Zhihu

Zhihu is one of the largest and most influential knowledge sharing platforms in China, after registering the zhihu.com domain in 2007, it launched its core service to the public in 2011. Originally built to connect professionals and industry experts to share knowledge, the platform has grown into a diverse community where users ask, answer, and discuss topics across thousands of categories including technology, business, culture, lifestyle, science, and personal development. Unlike many general social media platforms that prioritize short-form viral content, Zhihu prioritizes in-depth, high-quality content creation, with a community voting and moderation system that upvotes helpful, accurate answers and downvotes misleading or low-quality contributions. Over its 18 years of domain history and more than a decade of public operation, Zhihu has expanded beyond core Q&A to include features like专栏 content, short-form video, live streams, paid content subscriptions, online courses, and knowledge product e-commerce. It attracts hundreds of millions of monthly active users from across the Chinese-speaking world, ranging from students and young professionals to industry leaders and academic researchers. The platform ranks among the top 1000 most visited websites globally, reflecting its widespread popularity and long-standing reputation as a trusted source of information and professional insight for Chinese internet users. Zhihu has also built a sustainable creator economy, allowing knowledge creators to monetize their expertise through multiple revenue streams while keeping most core content free for general users.