Zhihu is a Chinese question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by the community of its users. Its website, zhihu.com, was launched on January 26, 2011. The number of registered users of Zhihu had exceeded 10 million by the end of 2013, and has reached 17 million as of May 2015 with 250 million monthly page views. In Classical Chinese, "Zhīhū" means "Know?". Chinese-language internet users today increasingly use Zhihu for knowledge and insights into various topics.
History
Zhihu began development starting from August 2010. It went through a closed beta test at the end of December 2010. The final product went on line on January 26, 2011. It has reportedly received funding from Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation Works, Qiming Ventures, SAIF Partners, Tencent and Sogou. On August 12, 2019, Zhihu completed a $450 million F-round funding led by Chinese short video platform Kuaishou and internet giant Baidu.
Product operation
In the beginning, user registration was mostly invitation-only, with referral needed from a couple of hundred registered users. Otherwise new users had to apply to join, by filling a large amount of personal information and waiting for a reply. This strategy at Zhihu's early stage ensured the high quality of questions, as well as hosting professional questions and answers, which attracted additional users to the community. Zhihu started open registration in March 2013, which increased the numbers of users from 400,000 to 4,000,000 in less than one year. Registered users are able to ask questions in the community while inviting specific users to answer. Each user is able to check his/her Zhihu followers' updates. On the home page, users are able to check the status of their own questions, as well as the activities around their answers and comments. The site generates revenue through advertisements, e-books, and paid questioning to certain experts.
Impact
Zhihu is highly interactive with the best response chosen through an upvote system. It features high-profile Chinese entrepreneurs and public intellectuals among its users, increasingly providing Chinese netizens with a space for rich discussion.
