YouTube vs Bilibili 2026: Which Platform Pays Creators More?

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Bilibili Just Started Courting YouTubers Directly — So I Compared What Each Platform Actually Pays

China's Bilibili relaunched its international app this month and is reportedly reaching out to creators, MrBeast included, with a new global monetization program. Before anyone switches platforms or splits their upload schedule, here's an honest, numbers-first comparison of what each one actually offers a creator in 2026.

By Muhammad Irfan • August 2026 • 10 min read

Two platforms, two very different creator economies — here's how they actually stack up in 2026.

YouTube

~2.5B

Monthly active users

VS

Bilibili

376M

Monthly active users

Bilibili is a fraction of YouTube's global size — but it's the fastest-growing of the two right now, and actively recruiting.

The trigger for this comparison is recent, not theoretical. Bilibili relaunched its international app in August 2026 with a notable change: it removed the passport/ID verification requirement that used to gate overseas creators out, and it's reportedly courting Western YouTubers to publish on the platform directly. That's a meaningfully different pitch than "China has a YouTube clone" — it's a direct, active attempt to pull creators and their audiences away from YouTube specifically.

A quick primer on how Bilibili's platform and culture actually work, for anyone new to it.

Head-to-head: what the numbers actually say

Metric	YouTube	Bilibili
Monthly active users	~2.5 billion	376 million
Daily active users	Not disclosed publicly	115.2 million
Avg. daily time spent	~30–40 min (est.)	~97–119 min
Annual creator payouts	$30B+ (Partner Program)	$1.1B (2025, all streams)
New international CPM (reported)	Varies by niche/region	~$0.70 per 1,000 views
Minimum to monetize	500 subs + 3,000 watch hrs (or Shorts equivalent)	1,000 followers + 100,000 views
Signature engagement feature	Comments, Community tab	Danmaku (real-time bullet comments)

Bilibili isn't trying to out-scale YouTube. It's trying to out-engage it — offering a smaller, younger, far more time-invested audience in exchange for less competition per creator.

Where each platform actually wins

YouTube's advantage Scale and infrastructure. A far larger global audience, a mature ad marketplace, and a Partner Program that's paid out over $30 billion to creators — the safest, most proven place to build a full-time income, especially outside China-adjacent niches.

Bilibili's advantage Engagement depth and lower competition. Users spend roughly two to three times longer per day on the platform than typical YouTube session estimates, and the new international program means far fewer creators are currently competing for that same younger, highly loyal audience.

Should you actually cross-post?

For most creators outside of China-specific niches, the realistic move isn't choosing one platform over the other — it's treating Bilibili as a genuine second distribution channel rather than a replacement. YouTube remains the platform with proven infrastructure and the larger addressable audience; Bilibili currently offers something YouTube can't right now, which is a fast-growing, actively recruiting platform with meaningfully less competition per creator. The catch is real: content, titles, and tags generally need at least light localization to perform well on Bilibili, and its uncapped income streams (fan charging, live gifts, brand deals) take time to build regardless of platform, the same way they would on YouTube.

Related on EarnGuide

If Bilibili specifically is new territory for you, our full breakdown of how creators actually earn on Bilibili covers the five real income streams and what's required to unlock each one.

References used in this guide

• ProPakistani — Bilibili's international expansion and reported $0.70/1,000 views program, August 2026: propakistani.pk
• Engadget — Bilibili's international app relaunch and ID verification removal, August 2026: engadget.com
• 7zi — 2025/2026 side-by-side comparison of YouTube and Bilibili revenue and engagement figures: 7zi.com
• Sekkei Digital Group — Bilibili vs YouTube audience and monetization comparison, 2026: sekkeidigitalgroup.com

FAQ

Not at global scale — YouTube's audience is roughly seven times larger. The more accurate read is that Bilibili is a serious growth opportunity for individual creators, not an imminent threat to YouTube's overall dominance.

No, but performance is meaningfully better with at least localized titles and tags. The platform's new international push is specifically aimed at reducing that barrier for non-Chinese-speaking creators.

Technically yes, and many creators start this way, but Bilibili's audience responds to community-specific engagement — like, coin, and favorite prompts, and danmaku interaction — that a straight reupload without adjustment won't fully capture.

YouTube remains the safer starting point given its scale, tooling, and proven monetization path. Bilibili is a strong second platform to add once you have some content built up, particularly given the lower current competition during its international expansion.

Final thoughts

This isn't really a "which platform wins" question — it's a distribution question. YouTube is the safer, larger, better-understood bet. Bilibili is the higher-engagement, lower-competition opportunity that's actively trying to make itself easier to enter right now. The creators who benefit most from this moment won't be the ones picking a side — they'll be the ones treating Bilibili as free upside on content they're already making.

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