Bilibili
Israel / ChinaGrowth story
From global recognition to an owned Bilibili presence
Dec 2016
A foreign viewpoint was packaged as a Chinese-native IP
The Beijing-founded team paired Israeli host Raz Gal-Or, known in Chinese as Gao Yousi, with Chinese cofounders and built an identity around foreigners who could discuss China from lived experience.
2017–2019
Street interviews became a repeatable cultural format
Early videos asked foreigners about Chinese food, products, customs, memes, and public conversations. The account then expanded from collecting opinions to deeper travel and experience-led stories.
2019–2020
Platform recognition and public-service stories deepened the IP
Y-Research was named a Bilibili 2019 Top 100 creator. Its first annual review connected three years of China reporting, while the Hubei mask story reached Bilibili's weekly must-watch list.
2024–present
Serialized travel turned cultural exchange into entertainment
Airport encounters, long-distance taxis, local guides, Chinese brands, and regional journeys now operate as named collections. The strongest recent series combine a simple challenge with sustained contact between foreign guests and everyday Chinese life.
Strategy breakdown
How the Bilibili presence is operated
Three connected systems turn recognizable global content into a durable Chinese-platform presence.
01
IP operations
Own a Chinese identity that can outlast a novelty hook
The playful name 歪果仁研究协会, the Chinese name 高佑思, a verified canonical profile, and a consistent host-led voice make the account legible as a durable Chinese-media property—not an imported foreign channel.
- The profile identifies Gao Yousi as its president and states a ten-year commitment to introducing China to the world.
- Twenty-four visible collections organize street interviews, travel challenges, foreign-guest experiences, Chinese innovation, and public-interest stories into recognizable franchises.
- A stable first-person host voice connects very different subjects while the wider Y-Research name can accommodate multiple guests and formats.
02
Growth strategy
Use curiosity for discovery, then series for return viewing
A foreigner speaking fluent, conversational Chinese creates an immediate contrast for local viewers. Growth becomes more durable when that curiosity opens into stories with clear stakes, recurring formats, audience prompts, and multi-episode journeys.
- The first Airport Random Foreigner episode explicitly announced a new series and asked viewers what the next guest should experience; the collection now contains 54 videos.
- The 2026 Hainan-to-Harbin taxi challenge reached No. 1 on Bilibili's site-wide ranking and continued across four episodes.
- The account balances evergreen culture stories with current Chinese brands, regional travel, major events, and short street interviews that can enter active discovery cycles.
03
Localization strategy
Make Chinese the operating language, not a subtitle layer
Across the sampled public work, Chinese is the default audience language: hosts speak directly to viewers, titles use local humor and internet phrasing, and stories begin with subjects already meaningful in Chinese daily life.
- Gao Yousi's fluent Chinese lets him interview, joke, react, and build trust without making translation the center of the content.
- Topics such as Spring Festival travel, regional food, Huawei products, Chinese-language learning, local drivers, and everyday cultural habits begin inside the audience's own context.
- The foreign perspective remains visible, but it functions as a narrative lens for understanding China rather than as proof that the creator is merely visiting it.
Content examples
6 releases show how the channel developed
Each counter below was observed on Bilibili on 2026-09-01. They are rounded public snapshots, not lifetime analytics exported by the creator.
外国人该用什么态度看中国？歪果仁研究协会2019年度总结
How Should Foreigners View China? Y-Research's 2019 Review
Views
762K
Likes
66.3K
Coins
47.9K
Favorites
9.6K
Observed: The account's first annual-review video links its first three years of work across Wenchuan, veterans, Hong Kong, rural China, and Africa and explains the thinking behind those projects.
Interpretation: A public editorial position helped turn the foreign-host premise into a wider IP promise: use lived encounters to examine China rather than repeat a single street-interview trick.
从以色列找到10万只口罩直接送到湖北，湖北加油！｜新冠肺炎
Finding 100,000 Masks in Israel and Sending Them to Hubei
Views
3.71M
Likes
768K
Coins
1.00M
Favorites
150K
Observed: The video documents sourcing masks in Israel for Hubei, links to a logistics follow-up, and was included in Bilibili's 45th weekly must-watch selection.
Interpretation: The creator's cross-border identity becomes useful rather than decorative: it connects an overseas network to a locally urgent story and demonstrates participation in the community being addressed.
老外刚到中国10分钟，就在机场被我骗去旅游？
A Foreigner Lands in China—and I Take Him on a Surprise Trip
Views
1.08M
Likes
82.1K
Coins
54.3K
Favorites
7.8K
Observed: The description announces a new series, asks viewers what a newly arrived foreign guest should do next, and begins a collection that now contains 54 videos.
Interpretation: The format converts cultural contrast into a repeatable growth loop: a new guest creates curiosity, a Chinese destination supplies the experience, and audience suggestions help seed future episodes.
13岁被中文拯救，这个法国人，可能比你更懂中文
Saved by Chinese at 13: The Frenchman Who May Know It Better Than You
Views
1.51M
Likes
146K
Coins
19.5K
Favorites
14.0K
Observed: The story makes Chinese-language fluency itself the narrative subject and places it inside a collection about foreigners building meaningful lives in China.
Interpretation: Language ability attracts curiosity, but the deeper connection comes from what fluency enables: personal history, humor, cultural detail, and a conversation that treats Chinese viewers as the primary audience.
从海南打出租直奔哈尔滨，有师傅敢接单吗？
Can I Take a Taxi from Hainan All the Way to Harbin?
Views
12.49M
Likes
690K
Coins
221K
Favorites
124K
Observed: The premise crosses China from tropical Hainan to winter Harbin with a local taxi driver, reached No. 1 on Bilibili's site-wide ranking, and continued as a four-part journey.
Interpretation: This is mature IP operation: an instantly understandable challenge creates discovery, while geography, regional contrast, and the relationship with an ordinary Chinese participant create local emotional depth and retention.
街采外国大学生，说出3个华为产品
Street Interview: Can Foreign Students Name Three Huawei Products?
Views
260K
Likes
11.8K
Coins
96
Favorites
624
Observed: A 2:46 street interview returns to the account's original format while using a current Chinese technology brand as the prompt; it was published four days before this snapshot.
Interpretation: The early format remains useful as a lightweight discovery tool. Familiar Chinese subjects keep the foreign reactions locally relevant, while longer serialized travel carries the account's deeper storytelling role.
What creators can learn
A transferable China-entry playbook
Treat language as creative infrastructure
What we observed: Across the sampled work, Chinese is the default spoken and audience-facing language rather than an added subtitle track.
Apply it: Fluency matters most when it enables timing, humor, trust, and cultural detail. If you are not fluent, build an equally strong local editorial and on-camera communication system.
Convert outsider curiosity into insider relevance
What we observed: The foreign perspective earns attention, but episodes focus on Chinese people, places, brands, customs, and current conversations.
Apply it: Use your difference as the entry point, then make the audience's world—not your foreignness—the subject of the story.
Build formats that can compound
What we observed: Airport encounters, long-distance travel, local guides, and interview formats are organized into named, multi-episode collections.
Apply it: Design a clear episode engine and collection name so a successful idea creates a next watch, not only a one-off spike.
Let local participants carry the emotional story
What we observed: The strongest recent journeys give drivers, guests, families, and local communities continuing roles instead of using them as brief scenery.
Apply it: Center real relationships and allow local participants to shape the outcome; this creates specificity that surface-level cultural references cannot reproduce.
Case summary
Y-Research's Bilibili growth in summary
- Y-Research began in Beijing in 2016 as a Chinese-language cross-cultural media IP built by Israeli host Gao Yousi and Chinese cofounders.
- Fluent Chinese and a visibly foreign perspective created a curiosity gap, but the account connected more deeply by discussing Chinese culture, daily life, brands, regions, and public conversations from inside the local context.
- Street interviews evolved into recurring travel, guest, and public-interest franchises. Chinese-first presentation, audience prompts, named collections, and serialized journeys turned cultural exchange into a continuing entertainment system.
- By August 31, 2026, the verified Bilibili profile showed about 4.62 million followers, 648.1 million cumulative views, 41.91 million likes, and 924 total submissions.