Zhihu

Zhihu began development in August 2010. It went through a closed beta test at the end of December 2010.^[6] The final product went online on January 26, 2011.^[7][8] It has reportedly received funding from Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation Works, Qiming Ventures,^[9] SAIF Partners, Tencent, and Sogou.^[10]

In October 2011, Zhihu completed its A-round of funding for US$7 million from Innovation Works and Qiming Ventures.^[7] In 2015, Zhihu completed its C-round of funding for US$55 million.^[10]

In 2017, Zhihu officially commercialized. In August 2018, Zhihu completed its E-round of funding, raising US$270 million for a total company valuation at US$2.5 billion. On August 12, 2019, Zhihu completed a subsequent F-round of funding led by Chinese short video platform Kuaishou and technology company Baidu, garnering US$450 million. As a result, Baidu mobile app searches would directly return Zhihu content.^[11]

On March 2, 2018, the Cyberspace Administration of China required all app stores to remove Zhihu for 7 days. The reason was stated to be insufficient monitoring and illegal content. On the same day, Android app stores removed Zhihu. On Apple App Store, Zhihu became unavailable for download. ^[12]

On October 9, 2020, a Video creation tool was launched on Zhihu. The tool is able to suggest images and generate voice over for text. This aims to reduce the technical barrier to video creation on the platform.^[13] In December 2021, ten of Zhihu's shareholders, including Sogou and Tencent's investment arm, sold all of their stakes (78% ownership) in Beijing Zhizhe Tianxia Technology, the parent company of Zhihu. All shares were transferred to the founder and CEO, Zhou Yuan (Chinese: 周源; pinyin: Zhōu Yuán), who owned more than 99% of the company thereafter. This occurred three days after regulatory pressures from the Beijing branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), during which Zhihu was instructed to rectify practices that had led to unlawful release of information.^[14][15][16] Zhihu's initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange came on March 26, 2021.^[17] Zhihu started trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 11, 2022.^[18] In July, 2023, Zhihu no longer supported anonymous posting, although anonymous content is also under the monitoring of Zhihu. Previously published posts were not affected.^[19] On June 29, 2024, Zhihu launched Zhida, an AI search product developed by Zhihu.^[20]

In October 2025, at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, Zhihu unveiled the Yanyan Story Platform. Content on the platform includes books, digital reading, audio dramas, and cultural products. Some literary works on the platform are available in multiple languages, including English, Indonesian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and Thai. At the time, over 100 works had been licensed for domestic or international publication.^[21]

Zhihu functions similarly to Quora, where users may submit questions and answers, as well as upvote the best answer.^[4] Zhihu also features expert panels and daily and weekly newsletters.^[7]

Initially, user registration was primarily invitation-only, with referrals needed from a couple hundred registered users. Otherwise, new users had to apply to join by filling in a large amount of personal information and waiting for a reply.^[22] Zhihu sought to host professional questions and answers, and then over time attract a more general community.^[23]

• List of question-and-answer websites