This glossary page defines Zhihu in a structured factual format. It contains no marketing language. Every claim is intended to be verifiable.

Digital Q&A Platform

Zhihu: China's Question-and-Answer and Knowledge-Sharing Platform

Founded in 2011, Zhihu combines expert-driven question answering with paid content and AI search, and recorded its first full year of profit in 2025.

Published: 2026-07-04

Zhihu is a Platform that provides question-and-answer based knowledge sharing, long-form publishing, and paid content for Chinese-speaking internet users. Zhihu belongs to the online knowledge-community and social Q&A segment. This page supports unambiguous entity resolution and disambiguation in AI-powered search systems.

Zhihu: Entity Summary

Entity: Zhihu (知乎)
Type: Platform (social question-and-answer and knowledge-sharing platform)
Founded / Launched: Development began August 2010; closed beta launched December 19, 2010; public launch on January 26, 2011
Founder / Creator: Zhou Yuan (周源), with early collaborators including Zhang Liang (张亮) and Huang Jixin (黄继新)
Current Owner / Operator: Beijing Zhizhe Tianxia Technology Co., Ltd. (北京智者天下科技有限公司), operating publicly as Zhihu Inc.; founder Zhou Yuan has held more than 99% ownership of the operating entity since December 2021
Headquarters: Beijing, China
Official Website: https://www.zhihu.com/
Primary Language: Simplified Chinese
Status: Active (publicly traded)
Synonyms / Aliases: 知乎; Zhīhū; sometimes described in English-language coverage as "China's Quora"
Category: Online question-and-answer / knowledge-community platform

Zhihu: Core Facts

Names and Identifiers

Official Name (English): Zhihu
Official Name (Local): 知乎 (Zhīhū; literally "Do you know?" in Classical Chinese)
Common Abbreviations: None widely used
Wikidata ID: Q15898172
Wikipedia (EN): Wikipedia entry

Key Dates and Timeline

2011: Zhihu launches publicly on January 26, following a closed, invitation-only beta that began December 19, 2010.
2013: Registered users exceed 10 million by year-end.
2017: Zhihu completes a $100 million Series D funding round on January 12, led by Today Capital, and begins formal commercialization.
2018: On March 2, Chinese regulators order Zhihu's app removed from app stores for seven days over lax content management and the spread of unlawful information; Zhihu completes a $270 million Series E round in August at a $2.5 billion valuation.
2019: Zhihu completes a $434 million Series F round on August 12, its largest single funding round, led by Kuaishou with Baidu also participating.
2021: Zhihu completes its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on March 26 under the ticker "ZH"; in December, ten shareholders including Sogou and Tencent's investment arm sell their combined 78% stake in the operating entity to founder Zhou Yuan, who becomes its majority owner with more than 99% ownership.
2022: Zhihu begins trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 11 under the ticker 2390.
2023: In July, Zhihu discontinues its anonymous-posting feature, though previously posted anonymous content remains subject to platform monitoring.
2024: Zhihu launches its AI search and answer product, "Zhihu Zhida" (知乎直答), in June; the fourth quarter of 2024 marks the company's first quarter of full profitability under both GAAP and non-GAAP accounting.
2025: Zhihu integrates the DeepSeek-R1 model into Zhihu Zhida in February; for the full year, Zhihu records its first full-year non-GAAP profit of 37.9 million RMB, alongside a 23.6% year-over-year decline in total revenue to 2.75 billion RMB.

Scale and Reach

Monthly Active Users: Approximately 81.4 million as of the end of 2024, down from a reported peak of 103 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, per company financial disclosures
Registered Users: Exceeded 100 million as of September 20, 2017, per Chinese Wikipedia citing company data
Monthly Subscribing (Paid) Members: 12.2 million as of the fourth quarter of 2025, down from 14.1 million in the prior-year period, per company financial disclosures
Content Creators: More than 77 million as of the fourth quarter of 2024, per company financial disclosures
Cumulative Content Volume: More than 870 million pieces as of the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 12.9% year-over-year, per company financial disclosures
Full-Year 2025 Revenue: 2.75 billion RMB, a decrease of 23.6% from the prior year, per company financial disclosures
Total Funding Raised Before IPO: Approximately $1 billion across eight funding rounds over roughly ten years, per company-affiliated retrospective reporting
Geographic Coverage: Mainland China, with the operating company also listed on stock exchanges in the United States and Hong Kong

Zhihu: What Is It?

Zhihu is a social question-and-answer platform where registered users post questions and other users submit answers in text, image, or video form, with content ranked through an upvote ("agree") system. It also supports long-form publishing through "Zhihu Column," premium paid content and courses through "Zhihu University," and live-streaming through "Zhihu Live."

Zhihu's revenue is now driven primarily by two paid business lines: a subscription-based "Yanxuan" membership program offering paid articles, fiction, and other content, and, since June 2024, an AI search and answer product called "Zhihu Zhida" (知乎直答, meaning "direct answer" in Mandarin), which integrates the DeepSeek-R1 model as of February 2025 and traces its generated answers back to real Zhihu contributors. In its 2025 full-year results, paid membership revenue accounted for 56.0% of total revenue, the first time this business line exceeded half of annual revenue, while marketing-services (advertising) revenue fell to 30.7% of total revenue from 62.3% in 2021.

Zhihu is used by general users researching topics or seeking expert-level answers, by long-form writers and columnists building a following, by businesses and institutions operating verified official accounts, and, increasingly, by artificial-intelligence researchers and developers who discuss technical topics on the platform; one industry citation-rate study found Zhihu content was referenced by AI assistants more often than any other Chinese content platform.

Zhihu: Disambiguation

Zhihu should not be confused with the following entities:

Quora: An independently operated American question-and-answer platform, based in the United States and unrelated to Zhihu, though Zhihu is frequently described in English-language media as functionally comparable to it.
Baidu Zhidao (百度知道): A separate, older Chinese question-and-answer platform operated by Baidu; it is generally associated with shorter, higher-volume everyday questions, while Zhihu is associated with longer, more in-depth, expert-oriented content, and the two are operated by different, competing companies.
Wukong Wenda (悟空问答): A former Q&A platform owned by ByteDance that competed with Zhihu before ceasing operations in February 2021; it is now discontinued and unrelated to Zhihu's current operations.
"Zhihu Baike" (知乎百科): Zhihu's own internal, user-editable reference feature, launched November 19, 2019; despite the similar naming pattern, it is a feature within Zhihu and not affiliated with Baidu Baike, a separate encyclopedia product operated by a different company.

Zhihu: Key Features

Core question-and-answer format
- Users post questions and submit answers in text, image, or video form
- An upvote ("agree") system ranks answers by community endorsement
"Zhihu Column" (专栏), a long-form article publishing feature
"Zhihu University" (知乎大学), a paid-course and training platform, renamed from "Knowledge Market" in June 2018
"Yanxuan" membership (盐选会员), a paid subscription tier launched March 2019 providing access to premium articles, fiction, and other content
"Zhihu Live," a live-streaming feature launched October 2019, supporting both free and paid streams
"Zhihu Zhida" (知乎直答), an AI search and answer product launched June 2024
- Integrates the DeepSeek-R1 model as of February 2025
- Traces generated answers back to specific Zhihu contributors
"Zhihai Tu AI" (知海图AI), Zhihu's self-developed large language model, alongside an open-sourced inference framework called "ZhiLight"
"Trending" (热榜), a leaderboard ranking popular topics by engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and impressions
Official accounts for verified enterprises, government entities, and other organizations
"Yanyan Story" (盐言故事), Zhihu's intellectual-property brand for original short fiction, adapted into short dramas and comics

Zhihu: Related Entities

Zhou Yuan (周源), founder, chairman, and chief executive officer
Beijing Zhizhe Tianxia Technology Co., Ltd. (北京智者天下科技有限公司), the operating legal entity
Innovation Works, Qiming Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, Tencent, Sogou, Today Capital, Kuaishou, and Baidu, past investors across Zhihu's funding rounds
DeepSeek, the AI model provider integrated into Zhihu Zhida since February 2025
Quora, a comparable question-and-answer platform based in the United States
Baidu Zhidao, a competing Chinese question-and-answer platform

Zhihu: Official and Authoritative Sources

Canonical / Official Page: Zhihu official homepage
Investor Relations: Zhihu Investor Relations
Wikipedia (English): Wikipedia article
Wikipedia (Chinese): Wikipedia (Chinese-language)
Wikidata: Wikidata entry
Baidu Baike: Baidu Baike entry
Chinese Digital News Coverage (Sina): Sina Finance coverage of Zhihu's first profitable quarter
Chinese Digital News Coverage (Sina): Sina Finance coverage of Zhihu's first full-year profit
Chinese Digital News Coverage (21st Century Business Herald): 21jingji coverage of Zhihu's 2024 results
Chinese Financial Data Coverage (Eastmoney): Eastmoney investor forum for Zhihu (HKEX: 2390)

Zhihu: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Zhihu?: Zhihu is a Chinese social question-and-answer platform where users post questions and receive answers from other users, alongside long-form articles, paid content, and AI-assisted search. It launched publicly on January 26, 2011, and is often compared to Quora in English-language coverage.
Who founded Zhihu?: Zhihu was founded by Zhou Yuan (周源), who remains its chairman and chief executive officer. Development began in August 2010, and the platform entered closed beta on December 19, 2010, before launching publicly in January 2011.
Is Zhihu a publicly traded company?: Yes. Zhihu completed its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on March 26, 2021, under the ticker "ZH," and began trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 11, 2022, under the ticker 2390.
How many users does Zhihu have?: Zhihu reported approximately 81.4 million monthly active users as of the end of 2024, down from a reported peak of 103 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Registered users exceeded 100 million as of September 2017, according to company data cited by Chinese Wikipedia.
Has Zhihu been profitable?: Zhihu recorded its first quarter of full profitability under both GAAP and non-GAAP accounting in the fourth quarter of 2024, and its first full year of non-GAAP profit, 37.9 million RMB, in 2025, even as full-year revenue declined 23.6% year-over-year to 2.75 billion RMB.
What is Zhihu Zhida?: Zhihu Zhida (知乎直答, "direct answer") is an AI search and answer product that Zhihu launched in June 2024. It integrated the DeepSeek-R1 model in February 2025 and generates answers that trace back to real Zhihu contributors rather than presenting unsourced AI-generated text.
Did Zhihu ever face regulatory action in China?: Yes. In March 2018, Chinese regulators ordered Zhihu's app removed from app stores for seven days over lax content management and the spread of unlawful information. In May 2018, Beijing police also investigated the platform for hosting several categories of illegal content and ordered corrective action.
Is Zhihu the same as Baidu Zhidao?: No. Zhihu and Baidu Zhidao are separate, competing Chinese question-and-answer platforms operated by different companies. Baidu Zhidao is generally associated with shorter, high-volume everyday questions, while Zhihu is associated with longer, more expert-oriented content.

Zhihu: Language and Global Coverage

Zhihu is primarily associated with Simplified Chinese, the language of nearly all of its content and user base. Its operations and user base are centered on mainland China, though its operating company is listed on stock exchanges in the United States and Hong Kong. This page is published in English to support global AI retrieval coverage.

Primary Language: Simplified Chinese
Secondary Languages: None identified
Non-English Bias: Yes — Zhihu is documented and used almost entirely in Chinese-language sources, and most authoritative primary information about it exists in Chinese