Bilibili Acquires Game Developer Beijing Shizhisha

Beijing-based mobile game developer Shizhisha underwent formal industrial and commercial changes on July 8. Its share was increased by Shanghai Hode Information Technology, an affiliated company of Bilibili. In addition, Beijing Shizhisha became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bilibili while Zheng Binwei, the legal representative of several affiliated companies of Bilibili, became the legal representative of Beijing Shizhisha.

Beijing Shizhisha, established in November 2019, was held by Beijing Starworld, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qihoo 360, an internet security company. Beijing Starworld owns several Qihoo 360-related game platforms, and has games including Soul Hunters and Douli Jianghu. Its games cover categories such as RPG and collectible card games, and cartoon features account for a relatively low proportion.

In July 2019, Shizhisha’s self-developed mobile game “Final Gear” was launched, for which Bilibili became the exclusive agency. With excellent artistic performances, creative gameplay and design, it won first place in the iOS’s free games list on the first day of its launch, and ranked among the top 10 iOS best-selling games list the next day.

In August 2020, Bilibili officially took a stake in Beijing Shizhisha and became its third-largest shareholder. In this way, Bilibili also obtained the exclusive agency right of its products in overseas markets. In May 2021, Bilibili decided to bring Final Gear to overseas markets, and chose the South Korean market as its first stop. With heavy investment in promotion and a series of localization measures, the game jumped to the top six iOS best-selling games list when it was launched again, and ranked third in the mobile game revenue list of Google Store in South Korea.

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Since then, Bilibili has successively launched mobile games such as “Figure Story” and “For All Time” overseas. Most of the games are products that have been welcomed by users in the Chinese market, such as “Figure Story,” which takes garage kit culture as the main theme and features differentiated content. On the first day of its launch in China in September 2020, it ranked third in the iOS free games list and won the 13th place on the best-selling games list, with over 100 million yuan ($14.9 million) in revenue during the first month.