Personal touch makes Web content popular

Li Yifeng (left), an actor, at QQ's bullet screen launch in Beijing.[Provided to China Daily]

AcFun, a video-streaming service, is gaining in popularity among the post-1990 Chinese, thanks to its "bullet-screen" feature.

AcFun allows its netcast viewers to post real-time comments on shows they watch. Such comments dart across the PC screen like bullets, and can be read by other viewers watching the same show.

Much of its video content is user-generated or netizen-uploaded, and comprises animation, comics, gaming, film and TV programs. AcFun emphasizes participation of users.

"We will increase investment in self-produced content and offer resource and technology support to video makers such as Internet celebrity Papi Jiang, who posts original and funny short videos," said Mo Ran, CEO of AcFun. "We'll also buy more intellectual properties, including animation, film, TV dramas and variety shows."

This, he said, will help build up a resource-sharing platform based on youth culture.

Papi Jiang had a large number of fans on AcFun before she became an Internet celebrity, according to Mo.

Last August, Papi Jiang produced humorous videos and netcast them using her personal Sina Weibo account. Sina Weibo is a micro-blogging Website like Twitter. She then uploaded her videos to AcFun as well and cultivated even more fans.

This received the attention of AcFun's operations team.

So, AcFun promoted Papi Jiang on its front page. Typically, AcFun front-page videos receive 300,000 to 500,000 hits and at least 300 comments.

Founded in 2007, AcFun announced in January that it had raised $60 million in new funding from SB China Capital. In August 2015, it raised $50 million from China's online video giant Youku Tudou Inc.

These days, thanks to the quick evolution of low-cost but sophisticated Internet technologies, netizen-produced online videos like fun clips and audios abound. Features like bullet screens help sustain the new creative culture among youth.

And net stars such as Papi Jiang show the young generation could achieve success by riding the wave of technology-enabled entertainment.

Bilibili, AcFun's major rival, has around 50 million users, most of whom are aged between 10 and 25.

According to consultancy Analysis International, 219 million young Chinese are now into online animation, comics and gaming, up 68 percent from 149 million in 2014.

Xue Yongfeng, an analyst with Analysys International, said the popularity of the bullet-screen Websites suggests there is scope for further development of content like films, TV programs, gaming and novels with new features.

China lags Japan in this respect as the penetration rate is relatively low. "The biggest obstacle is how to cultivate the users and achieve localization," Xue said.

Mo said in the future, the bullet feature could be used at cinemas. Using their smartphones, viewers could post comments that zoom across the walls and roofs of the cinema, helping them to interact with the rest of the audience. A cinema could become a social networking platform.

But right now, AcFun's focus in on increasing the number of users and earn a profit by providing high-quality content.