Short answers, pulled from the story.
Xu Yi launched Bilibili on the 26th of June 2009 as a website initially named Mikufans.cn. The platform was created by a twenty-year-old computer science student to host content for the anime character Hatsune Miku.
Bilibili introduced the danmu or bullet comment system on the 14th of January 2010. This feature allows users to type messages that scroll directly across the video screen to create a visual layer of real-time conversation.
The company became a subsidiary of the state-owned Shanghai Media Group in August 2012 to secure necessary broadcasting licenses. This pivot occurred after the government shut down a broadcast of the anime Fate/Zero and fined the company 10,000 yuan for unauthorized operations.
Registered users must pass a 100-question exam on anime and internet culture to become premium members. The platform reinstated this requirement in 2017 with a passing threshold of 60 points after reducing it to 50 questions in 2015.
Bilibili listed on the NASDAQ on the 28th of March 2018 with an initial public offering of up to 400 million US dollars. Chen Rui transformed the company into a publicly traded entity after taking over the CEO role from Xu Yi in November 2014.
An employee of the Bilibili Content Safety Centre in Wuhan died at home on the 4th of February 2022. This incident highlighted the immense stress faced by workers tasked with censoring content during the Spring Festival.