哔哩哔哩二季度广告增长与利润率改善，但Investing.com稿件未提供相对官方财报的新事实

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Introduction & Market Context
Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI) presented its second-quarter 2026 investor slides on August 27, showcasing continued profitability improvements as the Chinese video platform leverages its dominant position among young users to drive advertising growth. The presentation revealed that advertising has overtaken value-added services as the company’s largest revenue segment, while gross margins reached a new high of 37.2%.
Shares traded at $16.39 following the presentation, up 1.49% from the previous close of $16.15, though the stock remains near its 52-week low of $15.79 and far below its 52-week high of $36.40. The company’s market capitalization stands at $6.76 billion.
Quarterly Performance Highlights
The presentation materials detailed robust operational and financial metrics for the second quarter of 2026. Daily active users reached 117 million, representing 7% year-over-year growth, while monthly active users totaled 371 million. User engagement remained strong, with average daily time spent per user climbing to 113 minutes, up from 105 minutes in the prior-year period—also a 7% increase.
As illustrated in the following chart tracking user growth trends over the past four years, Bilibili has demonstrated consistent expansion in both user base and engagement levels:
On the financial side, total net revenues reached RMB 7.94 billion in the second quarter, up 8% year-over-year. More impressively, the company posted net profit of RMB 339 million on a GAAP basis, representing 55% growth from the prior year. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes share-based compensation and other items, adjusted net profit totaled RMB 704 million, up 25% year-over-year.
The company’s profitability trajectory is shown in the following financial performance charts, which highlight both gross profit and net profit margin expansion:
Gross profit margin improved to 37.2% from 36.5% a year earlier, marking the 16th consecutive quarter of margin expansion. Net profit margin on a non-GAAP basis widened to 8.9% from 7.6% in the prior-year period, demonstrating improving operating leverage.
Revenue Diversification and Segment Performance
A notable development in the quarter was the shift in Bilibili’s revenue composition. Advertising emerged as the largest revenue contributor at 39% of total revenue, overtaking value-added services which accounted for 37%. Mobile games represented 18% of revenue, while IP derivatives and other revenue streams comprised the remaining 6%.
The company’s revenue mix evolution is depicted in the following stacked chart showing five quarters of data:
Advertising revenue reached RMB 3.13 billion in the second quarter, up an impressive 28% year-over-year. This marked the 14th consecutive quarter of 20%-plus advertising growth, according to management commentary. The strong performance came despite weaker consumer spending in China’s broader economy, suggesting that advertisers continue to value Bilibili’s young, engaged user base.
The advertising revenue growth trajectory over the past year is shown below:
The presentation highlighted three distinct advertising formats driving growth: N-reach brand ads for mass awareness campaigns, customized native ads that blend with platform content, and performance-based ads with sales conversion capabilities. Examples featured luxury brands like Cartier, automotive advertisers, and mobile game publishers.
Value-added services revenue totaled RMB 2.97 billion, up 5% year-over-year. This segment encompasses live broadcasting, premium memberships, and fan charging mechanisms that allow users to support content creators. Premium membership reached 25.7 million as of June 30, 2026, while fan charging income grew approximately 50% year-over-year.
The presentation detailed the various VAS offerings through app interface screenshots:
VAS revenue growth, while more modest than advertising, remained steady as shown in the following chart:
Mobile games revenue faced headwinds in the quarter, declining 14% year-over-year to RMB 1.39 billion. However, management indicated that gaming revenue should return to year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2026, supported by a robust pipeline of new titles.
Strategic Positioning in Gen Z+ Demographics
The presentation emphasized Bilibili’s unparalleled reach among China’s younger generations, asserting that 7 out of every 10 Gen Z+ individuals (those born between 1985 and 2009) are Bilibili users as of May 2026. The average age of active users stands at 26.5, up from 21 in 2018, indicating that the platform is successfully aging with its core demographic.
The company’s leadership position among young Chinese consumers is illustrated in the following metrics:
This demographic positioning carries significant strategic value. The user base demonstrates strong commercial potential, with 51% female users showing higher interest in commercial content, 57% residing in tier-1 or tier-2 cities with greater purchasing power, and 46% of daily active users viewing video and live commerce-related content in the second quarter.
The platform has also expanded beyond its anime, comics, and games (ACG) roots into broader content categories. The presentation showed content spanning pan-entertainment (fashion, fitness, food, music, sports), pan-knowledge (educational content), and lifestyle categories.
Content category expansion and user demographic evolution are depicted below:
Creator Ecosystem and Community Engagement
Bilibili’s content strategy centers on its creator ecosystem, which the presentation described as "young and flourishing." Approximately 44% of content creators were under age 24 in 2025, and creator average income grew 21% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026.
The creator growth map shows healthy expansion across all tiers, from emerging creators with over 1,000 followers (up 30% year-over-year) to sophisticated creators with over 1 million followers (up approximately 20% year-over-year).
The creator ecosystem development is illustrated in the following progression chart:
Community engagement metrics remained robust, with 17.4 billion monthly interactions in the second quarter encompassing bullet chats (real-time comments that scroll across videos), comments, likes, and virtual gifting. The platform counted 299 million official members as of June 30, 2026—users who passed a 100-question entrance exam to gain full community privileges.
User retention data showed approximately 80% of users remained active after 12 months, demonstrating strong platform stickiness:
Market Opportunity and Growth Drivers
The presentation outlined substantial long-term growth potential driven by what Bilibili calls "videolization"—the increasing centrality of video content to information, entertainment, and communication. Citing data from iResearch, the company projected that China’s video-based industry will grow from RMB 1.24 trillion in 2023 to RMB 2.94 trillion by 2030, representing a 2.4x increase.
Among Gen Z+ demographics specifically, time spent on video content is expected to increase 27% from 4.5 hours per day in 2023 to 5.7 hours by 2030, while per capita spending on video-related content and services is projected to grow 2.5x from RMB 2,047 to RMB 5,076.
These market projections are visualized in the following charts:
The presentation identified infrastructure improvements (AI, 5G, video production tools), supply expansion (more creators and diversified content), and rising demand as key drivers of this videolization trend.
Gaming Strategy and Pipeline
Despite near-term gaming revenue weakness, the presentation highlighted Bilibili’s strong position in game-related content and outlined an expanding game portfolio. Game-related content ranks as both the most popular professional user-generated video (PUGV) genre and the most popular live broadcasting category, with 40% of daily active users viewing game-related content in the second quarter.
The company’s gaming community strength is illustrated below:
Bilibili’s game strategy encompasses exclusively licensed titles like "Fate/Grand Order" and "Azur Lane," jointly operated games such as "Arknights," and self-developed titles including "Escape from Duckov," which has surpassed 4 million copies sold.
The pipeline includes five major titles planned for late 2026 through 2027: "Lumi Master" (a self-developed casual game launching globally September 17, 2026), "Sanwang" (a Three Kingdoms strategy game for late 2026), "Three Kingdoms: The Ravages of Time," "Ragnarok Online 3," and "MISTBOUND: Guild Wars Card Game."
The breadth of Bilibili’s gaming portfolio is shown in the following overview:
Financial Outlook and Margin Targets
The presentation’s financial highlights emphasized improving cost structure and operating leverage. Cost of revenues as a percentage of revenue remained relatively stable, with revenue-sharing costs at 39% of revenue in the second quarter and content, server, bandwidth, and staff costs at 19%.
The evolution of cost structure and gross margin improvement is depicted below:
Operating expenses totaled 29% of revenue in the second quarter on a non-GAAP basis, with sales and marketing at 13%, research and development at 12%, and general and administrative at 4%. Operating profit on a non-GAAP basis reached RMB 696 million, up 21% year-over-year, with operating margin at 8.8%.
The breakdown of operating expenses and profit trends is shown in the following charts:
Management reiterated long-term profitability targets of 40% to 45% gross margin and 15% to 20% operating margin. The company indicated it has already deployed 70% to 80% of its RMB 1 billion AI capital spending plan in the first half of 2026, primarily for server computing resources, with full-year R&D spending for AI development expected to total approximately RMB 500 million.
Chairman and CEO Rui Chen emphasized the company’s focus on content quality over format, stating that "in the AI era, I believe the AI tools will exponentially unleash the supply of video content, and over time, the high quality content is the only solution or the only answer among those oversupply of video content."
Chief Financial Officer Sam Fan noted the company’s capital allocation discipline, highlighting that Bilibili has repurchased $118 million of shares in 2026 while balancing AI investment with commercial monetization.
Challenges and Considerations
Despite the positive operational and financial trends, the presentation and subsequent earnings discussion acknowledged several challenges. Macroeconomic pressure in China continues to weigh on consumer spending, which could affect both advertising demand and user spending on games and value-added services.
Gaming revenue volatility remains a near-term concern, with the company relying on its pipeline of new titles to restore growth later in the year. Heavy investment in AI infrastructure, while strategically important, could pressure margins if monetization takes longer than expected.
Competition for user attention from short-form video platforms and other entertainment apps remains intense, though Bilibili’s focus on longer-form, interest-based content and its strong community engagement appear to provide differentiation.
The stock’s performance—trading near 52-week lows despite improving fundamentals—suggests investor caution persists. However, according to InvestingPro analysis referenced in the earnings coverage, Bilibili appears undervalued at current levels, with a PEG ratio of just 0.1 indicating attractive pricing relative to near-term earnings growth.
The company’s financial health score rates as "GOOD" according to InvestingPro metrics, supported by strong free cash flow yield of 15%. Cash, time deposits, and short-term investments totaled RMB 24.3 billion as of June 30, 2026, providing ample liquidity to fund growth initiatives and shareholder returns.
Full presentation:
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