Zhihu (02390) paid content and IP operations Q2 revenue was 426 million yuan, and Yanyan Story IP grew rapidly

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on August 26, Zhihu (02390, ZH.US) released the results report for the second quarter of 2026. According to the report, Zhihu achieved revenue of 690 million yuan in the second quarter, an increase of 5.9% over the previous quarter. Following the first full-year non-GAAP profit in 2025, Zhihu continued to maintain non-GAAP profits in the first half of 2026, with adjusted net profit of $6.906 million. The company's operational efficiency continues to improve, showing strong management resilience.

In the second quarter, Zhihu continued to optimize its revenue structure and actively explore new ways to enable AI to commercialize. Among them, revenue from paid content and IP operations was 426 million yuan, accounting for 61.7%; revenue from marketing services was 199 million yuan, accounting for 28.8%; and other revenue, including expert data solutions, vocational education, consumer goods, etc., was 65.2 million yuan, accounting for 9.5%.

As of the end of the second quarter, Zhihu held a total of $4.424 billion in cash and cash equivalents, time deposits and short-term investments.

Accelerate the integration of AI and the community, and highlight the creative value of real people

At the operational level, Zhihu continues to consolidate the collaborative advantages of “high quality content × expert network × AI capability”, and the unique value of human creation is further highlighted in the AI era.

By the end of the second quarter, Zhihu's cumulative content volume was about 993 million, an increase of about 9% year on year; of these, AI-related professional content increased by about 37% year on year. In the second quarter, the average number of high-quality content added daily by the community increased by more than 16% year over year, continuing the double-digit growth trend for many quarters.

Zhihu's network of experts and creators continues to grow. By the end of the second quarter, Zhihu had a total of 81.5 million content creators, an increase of 3.1% over the previous year. In the first half of 2026, the number of honorary certified creators increased by 9.8% year-on-year, reflecting the continued appeal of a high-quality community ecosystem to professional creators. Academician Ben De, winner of the National Science and Technology Award and pioneer of radar technology in China, and Deng Yu, the first Chinese Fields Medal winner and mathematician, all left a sincere sharing of their expertise and personal thoughts at Zhihu. From college entrance examinations, employment applications, to scientific research and study and creation, professional discussions contributed by real creators of Zhihu are becoming an important support for the efficient circulation of high-quality information and knowledge in the AI era.

At the same time, Zhihu is also accelerating the integration of AI and the community, better understanding content, connecting users through AI, and continuously releasing the value of content assets that Zhihu has accumulated over a long period of time. AI capabilities have been further integrated into search, recommendation, content understanding and distribution systems, and the newly launched “AI Mountain Watch” function is driving the evolution of community interaction in the direction of smart entities.

Through an open data platform and an AI Works project plaza where AI works can be uploaded and displayed, the creative forms of Zhihu users are becoming more diverse. At present, AI Works has accumulated more than 2,600 AI projects, and more than 17,600 professional developers have accessed the open data platform. Of these, 20% are new developers other than Zhihu creators. Zhihu also released a new version of Zhihu CLI, an intelligent device development tool, to further enhance the convenience for developers to discover and use Zhihu content.

Stabilize the revenue base market and expand the potential of AI commercialization

In the second quarter, Zhihu's paid content and IP operating revenue reached 426 million yuan, up 4.4% year on year and 5.9% month on month. The number of core paying users and willingness to pay remained stable, with an average monthly subscription of 13.11 million members. The IP operation business continued its high growth trend, leading to a significant increase in the number of copyright partnerships and copyright revenue of authors: the number of copyright collaborations increased 671% year over year, and authors' copyright revenue increased 620% year over year.

At the same time, the operation of Yanyan Story IP is expanding from single copyright sales to multi-form, full-life cycle development, further verifying the influence and broad commercial potential of high-quality content across different industries. By the end of the second quarter, 7 boutique skits had been launched under the “Yanyan Story IP+ Listen to Flower Island Studio Production” model. Among them, “Happy Marriage” and “Sister, He's Really My Brother-in-Law” surpassed 3 billion and 2 billion broadcasts, respectively. Furthermore, the 3 AI live-action comics adapted from Yanyan Story IP all surpassed 900 million broadcasts, further verifying the market appeal of Yanyan Story's high-quality IP.

In the field of marketing services, Zhihu's revenue for the second quarter was 199 million yuan, an increase of 4% over the previous quarter. The company continues to focus on industries that are highly compatible with Zhihu's user structure and content advantages, such as technology, automobiles, 3C appliances, and games. Positive progress has been made in some effects products, the game industry, and AI content asset businesses. In the future, Zhihu will continue to improve the matching efficiency between professional content, user decision scenarios and commercial products, further improve advertising products, algorithms, and delivery capabilities, and expand new scenarios such as AI content assets to improve conversion efficiency and unit traffic value with more accurate business strategies.

AI has also brought new commercialization opportunities to Zhihu. Zhihu Expert Data Solution is positioned as a data lab that serves advanced model capabilities, and provides integrated services covering understanding of requirements, expert organization, data production, quality control, and model evaluation and verification for large model companies. In the first half of 2026, expert data solutions have completed project implementation in various fields such as coding, search and in-depth research, visual reasoning, and intelligence. In the next phase, Zhihu will focus on verifying the continuous reuse value of relevant capabilities in different customers and model iterations, and gradually extend it to solutions such as data products, model evaluation, and complex task environments.

Zhou Yuan, founder, chairman and CEO of Zhihu, said, “In the second quarter, Zhihu's real, professional, and trustworthy community infrastructure remained resilient, the depth of use by core users remained stable, and high-quality content and professional creators continued to grow. AI is becoming a new medium for connecting users and content, driving the content, IP and expert capabilities that Zhihu has accumulated over a long period of time into a wider range of applications and business scenarios. Currently, the new business is still in the commercial verification phase. We will determine resource allocation based on actual market demand, customer value, and return on investment, and carefully verify the sustainability of the new business while stabilizing the core business.”

Zhihu CFO Wang Han added, “In the second quarter, the company's total revenue increased 5.9% month-on-month, and the year-on-year decline narrowed further. It is worth noting that paid content and IP operations have achieved year-on-year growth, expert data solutions have also completed preliminary commercial verification, and implemented projects in multiple model capabilities. We will continue to balance key business investments and operational efficiency, and continuously optimize our revenue structure. At the same time, the company will adhere to prudent capital allocation and continue to implement share repurchases to create long-term value for shareholders.”