Bilibili Inc. turned each daily user into 20% more advertising revenue in Q2

Bilibili Inc. (NASDAQ: BILI; HKEX: 9626) did more in the second quarter than turn advertising into its largest revenue business. The Chinese video platform generated RMB3.13 billion of advertising revenue from an average 116.5 million daily active users, equivalent to roughly RMB26.87 of quarterly advertising revenue for every average daily user. A year earlier, RMB2.45 billion of advertising revenue across 109.4 million daily users worked out to approximately RMB22.39 per user.

That implies advertising revenue per daily active user increased almost 20%, substantially faster than the 7% growth in the user base itself. The calculation is not an official Bilibili Inc. ARPU measure because advertising revenue cannot be attributed evenly to every user, but it isolates an important part of the company’s improving economics: Bilibili Inc. is extracting considerably more advertising revenue from roughly the same unit of audience than it was a year ago.

The finding provides a separate interpretation of an earnings report in which total revenue grew only 8%. Bilibili Inc. increasingly does not require explosive user growth to generate much faster profit expansion if it can keep monetizing the attention already flowing through the platform.

How much more advertising revenue is Bilibili Inc. generating from each daily user?

Average daily active users increased from 109.4 million in Q2 2025 to 116.5 million in Q2 2026, while advertising revenue climbed from RMB2.45 billion to RMB3.13 billion. The resulting implied quarterly advertising revenue per DAU rose from about RMB22.39 to RMB26.87.

That is an increase of approximately 20%.

The contrast is particularly useful because Bilibili Inc.’s headline user growth has become relatively mature. A 7% expansion in daily active users is healthy, but it is nowhere near the growth rates normally associated with an early-stage internet platform. Advertising is nevertheless expanding four times faster than total company revenue because Bilibili Inc. is improving how efficiently it monetizes those users.

Advertising consequently increased from approximately 33.4% of revenue in Q2 2025 to about 39.4% in Q2 2026, a rise of roughly six percentage points in just one year.

Is Bilibili Inc. monetizing each minute of user attention more effectively?

User growth alone does not capture the entire denominator because people are also staying longer. Average daily time spent increased from 105 minutes to 113 minutes, while Bilibili Inc. said total user time rose more than 14% year over year.

Advertising revenue rose 28% over the same period.

Using the disclosed DAU and daily-time figures across the same 91-day quarter produces an illustrative advertising yield of approximately RMB2.61 for every 1,000 user-minutes in Q2 2026, compared with roughly RMB2.34 a year earlier. That suggests monetization per unit of user attention improved by about 11.5%.

Again, this is not a company-reported pricing metric. Users see different numbers and types of advertisements, advertising demand changes by industry and placement, and some formats such as search can monetize much more efficiently than ordinary video-feed inventory. The calculation nevertheless shows that the 28% advertising growth cannot be explained merely by having more users spending more minutes on Bilibili Inc.

Why can advertising revenue rise faster than both users and time spent?

Bilibili Inc. is expanding the number and quality of commercial surfaces available to advertisers. Search advertising revenue doubled in Q2, while advertising generated from newer scenarios including search, personal computers, smart televisions and watch-page placements increased 50% during the first half. Advertising demand from artificial-intelligence companies also more than doubled.

The platform is simultaneously applying artificial intelligence to user profiling, content understanding, creative generation and advertisement placement. Management reported that a combined click-through and conversion measure improved 19% year over year, indicating that advertisers are potentially receiving better commercial outcomes rather than simply buying a greater volume of impressions.

That distinction is important. Increasing advertising load too aggressively can damage the user experience, but improving targeting and conversion allows an internet platform to earn more from the same amount of attention without necessarily showing proportionately more advertisements.

Bilibili Inc.’s advertiser base expanded 14% during Q2, while categories including automobiles, home decoration, footwear and apparel recorded particularly strong growth. The platform is therefore monetizing both through better technology and through a broader pool of companies competing for access to its audience.

Why does better attention monetization matter more as user growth slows?

The economics become increasingly attractive if Bilibili Inc. can continue growing advertising substantially faster than audience size. Revenue rose only 8% in Q2, yet operating profit increased 48% to RMB372.9 million and net profit climbed 55% to RMB339.1 million. Gross margin improved for a 16th consecutive quarter to 37.2%.

That operating leverage is possible partly because additional advertising revenue does not require Bilibili Inc. to increase expenses at the same rate. Sales and marketing costs rose only 1% year over year, while general and administrative expenses were broadly stable.

The remaining challenge is whether advertising efficiency can continue improving without harming engagement or becoming overly sensitive to China’s advertising cycle. Mobile-game revenue fell 14% in Q2, meaning advertising currently carries an unusually large burden in sustaining company-wide growth.

Investor sentiment after the results was cautiously constructive. Bilibili Inc. shares were up about 2.3% after the earnings release after closing the previous session at $16.15, although the stock remains far below its 52-week high of $36.40. That combination suggests investors are acknowledging the earnings improvement without yet assigning the business the valuation it carried when Chinese internet sentiment was stronger.

The most useful Q2 metric may therefore not be 117 million daily users. It is the roughly RMB27 of quarterly advertising revenue Bilibili Inc. is now generating for every average daily user, compared with about RMB22 a year earlier. If that monetization trend continues while engagement remains healthy, Bilibili Inc. can produce materially faster earnings growth than user growth for considerably longer than the headline audience numbers alone imply.