with 61% of users concentrated between the ages of 19-24, and 19% of users under the age of 18, making them minors. These individuals are young, full of vitality, at a time when hormones are active, but at the same time, their values are just beginning to form, with insufficient self-control, making it difficult for them to withstand the impact of soft pornography.

However, all of these negative impacts and operational risks are not the most important. For Bilibili, traffic and profits are the most important aspects worth considering from a capital perspective. Or for Bilibili, pornography is harmless; otherwise, it wouldn't blame the Chinese government for having 'broad discretion in regulating online activities' in its financial risk warnings.

Regardless of the reasons, Bilibili has already positioned itself on the opposite side of the law and morality.$BILIBILI-W (09626.HK)$

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