New Bilibili Rule: Face Authentication Before Livestreaming

Chinese video streaming platform Bilibili announced on Tuesday that it will launch a required face authentication function before livestreaming to ensure that broadcasters have registered with their full legal names.

Because there are already virtual hosts, or “Vtubers,” on the platform, some Chinese web users think that this move is for them, but Bilibili has not explained much about its new regulation.

A Vtuber is a creator who uploads videos or broadcasts live on online platforms with virtual characters. Vtubers are mainly divided into virtual characters and operators, which may be a whole team or an individual person.

In December last year, Bilibili released a report showing that the average monthly active uploaders on Bilibili had reached 2.7 million, an increase of 61% year-on-year. From September 2020 to August 2021, the view counts of videos submitted by uploaders exceeded 450 billion. In the past year, Chinese people watched an average of over 300 Bilibili videos per capita.

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In terms of livestreaming, the cumulative number of hosts on Bilibili continues to rise. Since the end of 2018, the number of average monthly broadcast hosts has tripled.