Bilibili Influencer Interviews Apple CEO, Revealing Which iPhone Features Were Inspired by Chinese Users and More

An interview of Apple CEO Tim Cook by a 22-year-old Bilibili content creator went viral in China.

Within the 48 hours of the video’s release, the 18-minute clip generated over 5.4 million video views on Bilibili, and the hashtag #HetongxueInterviewTimCook (#何同学采访苹果CEO#) attracted over 220 million views on Weibo.

According to Cook, many features in Apple’s devices were inspired by feedback from Chinese consumers, including specific keyboard features (五笔型输入法), the QR code mode in camera (相机中的二维码模式), the night mode, and the junction view in maps.

Speaking about consumer feedback, Cook mentioned an e-mail that stood out. It was sent by a then seven-year-old boy in Shanghai who teaches people how to code.

“Oh, I remember one that came in about a seven-year-old boy in Shanghai that is already teaching people how to code. It’s unbelievable. The youngest age that I know of in the world,” Cook recalled.

The young teacher named Vita started a coding tutorial channel on Bilibili in August 2019.

When He asked “What can Apple do to give wings to the elderly to the digital world?”, Cook gave his perspectives on how Apple manages to stay innovative and how the iPhone can be more accessible for the elderly.

The CEO believes 2020 was their “top year of innovation ever, between the phones and the Watch and the iPads, and M1.”

The two also discussed more personal topics, including how to stay passionate about work and stay energized.

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“Hetongxue” (“老师好我叫何同学”) has amassed over 6.7 million followers on Bilibili and is one of the platform’s top 100 content creators – or “Uploaders” as they are widely known.

He’s video titled “How fast? The real experience of 5G in daily use” provided a unique perspective on 5G by looking back to the transition to 4G in 2012, being selected as Bilibili’s Video of 2019 and generating over 25 million views since it was uploaded in June 2019.