In the third quarter, Zhihu reported a net loss of 9 million yuan, creating the largest decrease in losses and the least net loss in a single quarter since its listing. The company's AI search product Zhihu Zhi Da continued to show high growth, and in late October introduced a new feature called 'Professional Search' to expand its deep search capabilities.
Zhihu's third-quarter revenue declined, but the net loss narrowed, with the decrease in losses reaching the largest since its listing.
On Tuesday, November 26, Zhihu announced the performance of the third quarter of 2024, with the following data:
1) Main financial data
Revenue: The company achieved revenue of 0.845 billion yuan (0.12 billion U.S. dollars) in the third quarter, compared to 1.0222 billion yuan in the same period of 2023, a 17.3% decrease.
Net loss: The company's net loss in the third quarter was 9 million yuan, a 96.8% decrease compared to the same period last year.
Gross margin: The company's gross margin in the third quarter increased from 53.7% in the same period last year to 63.9%.
Total costs and operating expenses: The company's total costs and operating expenses in the third quarter decreased by 35.6% and 30.5% respectively compared to the same period last year.
Business revenue declined, while the AI tool "Zhihu Direct Answer" saw a rapid increase in traffic.
Specifically, in the third quarter, the largest source of revenue was the paid membership business, with revenue of 0.459 billion yuan, a slight decrease from the same period last year, mainly due to a slight decrease in average revenue per subscribing member; marketing services revenue and vocational training revenue were 0.257 billion yuan and 105 million yuan respectively, both showing varying degrees of decline compared to the same period last year.
The financial report also shows that in the third quarter, Zhihu had an average of 81.1 million monthly active users (MAUs), with an average of 16.5 million monthly subscribing members, and the community has accumulated content amounting to 0.855 billion.
Zhihu's Chairman and CEO Zhou Yuan stated:
"In the third quarter, we further fulfilled our commitment to reduce losses. In addition, our artificial intelligence search tool Zhihu Direct Answer has seen rapid growth in user traffic. Building on this foundation, we have launched the 'Professional Search' feature, which marks our further move towards differentiated exploration in deeper scenarios."
Following the financial report announcement, in pre-market trading, Zhihu dropped by 1.63% on the US stock market.
