Understand any stock in simple English
Enter a ticker to learn what the company does and how it makes money.
Zhihu Inc.
Zhihu runs a Chinese online question-and-answer community where people ask questions, write answers, and pay for extra content, while the company also sells ads and vocational courses.
Zhihu is often called China's Quora, but that undersells it. It started in 2010 as an invitation-only website where people asked serious questions and others wrote long, thoughtful answers. Over time it opened up to everyone and became one of the main places where Chinese internet users go to read informed opinions, personal stories, and practical advice on everything from careers to science to relationships. The community is the product: users create the content, and Zhihu packages that attention into ways to make money.
Zhihu earns money in three main ways. It sells memberships that unlock extra content and features. It sells advertising to brands that want to reach its educated, mostly younger audience. And it runs vocational training courses, which teach skills like exam prep or professional certifications. Of those, advertising and memberships are the big pillars, with training as a growing third leg. The appeal to advertisers is simple: Zhihu's users are seen as curious, well-educated, and willing to read long-form content, which makes them a valuable audience. The business has a tricky core problem. Zhihu's content is free and made by users, so the company has to work hard to convert that free attention into paid revenue without annoying the people who create it. It competes for attention with short-video giants like Douyin and other content platforms, and it has struggled to grow profitably. Zhihu listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, and its shares have fallen a long way from their early highs as investors questioned whether a text-heavy Q&A site can thrive in a market dominated by video.
Still, Zhihu has a real moat: a deep archive of high-quality answers and a reputation as a place for credible, in-depth discussion. The company has been cutting costs and pushing toward profitability, and its vocational training arm gives it a way to sell something concrete rather than just attention. The bet is that a trusted community of knowledgeable people is worth something lasting, even if it is not the flashiest business in Chinese tech.
Saved answer · last researched 14 Nov 2026