This post originally appeared on Content Commerce Insider, our sister publication on branded entertainment.
The trendy video platform
Bilibili#
is opening up its Sparkle service to help match brands with its popular creators (aka Uploaders).
Known as
Huahuo#
in Chinese, the matchmaking service aims to increase commercial opportunities for creators and has until now been used internally by Bilibili. It will provide creators with features such as pricing recommendations, a means to showcase samples of their video work, and access to data on followers and audience engagement that can be used to develop monetization strategies. For brands, it will offer a one-stop shop for finding potential content partners, with targeted recommendations and project management tools.
Creators and multi-channel networks (MCNs) were invited to sign up for Sparkle on July 8, while brands and agencies can join on July 17. The criteria for creators limits participation to those 18 and over with a minimum of 10,000 followers, at least one original video posted within the past 30 days, and fulfillment of Bilibili’s requirements for audience engagement and creditworthiness.
The battle for top creators has been heating up across platforms. Bilibili recently lost top creator Necromancer Financial to Bytedance’s
Xigua Video#
in a deal reported to be worth RMB 100 million ($14 million), with the business vlogger stating that depending on Bilibili fans for revenue was unsustainable.
This week, however, Bilibili took back another big name from Xigua, the popular esports commentator and podcast host Ao Changzhang, who started out on Bilibili in 2011 but left for Xigua in 2019. Now, under a reportedly exclusive five-year contract, Ao Changzhang is back to producing videos for his more than 7 million followers on Bilibili — among his first was an unboxing video for a limited-edition Oppo smartphone collaboration with Japanese anime series “Neon Genesis Evangelion.”