(Yicai Global) June 22 -- Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili has launched a pay-per-view service for original videos, opening up a new paid content revenue stream.

Users can watch The World’s Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries, a 10-episode series and the first paid video collection on Bilibili, for CNY30 (USD4.48) from June 20. The independent uploader, Goushou Laodaye Dengken, has 1.2 million followers and has published a total of 259 videos.

But after the series was released, many users commented on the high price and noted that viewer figures were falling. As of 5 p.m. today, the first episode had just 20,000 views, while the uploader’s previous video releases had between 500,000 and 1 million views.

Shares of Bilibili [HKG: 9626] closed down 3.4 percent at HKD208.40 (USD26.55) today, after climbing 2.3 percent yesterday. Its New York-listed stock [NASDAQ: BILI] jumped 4.6 percent to USD27.54 yesterday.

Bilibili, which features original content and ‘bullet’ comments, has never reported a profit since it was founded 13 years ago. In the first quarter, its net loss widened 152 percent to CNY2.3 billion (USD343 million) from a year earlier, bringing its total loss in the past three years to over CNY10 billion (USD1.5 billion), the Shanghai-based firm’s latest earnings report showed. Its total loss in the last three years exceeded CNY10 billion (USD1.5 billion).

Chief Financial Officer Fan Xin said on an earnings call in March that the company aims to break even on a non-GAAP basis by 2024 by improving monetization, including revenue per monthly active user, and by controlling operating expenses.

Revenue jumped 30 percent to CNY5.05 billion in the three months ended March 31 from a year ago. The platform had 20.1 million paying members, up 25 percent.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione