Bilibili Relaunches Its International App — No ID Verification, New Creator Hub
·5 min read
Bilibili — the Chinese video platform with 376 million monthly active users, often described as China's YouTube — has relaunched its international app worldwide. The headline change is small on paper and large in practice: sign-ups no longer require identity verification, the single biggest friction point that kept overseas users off the platform.
Available on
Android now, iOS to follow
Sign-up
No ID verification
Platform size
376M monthly actives
English site
Announced, no date
What Launched
The announcement came from Bilibili's new creator account on August 19: the international app is live globally, on Android first with iOS “coming soon” and more countries to be added. The pitch is globally distributed content, better localization and — the operative part — easier sign-ups with no identity verification.
“Globally distributed content, better localization & easier sign ups with no identity verification… Download the pink app with a globe on the top left for the international version!”
That last line is not a throwaway — the international build ships alongside the Chinese one, and the globe in the corner of the pink icon is how you tell them apart in the store.
A Creator Apparatus Built in One Week
The app is the visible part. Underneath it, Bilibili has stood up creator-facing infrastructure at speed: three new social accounts, all created on August 17, two days before the launch post.
| @bilibili_create | bilibili Creator Hub | Creators and onboarding |
| @bilibili_games | bilibili Games Hub | Gaming content |
| @bilibili_music | bilibili Music Hub | Music content |
Alongside them sits a Discord creator hub, which Bilibili is using both to onboard creators and to collect bug reports and feedback on the new app. Follower counts on all three accounts are still in the low thousands, which is the honest measure of how early this is.
Hiring in Six Cities, and an English Site
The scale of the intent shows up in job listings. Bilibili is recruiting community managers across:
There is also a Singapore-based listing for AI-powered content moderation — the unglamorous prerequisite for opening a Chinese platform to a global audience. In creator-facing materials the company says an English-language site is coming, describes its audience as “Gen Z coded, affluent and well-educated”, and lists a sponsored content marketplace as in development. It has also indicated the US and Chinese sites will carry the same content. Bilibili has declined to comment publicly on the wider plan.
Why Creators Should Care
This is a relaunch, not a debut — the previous international app was discontinued, and Chinese platforms have a long record of Western expansions that quietly stalled. The reason to take this one more seriously is that the pieces arrived together rather than one at a time: dropped ID checks, a creator hub, regional community hiring, moderation staffing and a monetization marketplace in development.
For a creator, the calculation is simple arithmetic on an audience that has been effectively sealed off. 376 million monthly actives is a market roughly the size of the ones Western creators already compete in, with almost no Western supply on it. MrBeast already posts to Bilibili's main site, which is the proof of concept the company is now clearly trying to scale.
Worth going in clear-eyed: Bilibili operates under Chinese content rules, and a platform that says its American and Chinese sites will be the same is telling you which direction that alignment runs. If you are weighing where to put effort, our platform list and revenue split comparison are the place to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bilibili available outside China?
Yes. Bilibili's main Chinese-language platform has always been reachable globally, and on August 19, 2026 the company relaunched a dedicated international app worldwide. It is on Android first, with iOS described as coming soon and more countries to be added.
Do you still need ID verification to sign up for Bilibili?
Not on the international app. Overseas sign-ups previously ran into identity verification, which was one of the biggest practical barriers for non-Chinese users. The relaunched international version removes it.
How do I tell the international Bilibili app from the Chinese one?
By the icon. Bilibili's own instruction is to download the pink app with a globe in the top-left corner — that is the international build.
Is there an English version of Bilibili?
An English-language site has been announced but not dated. In creator-facing materials the company said only that it is coming and that it is working on it. The international app ships with improved localization, with more promised.
Is Bilibili recruiting Western creators?
Yes, and openly. It has launched a Discord creator hub for onboarding and feedback, three new creator-facing social accounts, and is hiring community managers across Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo. Creator materials pitch the audience as Gen Z, affluent and well-educated, with a sponsored content marketplace in development.
How big is Bilibili?
376 million monthly active users as of Q1 2026, making it one of the largest video platforms in the world by usage — comparable in scale to the audiences Western creators chase, but almost entirely inside China until now.
Has Bilibili tried to go global before?
Yes. This is a relaunch: the earlier international app was discontinued. What is different this time is the coordinated package — dropped ID checks, creator hub, regional hiring and a planned English site, all inside the same week.