Bilibili (BILI) sees a spike in engagement in Q1 and COVID-19 had nothing to do with it

Bilibili Inc. (NASDAQ: BILI) benefited from a significant growth in user base and higher levels of engagement during the first quarter of 2020. The company saw double-digit growth in its monthly active users (MAUs) and daily active users (DAUs), which fuelled a 69% increase in total net revenues.

The online entertainment platform also saw a rise in traffic conversion to paying users during the quarter. However, unlike several other companies in the digital space, Bilibili does not attribute its strong performance to any impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On its quarterly conference call, the company stated that its results benefited from quality content, a loyal community as well as its strategies aimed at driving brand awareness and user acquisition. Bilibili added that the COVID-19 health crisis merely provided a slight push to its user growth but did not play a major role in the spike. The company expects to see relatively decent rates of growth in users for both the second and third quarters.

“With our broad and growing content library, increasing brand equity and unique community experience, Bilibili’s platform has increased its mass-market appeal and become many people’s first choice for content creation and consumption.” – Rui Chen, Chairman and CEO

Mobile games and content

Bilibili saw a 32% increase in mobile game revenues during Q1 driven by the popularity of both its existing and new games. Through its recent strategic partnership with Sony, in which the latter invested $400 million in Bilibili, the company plans to roll out more anime and mobile game content into the domestic market paving the way for further growth.

In terms of content, during the quarter, the company saw a significant uptick in the number of active content creators and video submissions, which rose 146% and 138% respectively. The highest traffic came from verticals such as Lifestyle, Game, and Entertainment as people searched for content on cooking and fitness as well as spent more time playing games.

Advertising

During the quarter, advertising revenues rose 90% year-over-year. Brand advertising saw momentum across the ecommerce, games and 3C products verticals with the company’s fast-growing community providing it with an advantage in this area.

Online channels open up new ways for advertisers to increase visibility and reach and Bilibili is seeing interest from advertisers in areas such as online education and ecommerce. The company expects to see a transition in marketing from offline channels to online channels throughout this year.

Read the full transcript of Bilibili Q1 2020 Earnings Conference Call here