Last night i watched a series. But i don't want to talk about the series.
I was tired. Not the kind of fatigue that is solved with sleep, but with something that takes you out of your routine. A fatigue of screens, of platforms that ask for an account, a subscription, and shove ads in your face like advertising bullets. I opened my laptop without much hope, just with the desire to find something that wouldn't make me feel like a customer, but like a person searching.
And i came across Bilibili.
An Asian platform, semi-chaotic, but surprisingly free. I don't know how it works without regional blocks, but it works. I found season 3 of Alice in Borderland there. Complete. No VPN. No "not available in your country". Without feeling like an intruder. Just me, the series, and a platform that didn't ask me anything.
What did i like?
The access. You simply enter and watch.
The atmosphere. It’s different than Netflix or HBO—rawer, more honest, less polished.
The fact that it exists. In a world where everything is filtered, Bilibili seems to have escaped censorship.
The lack of pressure. It didn’t ask me to subscribe, it didn’t suggest what to watch, it didn’t follow me with notifications.
Why am i😊 writing this?
Because i think it’s important to share these kinds of discoveries. i’m not advertising. I don’t have any affiliate links. I just think it’s healthy to know that there are still corners of the internet where you can consume content without being charged, tracked, or pushed into an algorithm.
And there’s something else: It reminded me of what the internet was like in the beginning. When you searched for something and actually discovered it. When you weren’t just a profile with preferences, but a human being browsing.
If you want to try it: - Search Bilibili on Google or just try the link. Use Chrome or Edge with automatic translation if you don’t know Chinese. And go in with an open mind. It’s not a perfect platform, but it’s alive. It’s a space where content doesn’t come wrapped in marketing, it’s just… there.
I don’t know if it’s going to stay that way. Maybe it’ll be blocked, maybe it’ll disappear. But for one evening, i felt like i found something real. And that, in 2025, is rarer than it seems.
Bilibili offered me an evening without barriers. What platforms have you discovered that give you the feeling that the internet is still alive?
Do you think such platforms can change the way we consume content? Or are they just temporary exceptions?