Bilibili Q1 2026 Financial Report: AI Drives Advertising Surge, Achieves Profitability, Ushers in New Era

Bilibili has released a milestone financial report: total revenue for the first quarter of 2026 reached 7.47 billion yuan, up 7% year over year. More notably, the company posted a net profit of 202 million yuan (compared to a loss of 10.7 million yuan in the same period last year), marking its first profitable quarter and signaling that Bilibili's monetization strategy has entered a phase of sustainable growth.

Q1 Key Data Overview:

Major Profit Breakthrough: Net profit swung from a loss to a gain of 202 million yuan, with adjusted net profit reaching 585 million yuan, up 62% year over year.

Strong Advertising Engine: Advertising revenue hit 2.59 billion yuan, rising 30% year over year, maintaining double-digit growth for 13 consecutive quarters.

Increased User Stickiness: Daily active users (DAU) reached 115 million, up 8% year over year; daily average time spent on the platform hit 119 minutes, a new all-time high.

AI: The “Core Variable” Driving Bilibili’s Commercial Growth

After the earnings release, Bilibili’s management clearly identified AI as a “once-in-a-decade opportunity.” AI demonstrated comprehensive value in this quarter’s results:

Revolution in Advertising Efficiency: The advertising business became the main growth driver. AI technology not only significantly improved ad targeting accuracy and conversion rates, but also the penetration rate of automated ad spending reached 85%, meaning AI is now handling the precise distribution of the ad ecosystem, greatly reducing manual operating costs.

Content Ecosystem Amplification: AI technology greatly boosted content creation efficiency, with watch time of AI-related content on the platform rising 44% quarter over quarter. For creators, AI is evolving from a “tool” to a “partner,” lowering creative barriers and enhancing community engagement and content diversity.

Reengineering of the Distribution Chain: Thanks to AI algorithm optimization, Bilibili’s content recommendation chain has become smarter, successfully pushing average daily usage time to nearly two hours.

Game Business Faces a “Pain Period,” Strategic Focus Remains Steady

While the advertising business is thriving, Bilibili’s game business generated 1.52 billion yuan in revenue this quarter, down 12% year over year. Management acknowledged that this was mainly due to the high base effect from last year’s hit title “Three Kingdoms: Strategy and Planning,” which is now smoothly transitioning into its mature phase.

In response to market concerns, Chen Rui reiterated Bilibili’s three strategic approaches for games: long-term operations, top-tier vertical categories, and youth-oriented product types. It is reported that several upcoming new titles, such as “Three Kingdoms: The Path of the King” and “Three Kingdoms: Hundred Generals,” have clear release plans within the year, aiming to build a differentiated “Three Kingdoms universe” as a relay for future growth.

Future Outlook: Increase Investment in AI Infrastructure, Aim for Higher Profitability

Although the financial report was impressive, the capital market showed cautious attitudes toward the company’s expected increase of 1 billion yuan in AI-related capital expenditures for the full year of 2026. In response, Bilibili CFO Fan Xin stated that the company not only wants to make money today, but also firmly holds the “AI ticket” for the future.

As high-value industries (such as AI technology, automotive, and home decoration) continue to boom in the advertising sector, combined with AI’s deep reshaping of production efficiency, Bilibili is entering a new profitability cycle driven by technology and monetizing community value. This is not just a financial report, but also the beginning of Bilibili’s transformation into a “video community + AI application factory” model.