Bilibili Conducts 7,500 Cases of Psychological Counseling Over Summer

According to Bilibili, China's Youtube, the site had conducted 7,500 cases of psychological counseling over the past summer. Midnight is normally the peak time for users to call the emotional support and counseling hotline. Bilibili has been dedicating to intervening in users' self-harming behaviors since 2018. More than 400 platform content auditors and 10 customer service staff collaboratively carry out the suicide prevention initiative and so far, 11,857 users have benefited. "Family relations" and "relationship consulting" are common topics.

Bilibili used to be a subculture streaming site attracting millions of Anime, Comic and Games (ACG) fans in China. As it pivots to broader audiences, Bilibili has opened up verticals like lifestyle, technology and entertainment, while continuing to trade in mostly user-generated content. "Increasingly, the parallel with YouTube is getting more vivid," says analyst Charlie Chai of 86Research.

Bilibili now has one of the fastest-growing user bases in the Chinese internet space, with 172 million users at the end of the first quarter, up 70% year-on-year — nearly 80% of whom are between 18 and 35. Gen Z constitutes the majority of their users.

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On June 2019, Bilibili set up a "Cheer Up Center" under its customer service section, specializing in serving as an emotional trashcan for its users and providing primary psychological counseling. In October 2019, the center launched cooperation with Shanghai Youth Online Public Service Center to provide more professional assistance to people in need, through the opening up of a psychological and legal consulting hotline 12355.

Why Did Bilibili Start the Suicide Prevention Initiative?

Unlike any other streaming site, Bilibili has exceptionally “sticky” users who identify themselves with the platform. Aspiring users used to have to pass a 100-question multiple-choice test of obscure anime knowledge before they were allowed to become members with posting and commenting privileges, lending the site the feel of an insiders' club.

The strong sense of community is also built by Bilibili's special feature Danmu, the "bullet comments", which are short messages that scroll directly over rather than alongside videos, appearing at the exact point in the video when a user first typed it. Thanks to Danmu, users are able to 'talk to' one another while they enjoy the video. "It's like watching a movie with your friends, with everyone making jokes as it's happening," explains digital ethnographer Christina Xu.

Cherishing a community there, nearly 137 million people of China’s Gen Z become the streaming site's users. But young people are struggling with incomparable stress levels nowadays. The WHO reveals that China has more than 54 million people who suffer from depression, in which 15-34 year-olds make up 17%. The incidence rate of depression climbs to 23.8% among Chinese students. At the same time, suicide has become the leading cause of death among 15-35 year-old Chinese people, according to research data released by the Ministry of Health.

China's Gen Z, also known as the single child generation, has no one to turn to except social media. Bilibili has become the designated site of emotional outlets, for operating an inclusive community of millions of young people.

Thousands of users subscribe to the topic page of depression, which has accumulated 4.58 million views. 63,000 users post articles, 'tweets' and videos detailing their struggle with depression over the past few years. Sometimes, shared information is extreme. There are users posting pictures of slit wrists, or they even livestream committing suicide by jumping from a building, scaring other users to look for help from the platform's customer service agents.

All the incidents prompted the content audit team and customer service to start the suicide prevention initiative, including the 'Cheer Up Station'. "We want to provide a channel for people who need someone to talk to or vent their emotions to. Our customer service can do personalized counseling," Bilibili's customer service manager said.

How Does Prevention Work?

More than 400 platform content auditors and 10 customer service staff collaboratively carry out the suicide prevention program.

As long as the platform's auditors found any danmu, comments, updates or uploaded videos revealing self-harming messages, they would immediately report it to the telephone customer service to start intervention, even calling the police. Users can always chat with the service staff by entering the 'Cheer Up Station' under the main page of Bilibili and sending messages. Users can even call the station in case there are urgent needs.

Unexpectedly, users are usually very calm, logical and reasonable when talking about their stories in chats or on the hotlines. "These young people didn't expect any solutions from us, they just need someone to talk to," one 'Cheer Up Station' staff said.

In October 2019, the customer service team sought help from the mental health hotline 12355 of Shanghai Youth Online Public Service Center. The "Cheer Up Station" applied for two additional service accounts, one for professional psychological counseling, while the other works as a legal service hotline. Once the service staff in the station noticed that a user had a serious problem, they would transfer the call to the professional counselors to provide better assistance.