Bilibili just dropped its ID verification requirement for international users. No more passport, no more Chinese phone number, just to sign up.
That is a real, confirmed change. What has not changed yet is the part everyone actually wants to know: how you get paid.
Search around and you will find articles confidently listing exact payout numbers, $200 to $5,000 a month, 80 percent revenue share, no follower minimum.
Almost none of it traces back to anything Bilibili has actually said. Here is what is real, what is not, and what to actually do about it.
Key Takeaway
Bilibili relaunched its international app on Android in August 2026, dropped ID verification for signups, and is actively courting Western creators. What it does not have yet is a live international monetization program. The brand marketplace connecting global creators to sponsors is still “in development,” according to Bilibili’s own materials. Anyone quoting you a specific dollar payout right now is guessing.
What Actually Happened
Semafor broke the story on August 19, 2026, based on job listings and marketing materials sent to creators. Bilibili confirmed it directly, its own creator account on X posted “Yes bilibili is going global.”
The company relaunched its international app on Android that same week. An iOS version is coming, not live yet. An English-language website is in progress, also not live yet.
Bilibili is hiring community managers in six cities: Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Istanbul, and Tokyo. It is also building AI-powered content moderation for its international operations and reportedly courting Western creators, MrBeast among them, to post there.
None of this is speculation. Bilibili is already publicly traded, on Nasdaq and the Hong Kong exchange, and it already reports 376 million monthly active users worldwide on its main Chinese-language platform, which was never actually blocked outside China.
What changed is the intent. This is now a deliberate push for Western viewers and Western creators, not a platform that just happens to be reachable from abroad.
What Actually Got Easier
The real, confirmed change is the identity verification drop. Overseas users used to need a passport or ID document just to use Bilibili’s main app. The new international app removes that entirely. Sign up without it.
Older guides to Bilibili monetization, written before this relaunch, describe a real-name verification step tied to a Chinese phone number as a hard requirement.
That was accurate for the old domestic program. It is not the barrier it used to be on the new international app. Worth knowing if an older article scared you off before you even tried.
What Has Not Launched Yet
Here is the part that matters most and gets buried the most. A marketplace connecting international creators with brand sponsors is, in Bilibili’s own words, “in development.” Not live. There is no confirmed ad-revenue-share program open to creators outside China either.
What does exist is the domestic Chinese Creator Incentive Program, which has real, published numbers. It caps cash incentive payouts around RMB 2,000 a month per creator, roughly $278.
That cap applies only to the direct cash incentive piece. Fan subscriptions, live gifts, and brand deals sit outside that cap and are uncapped, but none of it was built with international creators in mind, and eligibility has historically required real-name verification and a baseline follower count.
Any article quoting you an exact monthly payout range for international creators right now is not reporting a fact. It is guessing at a program that has not opened.
Why This Is Worth Moving On Now Anyway
No live payment system is not the same thing as nothing worth doing. Audiences build slower than platforms build payment infrastructure.
Getting an early foothold on a platform before its monetization program exists is a real, well-worn strategy, the same one that worked on YouTube in 2006, TikTok in 2018, and pretty much every platform since.
An audience of 376 million, even shared with a huge domestic Chinese base, converts into things you already control without needing Bilibili’s permission for any of it.
A mailing list. A Telegram channel. Your own affiliate links pointing off-platform. None of that requires an official Bilibili monetization program to work. It just requires people watching your videos and clicking through.
If your content already fits Bilibili’s core audience, anime, gaming, animation, youth culture content, this is a genuinely good moment to claim a username and start posting consistently. If your content has nothing to do with that world, there is less reason to rush in before the actual payment system exists.
What to Actually Do This Week
Download the new international Android app and claim your username now, before the platform gets crowded with everyone reading the same headlines you are. Sign-up no longer requires ID verification, so this takes a few minutes.
Cross-post content you already have, do not build anything Bilibili-exclusive yet. Treat this the way you would treat any new platform before it has proven its economics, an extra distribution channel for content you are already making, not a new full-time job.
Ignore anyone quoting you exact dollar figures for international monetization right now. Watch for Bilibili’s own announcement instead, that is when the real numbers, and the real requirements, will exist.
Until then, this is an audience play, not an income stream. This same instinct, separating what is officially confirmed from what content farms are guessing at, is worth applying anywhere you are deciding whether to invest real time chasing a new income opportunity online.
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