Lessons From Shipping BiliGPT: Two Cold-Start Growth Tactics Behind a GPT-3 Side Project

Welcome to Episode 1 of the BibiGPT Growth Series—a retrospective on the product that eventually evolved into today’s BibiGPT.

In late 2022, we posted the video “AI Summaries for Bilibili—using ChatGPT” and launched the first version of BiliGPT. While the UI and features have changed dramatically, the story behind the prototype is worth revisiting.

If you are after the product origin story itself rather than the tactics, we tell it in full in how AI summaries for Bilibili were born. This piece instead focuses on what the early launch taught us about getting an AI side project in front of real users.

Why Bilibili? Why Now?

ChatGPT’s capabilities convinced us to ship something tangible. Bilibili was overflowing with long-form content, yet key insights remained locked behind full-length viewing. The goal: deliver core takeaways without watching every minute.

Two Launch Tactics

1. Copy & paste URL – Users dropped any Bilibili link into BiliGPT, hit “Summarize,” and received a concise outline with highlight bullets.
2. URL hack – Swap .com for jimmylv.cn in the browser bar while watching; the page redirected to BiliGPT and generated a summary automatically.

Managing API Costs

Scaling summaries required credits. We added an “Enter your own API key” field—locally stored—to let power users underwrite their usage while keeping the service alive.

Mobile Shortcuts

• iOS Shortcut – Install from the BiliGPT site, tap “Share” in Bilibili, choose “Summarize with BiliGPT,” and get the summary without leaving the app.
• Android Tip – The .com → jimmylv.cn trick worked in mobile browsers, too.

Early Roadmap

• Expand beyond Bilibili—Zhihu, Douban, and more.
• Explore prompt engineering + private data alignment.
• Empower users with AI tools that bridge consumption and comprehension.

Even as the product matured, the mission stayed constant: help people learn faster. Today’s BibiGPT reflects the same DNA—multi-platform support, transcript search, mind maps, note exports—just on a much bigger stage.

Original video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1fX4y1Q7Ux/