Zhihu achieves its first full-year profit, Zhou Yuan: Building a differentiated moat around the community

Ask AI · How should the community moat mentioned by Zhou Yuan be differentiated in the AI era?

We learned from the company intelligence expert “Jingji Tuyu” that on March 25, Zhihu (ZH.US,02390.HK) released its 2025 fourth-quarter and full-year results report.

The report shows that in 2025, Zhihu’s revenue in the fourth quarter was 644 million yuan; full-year revenue was 2.75 billion yuan, with adjusted net profit for the full year of 37.90 million yuan. This is the first time the company achieved full-year profitability under non-GAAP accounting standards, marking a new stage in the company’s comprehensive move into sustained profitability.

Since the fourth quarter of 2024, Zhihu has achieved non-GAAP profitability for three consecutive quarters. With steadily improving operating efficiency and quality, along with continued investment in and driving of innovative growth directions such as AI, Zhihu has ultimately reached another development milestone of full-year non-GAAP profitability.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, Zhihu continued to explore upgrades to its business model and optimize the mix of its revenue. Among them, paid reading contributed 334 million yuan in revenue, accounting for 51.8%; marketing services revenue reached 235 million yuan, accounting for 36.5%. Other business revenue, including education, consumer goods, and copyrights, contributed 75.20 million yuan, accounting for 11.7%.

At the end of the reporting period, Zhihu’s total cash and cash equivalents, time deposits, restricted funds, and short-term investments were 4.45 billion yuan.

**As of the close of trading on March 25 in Hong Kong stocks, Zhihu closed at 8.**08 HKD, up 5.1% for the day. The corresponding total market capitalization was 2.126 billion HKD, with a TTM P/E ratio of 19.03.

“2025 is a structural turning point for Zhihu. We achieved full-year non-GAAP profitability for the first time. This milestone shows that the transformation toward high-quality growth has effectively strengthened our operating model and earnings resilience.”

Zhihu’s founder, Chairman and CEO Zhou Yuan said that in the fourth quarter, Zhihu made steady progress in community ecosystem development and commercialization efficiency. Looking ahead to 2026, while strengthening its core business foundations, “we will accelerate our commercial exploration related to AI. Relying on our large network of experts, trusted content assets, and diverse real user scenarios, we are building a differentiated moat around the community, further enhancing Zhihu’s strategic position in the broader AI ecosystem.”

On the operational front, Zhihu is evolving in a coordinated way through “high-quality content × expert network × AI capabilities,” driving a virtuous cycle in the community ecosystem and continuously strengthening Zhihu’s unique advantages and professional influence in the AI era. In the fourth quarter, real, in-depth, high-quality content continued to emerge across various fields. Broad user engagement and usage depth further improved, and new user retention increased significantly. Meanwhile, Zhihu’s paying users continued to be active; the monthly average number of subscribed members remained industry-leading, reaching 12.20 million.

In the paid reading segment, the growth potential for monetizing IP generated from the expansion of premium paid content is enormous. In the fourth quarter, revenue contributed by IP copyrights increased by more than 5 times year over year, and for the full year, the author base for copyright earnings increased by 6 times year over year. Relying on its in-house high-quality original story platform, Yan Yan Stories, Zhihu has built a path of “high-quality content accumulation—structured IP assets—reuse of multi-scenario capabilities,” extending original content from single reading consumption to broader content scenarios, achieving long-term release of content value and compounding growth.

In the fourth quarter, marketing services revenue was 235 million yuan, accelerating its rebound. Revenue grew 24% quarter over quarter. Benefiting from ongoing investments and steadfast execution focused on optimizing customer mix and upgrading commercial products, Zhihu’s commercial IP and services have continuously enhanced their ability to attract customers and contribute revenue.

Looking forward, Zhihu will continue to invest in innovative businesses, explore growth directions, enhance its positive ability to drive community ecosystem development and commercial revenue, and accelerate the coordinated evolution of “high-quality content × expert network × AI capabilities,” continuously strengthening the community’s ecosystem moat and its influence across the entire network.

At the same time, the company will also build on its paid reading business and the Yan Yan Stories brand, strengthen its layout in the AI animation drama industry, and unlock the full-industry-chain potential of original content IP; leveraging its strong data advantages and high-quality IP accumulation to accelerate AI-driven commercialization exploration, opening up greater commercial growth potential.

Zhihu’s CFO Wang Han said in the earnings call that 2025 marked a structural upgrade in Zhihu’s financial position. While achieving non-GAAP profitability for the full year for the first time, the company also maintained healthy gross margins. “Looking ahead to 2026, we will focus on further improving profitability quality and scalability by developing revenue sources with higher profit margins and higher capital efficiency first. At the same time, we will continue to adhere to a prudent capital allocation strategy, including share buybacks, to support long-term shareholder value.”