On August 23, Zhihu released its unaudited results announcement for the second quarter of 2023.。Data show that the company's total revenue in the second quarter of 10.4.4 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), up 24.9%; net loss of 2.79.1 billion yuan, compared with 4 in the same period in 2022..Compared with 87 billion yuan, it narrowed sharply by 42.7%; gross margin was 47% from the same period last year..8% to 53.8%。

Overall, the performance of the quarterly report released by Zhihu is acceptable.。Gross margins have also been able to steadily improve despite a significant narrowing of net losses, representing a gradual increase in profitability。The reason for this is that during the reporting period, the broadening and performance of Zhihu's revenue sources contributed to the bright performance of its earnings data, and its marketing value for the B-side is gradually being realized.。

Zhou Yuan, Chairman and CEO of Zhihu, said: "In the second quarter of 2023, we maintained high-quality growth and continued to optimize operational efficiency.。At the same time, we are committed to enriching content, encouraging deeper user engagement and inspiring our content creators.。Thanks to Zhihu's brand awareness and product layout, our paid membership and vocational training business has maintained rapid growth.。We also continue to invest in cutting-edge technologies to improve the efficiency of content consumption and bring new experiences to users.。"

Salt Story Helps Paid Membership Business Take off in the Second Quarter Vocational Education Becomes the Second Growth Curve of Revenue

In terms of revenue, in the second quarter of 2023, the total revenue of Zhihu was 10.4.4 billion yuan。Among them, the largest contribution was paid membership revenue, with revenue of 4.49.1 billion yuan, in the case of a high base, still compared to the same period in 2022 2..71.2 billion yuan growth of 65.6%。Zhihu said the growth in this business segment was mainly due to the continued growth of subscription members in the Zhihu community driven by improved user experience and enhanced content.。

Zhihu member business started in 2018 and upgraded to salt selection member in 2019。At that time, Zhihu was rooted in the original ecology of community Q & A, bringing creators into the membership system, capturing the fragmented reading habits of young users, and enabling creators to develop their potential on the commercial side.。After five years of hard work, in May 2023, Zhihu established the independent brand of "Salt Story," which entered the light reading market with massive short story reserves, a strong author library, and more than half of the market share, becoming an important milestone in the development of Zhihu's member business.。

The establishment of Salt Story helped Zhihu's paid membership business take off in the second quarter of this year.。Financial data show that during the reporting period, the average monthly active user (MAU) of Zhihu reached 1..09.4 billion, up from 1 in the same period in 2022.05.9 billion; average monthly subscription members reached 14 million, up 65% from the same period in 2022.3%。

The second largest revenue contribution was marketing services revenue, with revenue of 4.12.7 billion yuan, compared with 4 in the same period last year..78.1 billion yuan down 13.7%。

It is understood that Zhihu's marketing services mainly come from its online advertising business and content commercialization solutions (CCS) rooted in the support community, through cooperation with third parties or professional creators, in the community for active science and professional exposure, forging profit model.。Zhihu once evaluated the marketing service business as being able to provide more accurate and comprehensive marketing solutions and improve operational efficiency.。With the ecological advantages of the community for brand layout and new product promotion, Zhihu's marketing services are becoming more and more recognized by commercial customers.。

However, for this decline in marketing services revenue, Zhihu said that the reason is that the company is "constantly improving its service products to focus strategically on improving margins."。

During the reporting period, Zhihu's vocational education revenue increased by 213.3%, up to 1.44.5 billion yuan。Public information shows that at present, Zhihu vocational education business has begun to take shape。In the first quarter of this year, Zhihu's vocational education revenue broke through 100 million for the first time, while in the second quarter, Zhihu's vocational education revenue increased more than twice as much year-on-year, which has become a new growth curve for Zhihu.。

Zhihu said the increase in revenue from the business was due to the further enrichment of online course content, the significant increase in online course revenue, and the contribution of business growth from previous acquisitions.。

In addition, during the reporting period, Zhihu's other income was $37.9 million, down from $40.7 million in the same period in 2022.。

In terms of costs and expenses, during the quarter, the cost of revenue in Zhihu increased from 4 in the same period in 2022..36.4 billion yuan increased by 10.5% to 4.82.1 billion yuan。The increase was primarily due to increased content and operating costs as a result of Zhihu's efforts to enhance content appeal, as well as increased payment processing costs driven by revenue growth, partially offset by lower cloud services and bandwidth costs.。

In terms of operating expenses, Zhihu's total operating expenses for the quarter were 8.89.3 billion yuan compared with the same period in 2022.60.3 billion yuan slightly increased by 3%。Among them, sales and marketing expenses from 5 in the same period in 2022..32.4 billion yuan to 5.$40.6 billion, mainly attributable to Zhihu's continued investment in promoting products and services。General and administrative expenses from 1 in the same period in 2022..04.3 billion yuan to 1.12.5 billion yuan, the increase was mainly due to the increase in equity incentive expenses.。

It is noteworthy that the research and development costs of Zhihu increased from 2% in the same period in 2022..23.6 billion yuan to 2.$36.2 billion, mainly due to increased expenditure on technological innovation in Zhihu。

It is understood that, previously, Zhihu had reached in-depth cooperation with the domestic large model team through joint research and development and strategic investment to jointly develop Chinese large model products and promote the application of landing.。In April this year, Zhihu released the "Know the Chart AI" Chinese model, the first in-station large model application function "hot list summary";。

Zhihu CTO: Currently has mastered training 20 billion models

At the earnings call, Zhou Yuan said: "Today, China's" new workers "group is growing rapidly, they generally have a good education and professional background, have their own understanding and judgment of the world, the pursuit of growth in work and life.。This group has more than 400 million people in China, mainly engaged in advanced manufacturing and service industries, generally received college or higher education, with a high income level and spending power.。"New hires are a supporting force in Chinese society and a mainstream group in the Zhihu community."。

Zhihu CTO Li Dahai said: "The Zhihu community has a unique advantage in Chinese language data and has formed a unique position in the artificial intelligence technology revolution."。He said that AI is an important opportunity for Zhihu, and there are many scenarios that can be used in the community to help improve the user experience, improve commercialization and operational efficiency.。"

According to Zhihu, it has mastered the training of the number of 20B (20 billion) large models, the internal test effect has improved significantly, is expanding to 80B, this year plans to reach 100B.。Previously, the number of participants in the "AI Model of Knowledge Chart" released by Zhihu was 10B.。In terms of application, Zhihu has fully explored the deep semantic understanding function of the large model, and has achieved results in content classification and topic recognition.。

The quarterly earnings call also mentions that the number of content discussions and content creators on the platform increased at the end of the quarter, supported by various activities in Zhihu。As of June 30, 2023, Zhihu had a cumulative total of 66.6 million content creators, up from 59.1 million in the same period last year..8%。At the same time, they released 7 in more than 1,000 verticals in the community..11.3 billion pieces of content。

According to Zhihu, as of June 30, 2023, about 76% of the average monthly active users were under the age of 30, with female users accounting for 58% of active users in June 2023..4%。Zhihu said that in the second half of this year, it will further improve its content and membership products and expand its content categories to meet the needs of male and female members.。