Zhihu Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Q1 marked a return to profitability on a non-GAAP basis, with adjusted net income of CNY 17.2 million versus an adjusted net loss in Q4 2025. Management said this was supported by gross margin recovery, cost discipline, and better resource allocation.
  • Positive Sentiment: Revenue improved sequentially and the year-over-year decline narrowed significantly, driven by stronger performance in paid content and IP operations. The company highlighted that this segment is becoming a larger driver of monetization.
  • Positive Sentiment: Paid content and IP operations are being repositioned as a full IP commercialization business, not just membership subscriptions. Zhihu emphasized strong growth in IP partnerships, adaptations into short dramas and comics, and the long-term value of its Yan Yan Gushi content library.
  • Positive Sentiment: AI engagement and creator activity remained strong, with average daily time spent per DAU rising to about 42 minutes and high-quality AI-related content growing over 30% year over year. Management said its AI strategy centers on combining trusted community content with open platforms, data products, and AI-powered content formats.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Zhihu continued aggressive share repurchases, buying back 3.7 million Class A shares in Q1 and reaffirming that buybacks remain a key capital allocation priority. Management also said it does not intend to pursue a “burn cash for growth” strategy, preferring profitable AI initiatives and long-term capability building.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Zhihu Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Yolanda Liu
Yolanda Liu
Head of Investor Relations and Capital Markets at Zhihu

Thank you, Amber. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Zhihu's first quarter 2026 results conference call. Joining me today on the call from the Senior Management team are Mr. Zhou Yuan, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Wang Han, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Zhang Rongle, our Chief Operating Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may be materially different from views expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in our public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.

Yolanda Liu
Yolanda Liu
Head of Investor Relations and Capital Markets at Zhihu

Additionally, the discussion today will include both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purpose only. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our earnings release issued earlier today. In addition, a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on our IR website at ir.zhihu.com. Today, Victor Zhou, an AI agent representing Mr. Zhou Yuan, will deliver prepared remarks in English on his behalf. As Victor is still being refined, we appreciate your understanding. Victor, please go ahead.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

Thank you, Yolanda. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Zhihu's first quarter 2026 earnings call. I am Victor Zhou, and I am pleased to deliver today's opening remarks on behalf of Mr. Zhou Yuan, our founder, chairman, and CEO. The first quarter of 2026 marked a strong start to the year. As we advanced our high-quality growth strategy, our community ecosystem continued to thrive, fueled by a more dynamic user base, deeper social connections, and stronger engagement. Average daily time spent per DAU reached nearly 42 minutes. Our content creators remain highly active and expanded across AI and other specialized domains, further strengthening our trusted expert network. This quarter, professional, authentic, and in-depth content from real people continued to flourish across our community. Its influence extended beyond our platform and reinforced our unique competitive mode in the AI era.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

We also accelerated the integration of AI capabilities across our platform and business operations, with social interactions significantly enhanced across multiple use cases. Building on this solid foundation, Zhihu has continued to gain momentum along its recovery trajectory. In the first quarter, our total revenues achieved positive sequential growth, and the year-over-year decline narrowed substantially, reflecting our healthier business ecosystem and more efficient monetization. Our core businesses are showing encouraging signs of recovery, while our new initiatives continue to gain momentum and deliver steady growth. Specifically, marketing services saw a meaningful narrowing of the year-over-year decline, signaling near-term stabilization. Revenue from IP operations delivered robust growth. Capitalizing on our premium IP library, we have significantly elevated both the production capacity and the quality of our short drama and comic drama adaptations. Multiple short dramas and comic dramas garnered billions of views and consistently topped popularity charts.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

This success serves as a strong validation of the commercial potential of our high-quality IPs. Our expert data solutions have started to gain traction among key clients, with early-stage monetization opportunities gradually taking shape. Our vibrant community fosters genuine connections and deep user trust, assets that are increasingly valuable in the age of AI. This has directly fueled continued growth in user engagement on our platform. In 1Q 2026, average daily time spent per DAU reached approximately 42 minutes, increasing on both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis. The daily active user coverage of positive interactions also grew year-over-year. Underpinning this momentum, our content ecosystem is scaling at a healthy pace. As of the end of the first quarter, cumulative content volume reached 972 million entries, and cumulative topics grew to 4.38 million, up 8.8% and 15.7%, respectively, from the same period last year. High-quality content creation continued to gain momentum.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

This quarter, daily creation of high-quality content rose 18% year-over-year, with professional AI-related content growing over 30% year-over-year. Against the backdrop of rapid AI evolution, Zhihu's professional ecosystem and high-quality creator network continue to offer distinct differentiated value. As a hub for frontline developers, researchers, and tech professionals, Zhihu remains the premier platform where cutting-edge industry trends are first discussed, rigorously analyzed and professionally evaluated. In the first quarter, we saw heightened engagement from subject matter experts across top universities, leading internet companies, and AI labs. They actively participated in deep discussions on topics such as AI self-evolution, next generation large model development, video generation, model iteration, and open source ecosystems. From computer science scholars at institutions like Tsinghua University, to R&D leaders at tech giants and leading AI startups like Alibaba, ByteDance, and Moonshot AI, Kimi.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

A growing number of professionals are sharing their frontline insights, technical reproductions, and in-depth analysis on Zhihu. A substantial cohort of core experts from top-tier labs has joined the platform and remains highly active. In addition, updates to mainstream AI products consistently spark systematic technical interpretations and professional evaluations within our community. Notably, this quarter saw substantial in-depth discussions surrounding DeepSeek's Expert Mode, Alibaba's new video model, HappyHorse, and developments related to Google's Gemma 4. This high-quality content ecosystem, continuously enriched by frontline practitioners, not only enhances Zhihu's professional credibility, but also further solidifies our core competitive mode in the AI era. Professional creators are the core engine that powers the vitality, trustworthiness, and uniqueness of our expert network. In the first quarter, the number of verified honored creators on Zhihu grew over 10% year-over-year, reflecting our continued commitment to amplifying their industry influence.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

Momentum in AI-related creator activity remains strong. We have aggregated over 19 million AI-focused creators who not only fuel our community's high-quality content ecosystem, but also represent a robust pipeline of potential B2B service providers. We also saw a notable influx of top research teams, institutional executives, and core developers in fields like commercial aerospace and frontier technology. Their active participation has further solidified Zhihu's standing as a hub for professional discourse on advanced tech. At the same time, in the film, entertainment, and cultural verticals, we deepened our reach and engagement among upstream IP holders, co-production teams, and dedicated enthusiasts. In May, we hosted the 12th Zhihu Xinzhi Youth Conference, Xinzhi Qingnian Dahui in Beijing. This year's event placed a strong focus on the value of human creativity in the AI era, exploring the irreplaceable worth and core strengths of authentic creators amid rapid technological advancements.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

Overall, sustained engagement of high-quality creators across diverse verticals not only strengthens our foundation of professional, trustworthy content, but also enhances the strategic value of our content assets. This ecosystem directly accelerates our AI-driven commercialization and reinforces the unique competitive advantages of our trusted expert network. Alongside deeper professional engagement, our ecosystem is also becoming increasingly social and interactive. In the first quarter, we optimized both the creation and the consumption experiences for our short-form Ideas product. This initiative effectively lowered barriers to entry while significantly boosting community vitality. Looking ahead, we will focus on deepening the synergies between Ideas and our community-based Circle product. By implementing more refined operations and expanding distribution scenarios, we aim to drive further positive momentum in core user retention and total time spent. Ultimately, this will unlock and expand a wider range of native commercial monetization opportunities.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

We continue to integrate core AI capabilities across content creation, discovery, consumption, and community interactions. Through our Open Platform, API [Non-English content], and offline events like the AI Hackathon, we empowered developers and creators to explore AI-native content and interaction formats, further extending the practical application of AI technologies across the Zhihu community. As we embrace AI as a tool for creative efficiency, we further refined our AI-generated content governance framework to rigorously filter out low-quality machine-generated spam. Since the start of 2026, we have removed over 250,000 pieces of low-quality AI-generated content and have penalized more than 11,000 violating accounts. These efforts have meaningfully safeguarded Zhihu's authentic atmosphere and significantly enhanced the experience for our creators and users. Now, turning to commercialization. In the first quarter, total revenues grew sequentially, and the year-over-year decline narrowed significantly, signaling a clear recovery.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

Underpinned by a healthier commercial ecosystem. Our monetization efficiency continues to improve, with new growth momentum steadily materializing. Let's take a closer look at our performance by segment. First, paid content and IP operations. Starting from the first quarter of 2026, we combined IP-related revenue previously included in other revenues with our existing paid membership revenue into paid content and IP operations revenue. This change more accurately reflects the commercialization potential of our Yanyan Story franchise. This quarter, revenue from paid content and IP operations reached CNY 402.3 million, increasing 15.8% sequentially, driven primarily by the rapid growth of our IP operations, which reflected strong momentum in unlocking the commercial value of our original content IP. Average monthly subscribing members reached 13.1 million, up 7.9% sequentially, with structural optimization.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

This growth was primarily driven by seasonal content consumption during the Chinese New Year holiday and improved customer acquisition efficiency with Zhihu's premium short-form paid content continuing to play a key role in attracting and retaining users. We maintain disciplined high ROI standards by proactively optimizing inefficient acquisition channels to drive high-quality growth in our subscriber base. Meanwhile, synergies between our AI-powered comic dramas and paid membership businesses are gradually emerging. By distributing Zhihu's high-quality IP and adapted content beyond our community, we effectively attract new users to in-community consumption scenarios, creating a strong connection with membership benefits. This strategy expands the reach of our IP while driving conversion among potential members, improving overall acquisition efficiency, and enabling us to continuously optimize returns on our marketing spend. Revenue from IP operations delivered strong growth momentum this quarter.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

The number of our IP partnerships grew more than five-fold year-over-year and more than doubled sequentially. Several of our top titles sold both film and gaming rights, and we signed additional licensing deals in verticals like science fiction. Together, these deals further validate both the depth of our IP monetization capabilities and the pricing power of our IP assets. Supported by our IP library, both the production capacity and the content quality of our short drama and comic drama adaptations remained stable in the first quarter. Multiple short dramas and comic titles achieved billions of views, consistently ranking at the top of various major platforms. Looking ahead, leveraging our strong IP pipeline, we will continue to pursue end-to-end multidimensional commercialization and further extend the life cycle of each individual IP. Moving to marketing services.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

In the first quarter, marketing services revenue was CNY 191.4 million, broadly in line with the same period last year. Our disciplined execution across client mix optimization and product upgrades continued to deliver results. On client mix, ARPU rose sharply both year-over-year and sequentially in core verticals like gaming and automotive. Our industry mix also continued to improve, with commercial efficiency improving notably across gaming, travel, and transportation. This was supported by the ongoing consumption recovery and a wave of new game launches during the quarter. On commercial products, in March, we launched our technology-themed IP Tech Bytes, Tech[Non-English content], at this year's Appliance & Electronics World Expo, with a focus on the home appliance and consumer electronics sector. At the on-site immersive exhibition zone, Zhihu creators hosted guided walkthroughs to answer consumer questions with professional technical insights.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

They also shared the latest trends in home appliances and consumer electronics. At the same time, Zhihu [audio distortion] hosted an online discussion forum, helping decode industry jargon and highlight the real value behind product innovation. Turning to other revenues. In the first quarter, other revenues were CNY 57.8 million. As I mentioned earlier, we have reclassified IP-related revenue into our new paid content and IP operations segment, which better reflects how each business is developing. Within other revenues, our expert data solutions business won recognition from leading enterprise clients and began generating revenue this quarter. As a pioneer in defining and delivering high-value data solutions, we are now translating our expertise into tangible value for our clients. Our differentiated value has been firmly validated by the top-tier AI labs.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

Looking ahead through the rest of 2026, we remain committed to deepening our services for key clients while expanding our footprint into new industries. To wrap up, the first quarter gave us a solid start to the year. As we move through 2026, our priorities remain clear. We will continue to strengthen operational profitability while leveraging our unique strength in the AI era to drive higher quality, accelerated growth. We believe the combined power of high quality content times extra network times AI capabilities will further set Zhihu apart in this new era. Over the next three quarters, we will continue to execute on our strategy with discipline. We expect our core businesses to show an accelerated recovery. In parallel, our AI-related new initiatives should continue to gain traction and contribute meaningfully to growth.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

With that, I will hand the call over to our CFO, Wang Han, whose remarks will be delivered through his AI voice agent. Han, please go ahead.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

I will now go over our first quarter 2026 financials. For a complete overview of our results, please refer to our press release issued earlier today. The first quarter marked a strong start to the year, with our operations and financial performance both improving. Building on the full-year non-GAAP profitability achieved in 2025, we delivered a strong sequential return to profitability in the first quarter, supported by continued gross margin recovery, disciplined cost management, and focused resource allocation. These results reflect the cumulative impact of our multi-quarter structural optimization and provide a strong foundation for continued growth as we move through 2026. Now turning to the financial highlights of first quarter 2026.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

At the non-GAAP level, we are pleased to report that adjusted net profit turned positive in the first quarter of 2026, reaching CNY 17.2 million, compared with an adjusted net loss of CNY 39.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Our total revenue for the quarter reached CNY 651.6 million, compared with CNY 729.7 million in the same period of 2025. The year-over-year decline reflects our continued efforts to optimize revenue mix and to prioritize high-quality services. More importantly, revenue grew on a sequential basis, driven by strong revenue contribution from our paid content and IP operations segment. Our marketing services revenue for the quarter was CNY 191.4 million, compared with CNY 197 million in the same period of 2025. The stabilization in marketing services reflects our proactive and ongoing refinement of service offerings, with a notably improving sequential trend.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

Paid contents and IP operations revenue was CNY 402.3 million, compared with CNY 420.9 million in the same period of 2025. Average monthly subscribing members were 13.1 million, an increase of 7.9% on a quarterly basis. We continue to focus our resources on strengthening user engagement and monetization opportunities. In addition, revenue growth from our IP operations served as an earnings driver, supported by expanding IP initiatives. Other revenues were CNY 57.8 million, compared with CNY 111.8 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease was primarily due to strategic refinements of our vocational training business. Our gross profit for the quarter was CNY 388.3 million, compared with CNY 451.1 million in the same period of 2025. Gross margin was 59.6%, compared with 61.8% in the same period of 2025. Notably, gross margin improved sequentially from 53.6% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

This improvement was attributable to prudent cost controls across content and cloud operations. Our total operating expenses decreased by 10.4% year-over-year to CNY 451.2 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared with CNY 503.7 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease in total operating expenses was in line with revenue. Supported by management's careful cost controls, R&D expenses fell by 22.4% year-over-year, while selling and marketing expenses also decreased by 11.1% year-over-year. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 11.1% year-over-year to CNY 285.1 million, from CNY 320.6 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease was primarily due to more disciplined marketing spending and a decrease in personnel-related expenses. Research and development expenses decreased 22.4% year-over-year to CNY 110.1 million from CNY 141.9 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease was primarily driven by ongoing improvements in our research and development efficiency.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

General and administrative expenses were CNY 56 million, compared with CNY 41.2 million in the same period of 2025. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in the allowance for expected credit losses on trade receivables. Our net loss narrowed by 15.6% to CNY 8.5 million, from CNY 10.1 million in the same period of 2025. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted net income increased by 147.2% year-over-year to CNY 17.2 million, from CNY 6.9 million in the same period of 2025. As of the 31st of March, 2026, the company had CNY 4.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, restricted cash and short-term investments. As of the 31st of March 2026, the company has repurchased 34.8 million Class A ordinary shares on the open market for an aggregate value of $70.7 million on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

During the first quarter of 2026, the company repurchased 3.7 million Class A ordinary shares for a total consideration of $4.2 million. The share repurchase program continues to deliver value back to our shareholders. Building on the solid momentum achieved in the first quarter, we expect 2026 to be a year of high-quality growth. We remain focused on strengthening operational profitability and improving execution efficiency, while further leveraging the unique advantages from our high-quality content, expert network and AI capabilities. As these three pillars continue to evolve in unison, they will further highlight our distinctive value in the AI era. Looking ahead, we will continue to execute our established strategy with discipline and focus, driving sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value. This concludes my prepared remarks on our financial performance for this quarter. Let's turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. In the interest of time, please ask one question each time. If you have any follow-up questions, please go back to the queue. We will now take our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Xueqing Zhang of CICC. Please ask your question Xueqing, your line is open.

Xueqing Zhang
Xueqing Zhang
Analyst at CICC

[Non-English content] Thanks management for taking my question. My question is about AI. Could management share some of the latest strategic thinking and roadmap around AI? For example, in terms of integrating AI with the Zhihu community, what is our latest plan and progress? Thank you.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Thank you for the question, Xueqing. I believe the relationship between the community is not AI plus or plus AI. As I mentioned earlier, average daily time spent per DAU increased. I reckon it mainly stems from our position core strategy over the past period, which centers on building a high-quality, trustworthy community. In other words, the interpersonal connections are becoming more active, and this vibrancy will still occur even without AI. What users truly need is not the AI itself, but rather cognitive enhancement, experience sharing and real connections. Building a high-quality, trustworthy community is what Zhihu has been doing since day one. Whether navigating the internet era or today's AI era, our underlying mission has never changed. Therefore, rather than viewing the community as an AI application scenario, we focus on how to leverage technology to better serve people.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Take the Xinzhi Conference as an example. This year, on-site attendance exceeds 80,000, which set a historical record. We have over 100 partners on site featuring numerous workshops and coffee chats related to AI. There's also non-AI activities such as handicraft workshops, fitness areas, and food markets. Ultimately, people gather together for the engagement.

Translator

The meaning of Xinzhi does not merely represent the new knowledge, but the new cognition and the new connections. This is precisely the core value of Zhihu's community. We have always believed that Zhihu's community ecosystem is not built to serve shallow attention, and the increasing time spent corresponds not to a concept of everyone, but to the active growth of a mid to high attention user cohort. Our core priority is to continuously build Zhihu into a positive feedback system that helps people elevate the cognition and establish connections. To achieve this, we have executed four initiatives over the past two years. The first one would be the sustained investment in the community operations. Second would be the simplification of the product experience. Third one would be the long-term investment in the underlying technical infrastructure. Last one would be the advancement in AI innovation and efficiency.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Regarding AI, we have one principle: AI is not the end goal, but people are. In phase 1, for Zhihu Zhida, we aim to integrate AI search with our trustworthy community content, ensuring answers are not just generated from the models, but could be tracked back to real people and experiences. The phase 2, which is our current stage, we are advancing in two areas. Firstly, we are building on a data platform. We're getting the high quality, long-term community data that have been cleaned and credibly ranked. It's open to develops via MCP or Skills. Secondly, we are building an open platform, which is our community APIs, and we hosted our first open platform-based hackathon. Now it's currently project-based, and we're turning to product as in the long-term open platform to enable the engineers and AI creators to continuously innovate. Therefore, integrating the community and AI is not simply dropping into, it's about to leverage open platform to empower more creators to generate new value.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Our exploration extends further. If the open platform unlocks creativity, AI short dramas or the comics unlock the value of our IP. Our paid content in story and today's AI dramas are all organic extensions of our authentic discussions. This exemplifies our strategy of starting from and extending beyond the community. A community create content and content generate IP, which leverages the new technologies to reach broader users. As the AI drama industry shifts from the volume growth to quality, we believe the value of our IP will further unlocked.

Yuan Zhou
Yuan Zhou
Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Finally, Zhihu believes in long term. Our current progress is not driven by scale focus tactics. Our core strategy remains unchanged. Deeply cultivate the community and focus on people, and leverage AI innovation to better serve and empower people, and continuously drive the positive cycle of starting from the community and extending beyond it. Such transition cannot materialize within a single quarter or even a full year. Our current results stem from consistent execution over the past two years, while our ongoing efforts are laying groundwork for structural improvements in the next three years. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you.

Translator

Thank you.

Operator

We will now proceed to take our next question from the line of Vicky Wei of Citi. Please ask your question, Vicky. Your line is now open.

Vicky Wei
Vicky Wei
Analyst at Citi

[Non-English content]

Vicky Wei
Vicky Wei
Analyst at Citi

So thanks management for taking my question. We noticed that starting from the first quarter, the company merged the original paid membership revenue with membership related copyright licensing and IP derivative revenue into a single category. Does this change reflect a new strategic rethink by management regarding the market potential and growth drivers of this business? Furthermore, how should we think of Zhihu's advantages and opportunities within this newly defined market space? Thank you.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Thank you for the question, Vicky. This is from Zhihu COO Zhang Rongle. This revenue reclassification indeed reflects a strategic upgrade in how we view our paid content and IP operations. Previously, the market saw our paid content as just membership revenue. As China's top premium short-form original platform, the growth of Yanyan Story has unlocked far broader value beyond the subscriptions. Our IPs now monetize through short dramas, comics, film or TV shows, and games. Creators are already becoming writers and producers. Effective since the first quarter of 2026, the reclassification aims to better showcase the full life cycle value of our content and IP.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

This means it's upgrade from a single subscription model to the full chain IP operation and development. It remains as a crucial foundation, helping us validate the content creation, the user willingness to pay, and IP potential. Building on this, content could unleash commercial value through the IP partnerships, script adaptations, short dramas, and etc. We aim to form a complete closed loop from the content to consumption, and to the IP screening and multi-format monetization.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

In this new market landscape, we believe Zhihu has four competitive advantages. Our Yanyan Story is the leading player in the short story track. It has accumulated a vast library of premium short stories over time. Short stories naturally feature concentrated plots, clear character relationships, and high-density conflicts, making them highly suitable for adaptation into new content. Compared to incubating content from scratch, adapting the existing IPs delivers high efficiency in both content screening and monetization conversion.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

We continue to strengthen our creator ecosystem. Through the incentive mechanism, we discover the mid-tier creators and extend their life cycle by enabling the transition from novel writing to script adaptation. Meanwhile, our creators are showing high potential in utilizing AI for content inspiration and video gen models. In first quarter, total creator earnings surged 5.6x year-over-year, further demonstrating the IP monetization.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

AI short dramas are really speeding up our IP monetization. In the first quarter, our total IP partnerships surged like 564% year-over-year and 248% quarter-over-quarter, fully validating the commercial depth and the premium pricing power of Zhihu's content assets. Competition will ultimately return to the quality of the content. As the industry evolves, the lifetime value of individual IPs will be further unlocked.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

AI has increased the production capacity. Our short-form IPs offer a natural high yield advantages for adaptation. As we deepen our participation at leveraging AI for storyboarding, image generation, scripting, and distribution, we anticipate the lower cost and higher margin. Ultimately, AI doesn't just increase output, it empowers creators.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Therefore, the revenue reclassification isn't just an accounting adjustment, it reflects how we redefine the commercial potential of Yanyan Story and our original IPs. Going forward, we will drive deeper synergies across paid content, IP licensing, short dramas, AI comics, and other formats. This allows us to maximize the LTV of each IP, and turning the paid content and IP operation into a growth driver.

Rongle Zhang
Rongle Zhang
COO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now proceed to take our next question from the line of Luqing Zhou of Goldman Sachs. Please ask your question, Luqing, your line is open.

Luqing Zhou
Luqing Zhou
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

[Non-English content]

Luqing Zhou
Luqing Zhou
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Thanks management for the opportunity. My question is regarding the AI investment. Can management elaborate more on the specific areas of allocation of your AI investment? How do you plan to balance those new investments with the group's long-term overall profitability goals? Thank you.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Thank you for the question, Luqing. This is from Zhihu CFO Han Wang. We are certainly integrating AI into all aspects of our operations. However, I understand that the market is likely most concerned about when AI-driven revenue will accelerate our growth. We maintain our previous strategic focus, specifically targeting two fields: the AI short dramas, comic dramas, and the expert data solution. The former represents the AI-generated content that users are most willing to pay for, while the latter serves as the selling water and shovels to the AI industry. Therefore, regarding how we balance new business investments with profitability, these two selections represent some of the healthiest cash flow profiles among all AI verticals, and Zhihu holds a distinct competitive advantage here.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Of course, there's challenges ranging from industry competition to the macro environment, which require a medium to long-term perspective. However, we will not pursue a strategy of burning cash to chase growth. Our investments will focus on building core long-term capabilities to deliver fundamentally superior products. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now proceed to take our next question from the line of Daisy Chen of Haitong International. Please ask your question, Daisy, your line is open.

Daisy Chen
Analyst at Haitong International

[Non-English content] Thanks, management for taking my question. Zhihu's profit has shown a significant improvement in Q1. Does management have any update to the shareholder return plan, such as the methods, and the payout scale? Thank you.

Han Wang
Han Wang
CFO at Zhihu

[Non-English content]

Translator

Thank you for the question, Daisy. We remain firmly committed to our share repurchase. We believe Zhihu has been one of the most active Chinese ADRs in terms of buyback intensity over the past two years. Since 2022, the company has repurchased a cumulative 63.5 million Class A ordinary shares in the open market with a total cost of $130 million. Year-to-date in 2026, the company has repurchased 4.61 million shares for over the cost of $5.06 million, representing 1.74% of total shares outstanding. Shares repurchased during the first quarter of 2026 have all been fully canceled. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. That concludes today's question-and-answer session. At this time, I'll turn the conference back to Yolanda for any additional or closing remarks.

Yolanda Liu
Yolanda Liu
Head of Investor Relations and Capital Markets at Zhihu

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please contact our IR team directly or Christensen Advisory. Thank you. Thank you all.

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Han Wang
      Han Wang
      CFO
    • Rongle Zhang
      Rongle Zhang
      COO
    • Yolanda Liu
      Yolanda Liu
      Head of Investor Relations and Capital Markets
    • Yuan Zhou
      Yuan Zhou
      Founder, Chairman, and CEO
Analysts
    • Daisy Chen
      Analyst at Haitong International
    • Luqing Zhou
      Analyst at Goldman Sachs
    • Vicky Wei
      Analyst at Citi
    • Xueqing Zhang
      Analyst at CICC
    • Translator