Bilibili has branded itself as a hub for anime, comics, and games – so you can imagine their user demographics. Offering a platform to share memes, or to post movie reviews, unboxing videos, and everything in-between, the video streaming site claims 92 million active users, 82% of which are under 28 years old.
Bilibili’s home page
Bilibili sounds like the geekier version of YouTube, but it may surprise you to learn that they’re pretty picky about who gets membership privileges. To be considered a full member, you have to either be invited by an existing full member, or pass a test – a test which, according to the company’s Chairman and CEO Chen Rui, might be the world’s most-taken test:
“Around 43 million users passed by the third quarter of 2018. In comparison, the gaokao, China’s notoriously difficult national college entrance exam, drew just under 9 million high schoolers last year.”
Full membership means accessing the bullet chat feature, which allows user comments to fly across the screen.
100 questions in 120 minutes — is it an excessive requirement for watching Japanese cartoons? Yes, probably. But Chen says it’s about fostering the right community.
“We really support and protect originality, and combat plagiarism and marketing. We maintain positive energy in the community, fighting against trolls and tasteless content. I believe whether it’s arguing, or vulgar things, it is very unfavorable to the long-term development of the community.”
And considering most of the website’s traffic comes from users born in the 90’s and 00’s, he has the kids to think about.
“I hope that Bilibili can serve this generation of young people and enrich their cultural life,” Chen said at an industry summit last November. “I believe this generation will be born world-class creators, making China not only the largest cultural consumer in the world, but also the largest content producing and cultural exporting country.”
Chen says, “Young people like entertainment, but are also full of curiosity.” Source: National Business Daily
Part one of the test makes you answer questions about bullet chat etiquette and community guidelines. You must answer all 40 questions correctly before you can get to the actual knowledge-based questions. And boy, are they interesting.
There are anime questions that would give pause to even the weebiest weeb:
In Oreimo, who voices the character Kirino Kōsaka?
Questions on popular culture, both Chinese and foreign, were not off the table:
Who is the screenwriter of Farewell my Concubine?
In season 7 of Game of Thrones, which of Daenerys’ dragons died?
There’s science trivia that’ll make you wish you paid more attention to Bill Nye:
Which of the following substances does not pass through the nuclear pore? A. proteins B. RNA C. lipids D. DNA
And I don’t even know what to categorize this as:
What is the correct pronunciation of “thank you”?
With Alibaba having recently purchased an 8% stake in the company – hot on the heels of Tencent’s investment last year – we can expect the Chinese online video market to continue expanding.
And for more odd Chinese test questions:
