Zhihu Inc. American Depositary Shares, each representing three (3) Class A Ordinary Shares 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Zhihu Inc. Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Today's conference is being recorded and webcasted. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Jamie Leung of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am. Thank you, Sharon.

Please go ahead, sir. 大家好，我是周源。感谢大家参加我们的二季度的业绩电话会。今天我主要讲三个方面的内容，第一是我们的主营业务在第二季度的表现；第二是在AI时代，知乎将如何将内容IP和专家资源转化为新的产品和商业价值。最后，我会来简要地总结一下上半年的工作和下半年的重点。 Hello everyone, and thank you for joining Zhihu Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call.

Today, I will cover three areas: our core business performance in the second quarter, how AI is expanding the value of our community content, IP and expert network, and our priorities for the 总体来说，核心业务基本盘是保持稳定的，部分业务依然处于调整和恢复阶段。在第二季度，公司总收入为人民币6.9亿元，同比下降3.7%，环比增长5.9%，收入实现环比改善，同比降幅也进一步收窄。受到收入结构变化以及阶段性业务投入，净亏损为人民币1,025万元。具体的财务表现和利润变动原因，稍后将由CFO进一步介绍。在社区方面，我们的核心用户的使用深度保持稳定。第二季度，核心用户日均使用时长约为39分钟，与去年同期基本持平。社区日均新增高质量的内容同比增长超过16%，延续了过去季度双位数的增长。在AIGC内容快速增长的背景之下，内容生产现在正在变得更加地容易。但是真实经验、明确来源和专业判断反而更加地稀缺。真实、专业、可信赖一直是知乎最重要的社区基础，也是我们长期价值的起点。 Let me start with our core businesses.

Overall, our core business remains stable while some areas continue to adjust and recover. In the second quarter, total revenue was RMB 619 million, down 3.7% year-over-year, and up 5.9% sequentially, with a year-over-year decline narrowing further. Adjusted net loss was RMB 10.25 million, reflecting changes in the revenue mix and phased business investments. Our CFO will discuss the financial details shortly. Community engagement among core users remains stable. Average daily time spent was about 39 minutes. Daily creation of high-quality content grew more than 16%. As AIGC makes content creation easier, authentic experiences, clear sourcing, and professional judgment are becoming more valuable. These remain the foundation of Zhihu and our long-term value.

在营销服务方面，第二季度收入为人民币1.99亿元，同比下降10.7%，环比增长4%。本季度我们继续聚焦在科技、汽车、3C家电和游戏这些以知乎用户和内容优势匹配度比较高的行业。我们的效果类产品整体消耗环比增长31%，其中游戏行业消耗环比增长22%。在现在效果类产品的增长尚未完全转化为整体营销收入的恢复，但是它验证了我们继续聚焦在重点行业，补强产品和算法能力的这个方向。目前依然处于结构性修复阶段。接下来，我们会继续提升专业内容、用户决策场景和用户需求之间的匹配效率。 Turning to marketing services, revenue were RMB 199 million, down 10.7% year-over-year and up 4% sequentially.

We continue to focus on key verticals including technology, automotive, consumer electronics and home appliances, and gaming. Spending on performance 1% sequentially, including a 22% increase in gaming. This has not yet translated into a broader recovery in the marketing revenue. But it supports our strategy of strengthening key verticals, products and algorithms. Marketing services remain in structural recovery and will continue to improve the matching of professional content user needs and client demand.

在付费内容和IP运营上，二季度收入为人民币4.26亿。月均订阅会员为1311万，同比和环比基本持平。会员的ARPU能保持稳定。我们将继续优化会员内容和产品的体验，并且拓展知识类的内容，推动付费内容形成故事加上知识的多元结构。那么在这个季度，IP运营继续贡献增量。二季度版权合作数量环比增长105%，同比增长671%，推动原案故事IP从单一版权出售向多形态全生命周期开发延伸。那么整体看来，我们面对的挑战依然是存在的，但收入变化正在收敛，业务结构正在调整，我们核心业务的发展方向始终没有改变。我们会继续推动核心业务企稳，并保持严格的成本纪律。 For paid content and IP, revenue reached RMB 426 million, up 4.4% year-over-year and 5.9% sequentially.

Average monthly subscribing members were 13.11 million, broadly stable, while member ARPU also remained stable. We will continue to improve membership content and product experience while expanding knowledge based offerings. IP operation continued to contribute incremental growth, licensing increasing 105% sequentially and 600% year-over-year. We are expanding the initial IP from one time licensing toward multi-format for lifecycle development. Overall, challenges remain, but our business mix continues to adjust and our strategic direction remain unchanged. We will continue to stabilize our core businesses while maintaining the investment discipline.

那么接下来呢，我想和大家重点谈一下AI时代的知乎。知乎始于社区，但知乎不止于社区，而是让社区长期积累的价值，通过新的产品、内容形态和应用场景，被更多的人使用。真实用户、专业内容、IP和专家网络依然是我们最重要的资产。而AI正在帮助这些能力进入更多新的应用、内容形态和商业场景。那么第一，社区会变得更加地开放。AI正在改变被发现、组织和使用的方式。那对知乎而言，开放并不意味着要改变真实、专业和可信赖的社区定位，也不是把社区的内容简单搬到外部，而是让高质量内容和专业创作者能够通过更多的工具和AI应用被更多用户和开发者发现。这种开放是有明确的边界的。我们会把内容的可溯源、创作者权益保护和社区价值维护作为开放生态的重要前提。在过去，用户主要通过搜索、推荐、信息流发现内容。在今天，我们正在推动知乎直答和知乎的搜索进一步融合，使AI搜索成为发现社区内容的结构化入口，而不是对原有内容进行替代。那么初步的我们的产品测试显示，这项工作对用户流程产生了正向影响。我们还在持续观察其适用范围和长期的效果。那么同时，我们也在探索社区智能体。AI看山就是其中一个具体的尝试。希望AI看山可以成为帮助用户探索知乎社区的一个伙伴，让用户更方便地发现真实的人、专业内容和不同的观点。目前AI看山仍处于早期的测试阶段，我们将重点观察其对内容发现、用户互动和流程的实际驾驶，而不是单纯地追求使用规模。之前我提到的AI Works，截止目前是继续推进的，平台已经沉淀超过2600个AI项目，数据开放平台已经有超过17600，其中的20%是来自知乎创作者以外的新增开发者。同时，我们还发布了新版的知乎CLI，进一步提升了开发者和用户在不同AI工具中发现和使用知乎内容的便利性。这意味着什么呢？这意味着知乎长期积累的内容创作者和专业能力，未来不会只在知乎APP内被发现和使用。通过AI搜索、智能体开放平台和开发工具，他们可以进入更多产品和使用场景。用户的开发者和客户。我们认为AI正在成为一种快速变化的新媒介。一个更加开放的知乎，可以让存量内容被重新发现，让专业创作者触达新的受众，让开发者基于知乎能力创造新应用，也可以为内容授权、品牌内容资产和专家服务带来新的商业机会。 Next, I would like to focus on Zhihu in the AI area.

Zhihu starts with the community bringing the value accumulated within Zhihu to more people through new products, formats and use cases. Real users, professional content, IP and our next expert network remain our most important assets. AI is helping extend these capabilities into new applications and commercial scenarios. First, the community will become more open. AI is changing how content is discovered and used. For Zhihu, openness does not mean changing our positioning. It means enabling the high quality content to reach more users and developers through the AI tools and applications. This requires clear cultures around content sourcing, creator rights, and community values. We are further integrating Zhihu Zhida with Zhihu search, making AI powered search a new gateway to community content rather than a substitute for it. Early testing has shown positive signals for user retention.

We are also exploring community agents. AI Kanshan is one example. Rather than another general purpose chatbot, we wanted to help users explore Zhihu and discover real people, professional content and diverse perspectives. The product remain at an early testing stage, and our focus is on content discovery, interaction and retention. AI Works now hosts more than 2,600 AI projects, while the open data platform API has attracted more than 17,600 professional developers. About 20% were not previously Zhihu creators. We also released an updated Zhihu CLI, making it easier to discover and use Zhihu content across AI tools. Through AI search, agents, open platforms, and developer tools, Zhihu's content and professional capabilities can reach more users, developers, and clients beyond the Zhihu app.

We believe AI is becoming a new medium that can help existing content reach new audiences, enable new applications, and create new opportunities in content licensing, brand content assets and expert services.