Last Updated -
October 26, 2026
Explore the business model, global strategy, and market performance including insights into its position in China.
Zhihu Inc. is a Chinese online content community founded in 2010 and headquartered in Beijing. The company operates a Q&A-inspired platform where users share knowledge, professional experience, opinions, and long-form content. Its main businesses include paid content and IP operations, marketing services, vocational training, expert data solutions, and AI-enhanced search and creator tools.
Zhihu has developed from a question-and-answer website into a dual-primary-listed company on the NYSE and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It describes itself as China’s largest Q&A-inspired online content community, with a focus on professional and knowledge-oriented content rather than pure entertainment. Its strategic direction is to strengthen trusted content creation, expand paid content and intellectual-property monetization, and apply AI to search, data products, creator support, community governance, and operating efficiency.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2026, Zhihu reported revenue of RMB690.1 million, down from RMB716.9 million a year earlier, with a gross margin of 57.0% and a net loss of RMB37.4 million. Average monthly subscribing members were 13.1 million in the quarter. In the first half of 2026, revenue was RMB1.34 billion, with paid content and IP operations contributing 61.7% of revenue, marketing services 29.1%, and other services 9.2%. The company held RMB4.42 billion in cash, deposits, restricted cash, and short-term investments at June 30, 2026, giving it financial flexibility as it invests in AI-related products and content monetization.
Zhihu is a China-focused online content community built around Q&A, professional discussion, paid knowledge content, creator output, IP monetization, and AI-enhanced search and data products. The company makes money by monetizing its user community, creator base, content library, and professional knowledge graph across subscriptions, advertising, licensing, distribution, vocational services, and emerging AI-related products.
In Q2 2026, Zhihu generated revenue of RMB690.1 million, down from RMB716.9 million a year earlier. Gross margin was 57.0%, and the company reported a net loss of RMB37.4 million. For the first half of 2026, revenue was RMB1.3417 billion, down 7.2% year over year, with gross margin of 58.3% and adjusted net income of RMB6.9 million.
Zhihu changed its revenue presentation beginning in Q1 2026 by moving IP-related revenue from other services into paid content and IP operations. The change makes IP monetization a clearer part of the core content business and reflects a business mix increasingly centered on paid content, copyright assets, and distribution rather than broad advertising growth alone.
Zhihu’s main competitive advantage is its differentiated content format. It positions itself as China’s largest Q&A-inspired online content community, with a focus on professional, experience-based, and knowledge-oriented content rather than pure entertainment or short-video traffic. This gives the platform a distinct identity in a Chinese internet market dominated by large ecosystems and high-frequency entertainment feeds.
The company also has a meaningful paid-content base. Average monthly subscribing members were 13.1 million in Q2 2026, showing that Zhihu has converted part of its community into recurring content buyers. At the same time, first-half 2026 subscribing members declined 4.3% year over year, which points to pressure on member growth or retention.
Zhihu is developing AI-related products to extend its market position. These include AI-powered search, AI Works, the Zhihu Data Open Platform, expert data solutions, creator tools, governance tools, and AI features designed to improve content distribution and operating efficiency. In first-half 2026, AI Works hosted more than 300 AI projects, and the Zhihu Data Open Platform had attracted more than 8,000 professional developers as of June 30, 2026. Zhihu also began generating revenue from expert data solutions, although this remains an early-stage business.
Direct competitors include Baidu, Tencent-backed content properties, ByteDance, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, and other Chinese knowledge, community, search, and content platforms. Zhihu competes for user time, creator activity, advertising budgets, paid-content spending, and AI-search or data-solution opportunities. Its market position is smaller and more specialized than China’s largest internet platforms, but it has a clearer identity in professional knowledge sharing and community-based content.
A useful global comparison is Reddit, which also monetizes a large discussion-based community through advertising, user engagement, data-related opportunities, and content discovery. Zhihu differs because its core market is China, its content positioning is more explicitly knowledge and Q&A-oriented, and its current revenue mix is more weighted toward paid content and IP operations. This makes Zhihu closer to a niche knowledge-content and IP monetization platform than a broad high-growth social network.
China is central to Zhihu’s business model. Its users, advertisers, paid content, vocational training, IP operations, AI search, and data-solution opportunities are primarily tied to the Chinese internet economy. The company’s dual primary listing in New York and Hong Kong gives international investors access to the business, while exposing them to Chinese internet regulation, ADR and Hong Kong listing considerations, currency movements, and sentiment toward Chinese consumer internet companies.
China is Zhihu’s core market and the center of its investment case. The company is headquartered in Beijing and operates a China-focused Q&A and knowledge-content community, monetized through paid content and IP operations, marketing services, vocational training, expert data solutions, and AI-related products. In Q2 2026, revenue was RMB690.1 million, down from RMB716.9 million a year earlier, with average monthly subscribing members of 13.1 million. First-half 2026 revenue fell 7.2% to RMB1.34 billion, led by paid content and IP operations at 61.7% of revenue. Zhihu’s local strategy is shifting toward higher-value paid content, IP licensing, Yanyan Story, AI-powered search, AI Works, and expert data solutions. It competes with Baidu, ByteDance, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Tencent-backed content platforms, and other Chinese community products.
Zhihu’s growth profile has shifted from broad community expansion toward paid content, IP monetization, AI-related products, and cost discipline. The latest figures show both progress and pressure. In Q2 2026, revenue fell to RMB690.1 million from RMB716.9 million a year earlier, gross margin declined to 57.0%, and the company reported a net loss of RMB37.4 million. For the first half of 2026, revenue declined 7.2% to RMB1.3417 billion, while adjusted net income was RMB6.9 million. The business is therefore closer to a niche knowledge-content platform working toward sustainable profitability than a high-growth social network.
Zhihu’s future direction depends on whether it converts its trusted knowledge community into durable paid-content, IP, and AI-data revenue. The company has a clear domestic focus, a meaningful subscriber base, and strong liquidity. The outlook is realistic rather than expansionary: improving profitability and stabilizing revenue matter more than rapid user growth.
This Company Profile was written by Dominik Diemer
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