Bilibili Is Going Global. Here's What It Means for Manhua and Donghua Fans

For years, the biggest anime platform in China kept a locked door between itself and the rest of the world. On August 19 it took the lock off. Bilibili relaunched its international app, and for the first time you can sign up with nothing but an email address.

If that name only vaguely rings a bell: Bilibili is roughly what you’d get if YouTube, Crunchyroll and a comment section had a child, and that child grew up on anime. It started as a fan video site in the late 2000s, became China’s home for everything ACG (anime, comics, games), and today it’s the largest streaming platform for Japanese anime in China. It also produces and funds donghua, the Chinese animation that’s been quietly building a global fanbase through shows like Link Click and To Be Hero X.

The catch was always access. The old international setup demanded identity verification, and the main Chinese app wants a Chinese phone number. Most people outside China bounced off the front door.

That’s the part that changed. The relaunched app dropped ID verification entirely, it’s live worldwide on Android with iOS on the way, and Bilibili says an English website is coming too. The company is hiring community managers in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo, which tells you this is a real push and not a soft test.

Major Global News has the full news story with the sourcing: Bilibili Relaunches International App, Drops ID Check in Push Beyond China.

What actually changed

The short list:

1. The international app relaunched globally on August 19, on Android first. iOS is “coming soon.”
2. No more identity verification. An email address is enough. Previously you needed a passport or other ID document even as an overseas user.
3. The app mixes Chinese and international content, with Bilibili actively courting creators from other platforms.
4. An English-language website is in the works, plus that global hiring spree.

For donghua fans specifically, this is straightforwardly good news. A huge amount of Chinese animation either never gets licensed in the West or arrives late on a patchwork of channels. Watching it closer to the source just got a lot easier.

The part that didn’t change

Here’s the thing we care about at Pawaka, though: Bilibili isn’t just video. It runs Bilibili Manhua, one of the biggest comic platforms in China, and the source library behind half the donghua you’ve heard of. Those shows are adaptations. The manhua come first, run hundreds of chapters ahead, and live on the Chinese platforms.

And that door is still where it was. The global relaunch is about the video app. Bilibili Manhua remains a Chinese-language service, and Bilibili’s last attempt at taking comics international, Bilibili Comics, shut down its English app and website back in February 2024. The titles it had translated went offline with it.

So the honest summary is: the videos are opening up, the comics are not. If the relaunch pulls a new wave of people into donghua, most of them are going to hit the same wall every manhua reader eventually hits. The story keeps going, right there on an official Chinese site, free or nearly free, and you can’t read a word of it.

We keep a full guide to those official sources: the best manhua raw sites and how to use them. Kuaikan, Tencent’s AC.QQ, Bilibili Manhua itself. They’re legal, they’re the actual publishers, and most of them open with an email signup, same as the new Bilibili app.

Reading the raw manhua with AI translation

This is the gap Madomi exists for.

Madomi is a manga translator that works as a browser extension on Chrome and Firefox, and as a native app on Android and iOS. Open any raw manhua chapter, activate Madomi, and it reads the Chinese text inside every speech bubble using OCR built for comic fonts, then overlays the translation in your language as you scroll. Simplified or Traditional, it handles both, and it works the same way on Japanese manga and Korean manhwa.

It’s rated 4.8 out of 5 from 270+ Chrome Web Store ratings with 10,000+ active users, which makes it the highest-rated manga translator extension available. There are free credits every month (1 credit per translated image), and Madomi Premium if you want unlimited.

If you want the full walkthrough for Chinese titles specifically, we wrote one: how to read Chinese manhua in English without waiting for translations.

Quick start guide

1. Grab the new Bilibili app if you’re in it for donghua. Email signup, done.
2. Found a series you love? Check whether it’s an adaptation. Most of the big ones are.
3. Find the source manhua on the official platform (our raw sites guide lists them).
4. Install Madomi, open a chapter, switch it on, and read the translation overlaid as you scroll.
5. Set your language in the settings. English is one option out of many.

FAQ

Is the new Bilibili app available in my country? It rolled out worldwide on Android, with more platforms coming. Bilibili has said iOS is next, along with an English website.

Do I still need a Chinese phone number? Not for the international app. That’s the headline change: an email is enough now. The domestic Chinese app and some locked titles on the comic platforms still want a Chinese number.

Does the new app include manhua? No. The relaunch covers the video platform. Bilibili Manhua is a separate, Chinese-language service, and Bilibili’s English comics app shut down in 2024.

Is it legal to read manhua on the Chinese platforms? Yes. Kuaikan, AC.QQ and Bilibili Manhua are the official publishers. You’re reading the source exactly like a Chinese reader does, and running a translator on top is the same as using Google Translate on a Chinese news site.

Will Bilibili bring back official English manhua translations? Nothing has been announced. Given how the 2024 shutdown went, we wouldn’t plan your reading list around it.

Does Madomi work on vertical-scroll comics? Yes. Manhua and manhwa are mostly vertical scroll, and Madomi translates them as you go, the same as paged manga.

The Door Is Open. The Books Are Still in Chinese.

Bilibili just made it easier than it’s ever been to fall in love with a Chinese series. It did nothing to help you read one.

That part you can fix yourself, today, in your own language.

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