Zhihu Product Analysis Report

Zhihu has become a high-quality question-and-answer, knowledge-sharing community and a gathering place for all kinds of creators. But after Zhihu made changes, Zhi+ content marketing commercialized Zhihu content, which caused considerable controversy. In this regard, the author conducted analysis and research on video, Zhi+ and Zhihu's business model. Let's take a look.

Purpose of the study:

Zhihu is a high-quality question-and-answer, knowledge-sharing community and original content platform where all kinds of creators gather. However, Zhihu has made a major strategic decision to add a [Video] menu and vigorously promote video Q&A, and Zhi+ content marketing to commercialize Zhihu content. Both of these have caused Zhihu to face considerable controversy.

In this article, the author will analyze and study the two aspects of video and Zhi+ and Zhihu's business model.

1. Market Analysis

Based on Zhihu's positioning as a knowledge-sharing content community and a major soft advertising channel, and its vigorous promotion of the video strategy, we can conduct market analysis from the perspective of the macro industry market size and development trends, content community payment rate, marketing advertising model, and video industry conditions.

Macro industry market size and development trends: According to the CIC industry report, Chinese netizens' consumption and willingness to pay for online paid content are increasing, and a large and rapidly growing online content market will be built in the future.

In 2019, the size of China's online content market reached 1.2 trillion yuan, and is expected to further increase to 3.7 trillion yuan in 2025, three times that of 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 21.4%.

The market size of online content communities has maintained a higher growth trend than other content markets, reaching 275.8 billion yuan in 2019. It is expected to increase to 1.3 trillion yuan by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 30.3%, showing a leading trend in the content market.

1. Content community payment rate

The paid penetration rate of content communities is gradually increasing, and the market size of paid memberships has considerable potential.

According to the CIC report, the number of paying users who purchased services in content communities through paid membership, live virtual rewards, online education, etc. reached 230 million in 2019, and is expected to grow to 590 million in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.1%.

Due to the increase in residents' economic level, further optimization of personalized matching algorithms, improved content diversity and quality, and increased willingness to pay for high-quality content, the penetration rate of paid users in content communities reached 17.3% in 2019, with a market size of 17.4 billion yuan. It is expected that the market size will reach 90.2 billion yuan in 2025.

2. Marketing and advertising model

The content blue ocean is becoming increasingly prosperous.

According to a report by iResearch Consulting, 41.8% of advertisers surveyed are willing to increase their budget for content marketing in the next year.

In the survey on "the forms of advertising that advertisers expect to increase their marketing budgets in 2020", content marketing accounted for 51.7%, ranking first, reflecting that corporate marketing strategies are more inclined towards content marketing. Zhihu content marketing is an important part of business profit growth.

3. Video industry situation

Currently, the short video industry is dominated by two giants, Kuaishou and Douyin. Zhihu has entered the video industry, combining short, medium and long videos, and mainly developing medium videos. Compared with traditional long videos with a long history and the currently popular short videos, users are not exposed to "medium videos" frequently enough, and the breadth of their popularity needs to be improved.

Bilibili and Weibo are the main platforms for users to watch mid-length video content. Zhihu has only been in the video market for a short time, so the breadth of its user base is naturally not as wide as that of Bilibili and Weibo. However, when it comes to high-quality content, users do not care about the length of time, and the preference for video programs in the knowledge category is 46.48%.

Zhihu has a huge user base and has been driving the knowledge-based video track for a long time. It has its own characteristics and still has its own unique competitive advantages in the face of competition in the video industry.

Data source: 2020 Media No. 1 "Mid-length Video" Content User Viewing Habits and Demand Survey

2. Product Overview

1. Experience the environment

• Product version: Zhihu 7.21.0
• Phone model: Mi 11 Lite
• Experience time: 2021/7/27

2. Product positioning

Product slogan: If there is a question, there will be an answer

• Find answers—share knowledge, experience and insights
• Brush recommendations - discover a bigger world
• Follow the hot spots - understand the hot spots in seconds and eat melons rationally
• Watch the video—open up a new world
• Enjoy membership—selected magazine novel courses

Zhihu is a high-quality question-and-answer, knowledge-sharing community and original content platform where all kinds of creators gather. Zhihu has a unique and professional community atmosphere and high-quality content accumulation, gathering a large number of people who are concerned about the Internet, technology, business, film and television, fashion and other fields, and is committed to sharing knowledge, experience and insights.

From January 2011 when Zhihu was officially launched to 2021, the Zhihu APP MAU reached 67 million, the number of monthly usage devices reached 485 million, and the average daily search volume reached 25.45 million. 2021 marks the tenth anniversary of Zhihu's launch, and its product slogan is even more: If there is a question, there will be an answer.

From the slogan, we can learn that Zhihu brings together excellent answerers in various fields. No matter what questions you have, you can find the answers on Zhihu; no matter what questions you want to ask, there will always be someone on Zhihu to answer them for you. The detailed introduction of Zhihu in the App store is: find answers, read recommendations, follow hot topics, watch videos, and enjoy membership.

It can be seen that Zhihu’s main sections are: search, recommendation, and hot spots.

In version 7.18.0, Zhihu App officially added a video menu, with the entrance located at the bottom of the homepage. This is a major functional update. With the rapid rise of short videos, Zhihu has kept up with the trend, adding a new video menu and opening up a new perspective. Yanxuan members are still the focus of Zhihu's paid conversion model, launching paid content of selected magazines, novels and courses.

Find answers - share knowledge, experience and insights (where there is a question, there is an answer. On Zhihu, you can find the questions you are wondering about, and you can also use what you have learned to answer other people's questions. This is Zhihu, a knowledge sharing Q&A community that combines breadth and depth)

Brush recommendations - discover a bigger world (It can be seen that Zhihu's "Recommendations" section has rich and diverse content. It pushes you content that you want to read and that you may be interested in, so as to broaden your horizons.)

Follow hot topics - understand hot topics in seconds and eat melons rationally (the hot topic section is equivalent to the hottest and latest news information. There are hot news every day. In the public opinion that is difficult to distinguish between true and false, browse Zhihu and eat melons rationally, which shows that Zhihu's hot topics are highly discussed and the answers are varied and in-depth, allowing users to eat melons rationally.)

To sum up, it is not difficult to see that Zhihu aims to be a comprehensive knowledge sharing community in the form of questions and answers, audio, and books, providing a platform for you who are curious, studious, like to hear and read, have a desire to share, and are highly knowledgeable.

Logo

Logo Explanation

① Color: Blue is used as the background color of the logo and white is used as the font color, which highlights the rational, technological, and calm atmosphere, which fits the atmosphere of the Zhihu community that covers rich and high-quality content.

②Graphics: The Chinese character “知” (knowledge) in Zhihu uses the graphic design of a dialog box, which implies the product tone of Zhihu - Zhihu is a community for asking questions, answering questions, communicating and interacting.

3. Product iteration

We divide the development stage into three product iteration stages based on the functional attributes of Zhihu's online products. We can also see Zhihu's transformation from an invitation-based question-and-answer community to a multi-attribute comprehensive content ecological community.

(1) 1.0 phase

Q&A Community (2011-2017): Incubating a unique Q&A community culture, combining community and tool attributes.

After Zhihu was officially launched in 2011, it mainly relies on invitation-based Q&A, focuses on creating a small and beautiful atmosphere, and is committed to becoming a content community that is real, reliable, and full of useful information.

(2) Phase 2.0

Content community (2017-2018): nurturing media and service attributes, and building brand commercialization.

During this stage, Zhihu is no longer limited to its tool attributes, but gradually highlights its media and service attributes.

• Launch hot lists and keep up with current events;
• Launch videos and live broadcasts to enrich community gameplay;
• Optimize recommendation algorithms to provide users with personalized content;
• Launch brand cross-border peripherals to create

Zhihu brand IP (Liu Kanshan, Yan Club, etc.). The paid membership service system has been basically completed, including reading club membership cards, super memberships, Zhihu University's "courses + books + training camp", etc. As of the same period, Zhihu has provided 15,000 knowledge service products and has 6 million paying users.

(3) Phase 3.0

Super Community (2019-2021): Comprehensively deepen the commercialization of content marketing and realize content conversion.

On the basis of continuously strengthening the attributes of the first two stages, we will promote e-commerce attributes, enrich delivery and conversion tools, empower content marketing, achieve rapid growth in content marketing, lay out the "content marketing + e-commerce + online education" strategic line, and increase high returns to the community.

Zhi+ links platform content with commercial implants, and "Lists", "Little Blue Stars" and "Good Product Recommendations" are connected with e-commerce platforms. The recommended lists are sorted and presented based on Zhihu user rating data to maintain the neutrality of the lists. During the Double Eleven period in 2020, the "Good Product Recommendations" category was fully covered, and GMV increased by 113% compared to 618 in the same year.

Product updates in the past year:

Zhihu has gone through many versions since it was launched in 2011, so this article only lists the product version update analysis of Zhihu in the past year.

As can be seen from the picture, in addition to fixing problems and optimizing functions, Zhihu will also adjust activity columns and add functions based on current events. Major changes include the addition of the [Video] menu and video answer function. It can be guessed that Zhihu’s focus this year will be on vigorously developing video menus and improving functions.

3. User Profile

1. User characteristics

The main users of Zhihu are: creators and ordinary users.

▷Creator types: industry elites, self-media, and knowledge+ users.

▷ Ordinary user types: knowledgeable middle class, those pursuing quality life, and new generation of people.

Because there is a closed loop in the transformation of user roles on Zhihu, ordinary users can be transformed into creators. Zhihu strongly encourages ordinary users to become creators, so the characteristics of ordinary Zhihu users will be analyzed here.

Data source: Zhihu internal data in 2020

The composition of Zhihu users shows a diversified distribution trend in terms of gender, age, and region, with young users and high spending power.

Gender: 56% are male and 44% are female. There are slightly more males than females, and the gender of users is balanced. Zhihu not only has a lot of knowledge and popular science content, but also has sections that attract women, such as parent-child, fashion, and entertainment. Therefore, Zhihu users are gender balanced and do not tend to favor a specific gender. User characteristics are universal.

Age: Young people of Generation Z under the age of 30 account for as high as 78.8%, users over the age of 30 account for 21.1%, and the backbone of society aged 25-30 and the new generation under the age of 24 are the core groups of Zhihu, and the community atmosphere is very youthful.

Region: 53.52% of users are located in first-tier/new first-tier cities with strong purchasing power.

It can be seen that the mainstream of Zhihu users are the knowledgeable middle class and the new generation. This group is in a stage of highly autonomous knowledge acquisition, has a high willingness to pay, a strong ability to accept new things, has high social needs, generally active user behavior, and has high commercial value.

(1) Zhihu VS Bilibili VS TikTok

Here, the short video representative "Tik Tok", the medium video representative "Bilibili" and Zhihu are compared in terms of three user dimensions: region, age, and gender.

Data source: Baidu Index

As can be seen from the figure, there is a certain degree of overlap between video users of Tik Tok and Bilibili and users of content communities such as Zhihu, that is, users of short and medium-length videos have the possibility of being converted into Zhihu users. Zhihu should be well aware that there is overlap in user groups, so it vigorously develops video menus, expands the number of users, and enriches the question and answer format.

But Zhihu is different from the other two. We can see that Zhihu has significantly more users from first-tier/new first-tier cities, and the proportion of people aged 20-29 is more significant. That is, if Zhihu wants to convert video users on the basis of user retention, it must still follow the tonality of a high-quality content community. It cannot simply imitate the video model of Douyin and Bilibili, but should explore a high-quality video community model of its own.

2. User portrait creator

(1) Industry elites

Have made great achievements in a certain industry/field, and possess creativity, authority and influence; generally work on issues in their own field and produce excellent answers.

They are busy with work and less active than other types of creators; they market their personal IP through the Zhihu platform, publish columns and courses, provide paid consulting, etc.

(2) We-media

The main output source of Zhihu content creation. As a self-media, content marketing is its main means of marketing, and its content output capability is very good. By answering questions in areas of expertise on Zhihu, it can attract traffic to its own public accounts, affiliated institutions and other self-media or increase its own visibility, obtain user payment for knowledge, and be profit-oriented.

(3) Knowledge + User

By sharing one's own life experiences, emotional life, skills or knowledge in certain areas, etc., commissions can be earned through embedded advertising. They are usually evolved from ordinary users, down-to-earth and close to life.

(4) Ordinary users

a) Knowledgeable middle class

Have certain social experience and work experience, good income and work, focus on self-improvement, have good reading habits, and pay attention to social development and industry trends.

b) Those who pursue quality life

This type of people live a refined life, love life, like the sense of ritual, value brand style, and prefer the bourgeoisie. They generally pay attention to Zhihu's financial management, travel, home, and fashion sections.

c) New Groups

Mainly composed of Generation Z, they have diverse interests, love to play, are good at playing and dare to play, are often attracted to new things, and are experts in online shopping. They learn more about interesting new things through Zhihu, follow celebrities and hot topics, follow circles to make friends with like-minded people, and prefer to shop for products that are worth buying.

3. User needs analysis

Here we use the "user-need-solution" framework to analyze the needs of Zhihu's general users and the above six user portraits.

Here we can summarize it in two levels of needs, namely the basic needs of creators: psychological satisfaction and enjoying recognition; and the expected needs: gaining benefits from questions and answers.

Basic needs of ordinary users: to obtain target information through Zhihu; expected needs: to obtain information in a more convenient and richer way.

4. Product Analysis

1. Product function structure diagram

Zhihu has five main functional areas: Home, Video, Membership, Message, and Mine. The product function structure diagram is shown below:

It can be seen that, in general, the entrances to Zhihu's functional areas are relatively shallow and easy to access.

"My" is the most diverse of the five functional areas, mainly including content access channels and customized personalized pages, giving users ample choices. The "My" function area contains prompts to guide users to make payments and become users of the member function area, which echoes the member function area and increases the user payment rate.

The "Live" button is located in the upper left corner of the tag at the top of the "Homepage", at the same level as search and creation, which shows Zhihu's obsession with videos.

The "Video" function area is very simple and easy to use. It can be seen that Zhihu is still in the exploratory stage of the video area and strongly encourages video creation. It promotes the video function with three basic modules: selection (video push), recommendation (video partition), and submission (encourage creation).

2. User flow chart

Because users have various personal browsing habits and Zhihu's functional modules are complex, this article only analyzes the common user usage scenarios of two typical functions: the question browsing process (recommended section) and the video browsing process.

(1) Question browsing process (recommended section)

(2) Video browsing process

3. Typical functions

(1) Recommended section: pictures, texts and videos, richer content

The "Recommendation" section is the default page for entering Zhihu and is also the section with the highest user usage rate. The entire Q&A browsing process is simple and easy to operate. Zhihu previously simplified the "Next" button and now has added a "Video" Q&A, allowing users to browse Q&A more immersively and find information of interest.

At present, the "Recommendation" section is mainly a combination of pictures, texts and videos. Videos tend to support automatic playback. You can go to the settings to select three modes for video automatic playback mode (under mobile traffic and WLAN environment, only under WLAN environment, and off).

Videos that play automatically do attract more users' attention than static text and picture questions. However, videos that are not played automatically will affect the user experience. For example, Zhihu is currently vigorously promoting video Q&A and giving it a lot of exposure, but many videos are of varying quality, and the video cover effect is not good, which will affect users' impression of Zhihu.

Suggestion: Effectively screen high-quality video answers and then push them to the homepage. I would like to talk about the page structure and algorithm push characteristics of the picture, text and video format under the "Recommendation" section:

① Page structure: Videos account for a large proportion of recommended pages

In the entire recommended content interface on the mobile terminal, the ratio of videos to pictures and texts is about 2:1, occupying half of the content interface, and video Q&A is placed first. Users can see the video Q&A at first glance, greatly increasing the video exposure. This shows Zhihu's support for video Q&A.

② Algorithm push: Video algorithm is independent of pictures and texts, and determines the user's preferences for pictures, texts and videos

a) Video algorithms are independent of graphics and text

From usage observations and video push, we can see that the algorithms for video recommendation and image and text recommendation are separate and independent.

If a user watches fewer videos and Q&As, Zhihu will randomly push videos and Q&As that he or she may like; if a user has a certain video and Q&A viewing history, Zhihu will push videos that he or she has watched to recommend related videos or other videos of the video answerer. There is not much relevance to the personalized recommendation topics for user text and picture questions.

Personally, I think the reason why Zhihu chose to make the algorithms for pictures, texts and videos independent is probably because it is worried that there are differences in the user preference groups for pictures, texts and videos. Users who like to read pictures and texts may not necessarily like to watch videos, and users who like to watch videos may not necessarily like to read pictures and texts, so we choose to re-establish the video user portrait in order to push videos more accurately.

From the algorithm used by Zhihu to judge users' preferences for pictures, texts and videos, we can also see Zhihu's caution and determination in its video strategy. For users whose images, texts and videos overlap, they can highly match video recommendations with image and text recommendations without spending a lot of time and energy, and enjoy the rich experience brought by video and image and text Q&A.

b) Determine the user’s preferences for pictures, texts, and videos

Figure 1: Preference pattern for graphic and text content

Figure 2: Video content preference pattern

The preference mode for graphic and text content is: mainly graphic and text content, with graphic and text Q&A displayed on the first page, and a small number of video Q&A will appear after sliding down.

The video content preference mode is: mainly video content, with video Q&A at the top of the first page, interspersed with graphic Q&A, and a large number of video Q&A after scrolling down.

Frequency interval: The interval between text and video Q&A is in the single digit. According to the author's observation, Zhihu also made an algorithmic judgment on users with the two usage preferences, and switched the recommendation mode according to the number of times the user refreshed the homepage. Generally, the recommendation mode will be changed after the user refreshes the homepage three times. As shown in the figure:

The "video + picture and text" in the figure means: reduce the number of video questions and answers, increase the number of picture and text questions and answers, and move video questions and answers out of the first place. The video preference mode is kept unchanged during the first refresh because the user does not necessarily dislike the video mode, but is just not interested in the current question and answer, or has accidentally touched the mode.

After refreshing for the second time, Zhihu keeps changing the recommended content but still does not contain the questions and answers that the user wants to see and does not search for them. This may be because the user is not very interested in the video content. Therefore, the third refresh will switch to the recommended mode.

(2) Video menu

Left: Featured Middle: Recommended Right: Contributed

Featured:

It can be seen that the video playback mode under the featured section has absorbed the short video playback format while retaining its own characteristics. Videos are pushed to users through an algorithm, and they can see the next video by scrolling down; there is also a small "Related Questions" button, which is a major feature of Zhihu. It combines video content with questions and answers, and goes directly to related questions, saving users a lot of trouble.

There are two problems with the selected section:

① Leave a large area black, the video screen only occupies 1/4

A large area is left black, and the video screen accounts for a pitifully small proportion. What is the purpose? The videos pushed under the featured section are still medium-length videos, which are a feature of Zhihu. The video ratio is 16:9, which is consistent with the video ratio viewed from other video channels.

The 16:9 video ratio gives people a feeling that the video represents the audience and that they are more willing to patiently listen to knowledge and that the video quality is higher. I hope Zhihu can stick to this video ratio. However, this video ratio causes large areas of black, and the poor viewing experience of the video is more obvious on large-screen mobile phones. Currently, the screens of smartphones on the market are basically large-screen. If Zhihu does not make adjustments, it may cause greater user loss.

Only a small part of the interface belongs to video content. There is neither video interactive information nor video-related information or function buttons. If the purpose is to highlight the simplicity and cleanliness of the picture, it is indeed a waste of resources.

suggestion:

Add interactive information to the video: such as barrage/question-and-answer interaction/video notes.

Danmu: Adding Danmu below the video makes the video more interesting and prevents users from getting bored due to the length of the video. Danmu below the video does not affect the video viewing experience.

Q&A interaction: Interactive videos are currently a very novel way. Q&A interaction can increase the interaction between bloggers and users, which not only increases the fun, but also makes users more immersed in watching videos and more convenient to watch videos (such as progress jump, interactive feedback, etc.);

Video notes: Users can add video notes in the black space. As the video viewing time is long, if there is a lot of knowledge and no paper or pen, users can make video notes directly below the video and keep the records. Users can see the video notes every time they open the video. The function also supports exporting video notes or saving them in the video notes.

Horizontal screen playback: retain the 16:9 video ratio, cancel the vertical screen playback mode, change to horizontal screen playback, and swipe horizontally to switch to the next video, to maximize the video viewing experience, show the high-quality content of the video, and highlight the characteristics of Zhihu.

②Click to pause, double-click to like

For videos in the featured section, single-clicking will pause them, and double-clicking will like them, which are typical short video browsing operations. However, this operation will cause certain troubles to users on Zhihu.

As everyone knows, Zhihu mainly features medium-length videos, and the typical operation for medium-length videos is double-clicking to pause.

The video ratio in the featured section is 16:9, which is still the typical ratio of medium videos and videos on Zhihu platform. Except for the featured section, other videos on Zhihu are paused by double-clicking. This has cultivated the habit of double-clicking to pause for users, requiring users to choose between short videos and medium videos.

It is really annoying to use the single-click pause button in the video selection section.

In short videos, the video screen fills the entire screen, cultivating the user's habit of clicking on the video screen to pause it. The video screen in the featured section only occupies 1/4 of the screen, leaving too much black. Users may accidentally touch the black area of ​​the screen, causing a click to pause, resulting in a poor video experience.

recommend:

Currently, the video presentation mode under the "Recommendation" page is very similar to that of Bilibili. I personally think there are two reasons for this: saving costs and testing users. The featured page is in short video mode, and the recommended page is in medium video mode. Zhihu uses both video modes at the same time, probably to determine users' preferences for Zhihu's video modes, so as to find a video path that is more suitable for Zhihu.

But I think that the recommendation page has been overly copied from Bilibili, causing Zhihu to lose its original characteristics. Only the short drama screening room still has some Zhihu flavor. According to the author's observation, there is a high rate of repetition between video bloggers and B station bloggers on the recommendation page, and there will naturally be duplications in the videos. The videos on the recommendation page are varied and have no certainty. Will it still be effective to continue using algorithms to accurately recommend videos and attract users?

Precisely because there is overlap between the two users, Zhihu users will not buy it, and Bilibili users will not join. Zhihu should accurately position its own high-quality content and should not blindly pursue algorithm-recommended content. It is imperative to cultivate native Zhihu answerers and original videos.

Contributions:

The video activity in the submission section is like an organization of videos, which is completely different from the video recommendation format in the recommendation section. The videos in the "Submission" section are more purposeful, reflecting Zhihu's intention in preparing video content. The author will analyze the submission section from two aspects: browsing and submitting.

①Walk

As can be seen from the picture, the submission section encourages users to submit according to the activity category, but in my opinion, this also has the effect of attracting users to watch videos. Personally, I think there is a greater desire to watch videos in the submission section.

As a user, the submission section has rich and clear classifications, and there is always an activity category that suits you, making it more targeted and easier to find videos you like. Although the recommendation section has rich categories, the video content of the preferred type may not be what users like, resulting in a lack of desire for clicks.

As a creator, it is more purposeful to check the content of the videos in the same category before submitting your video, so as to judge the creative direction of your video content or the degree of fit with the video you are preparing to submit/or whether there are any videos with overlapping content, etc.

To sum up, the video viewers in the submission area are more purposeful.

Zhihu stimulates users' desire to create and contribute through the following three methods.

Reward program: Top carousel "Challenge", "Sea Salt Project", "Video Creation Competition"

Content display: Display activity categories and video recommendations to motivate users to watch and transform them into creative desire.

Upload method: One-click submission, uploading videos is very simple.

② Investment

The video + question format is a major feature of Zhihu videos and is highlighted here. Relevant questions are embedded on the basis of the original exposure of the video, enriching the question-and-answer format and achieving the effect of 1+1>2.

For video creators, greatly increased exposure is conducive to meeting their psychological needs. Linking with Zhi+ can further increase personal income, realize commercial value, and meet profit needs.

At present, with Zhihu making such great efforts to promote videos and encourage content creation, the prospects for creators to submit videos on Zhihu are very promising.

4. Business Model

Zhihu's business model is centered on content business, supplemented by advertising and paid membership. It mainly consists of four aspects: advertising business, content marketing business, paid membership services, online education and e-commerce. Advertising business and paid membership business are Zhihu's two major sources of income, and the content marketing business is growing rapidly.

Advertising business: Mainly opening screen pages and information flow ads, with other ads flourishing.

Common advertisements in the Zhihu app include splash page ads, information flow ads, search ads, and banner ads, with splash page ads and information flow ads being the main ones. Advertisements are often seen at the bottom of the homepage recommended information flow, answer page, question page, and comment page, usually in the form of text, video, or multiple images.

Paid membership service: build the “Yanxuan Membership” system.

In addition to the original paid content rights and membership rights, community function rights are added. Paid content products include Yanxuan columns, live lectures, e-books, audiobooks, and magazine sections. Membership benefits include free, discounted and member-only items.

Content marketing business: Precision marketing based on recommendation system with high conversion efficiency.

It mainly conducts content integrated marketing through "Zhi+", analyzes user portraits through algorithms to accurately display content to users, and achieves the effect of precise distribution. “Zhi+” content will be displayed first in the answers on the Q&A page and in the search engine’s search results.

Online education and e-commerce: commission system.

E-commerce: Zhihu earns commissions by directing traffic to third-party e-commerce platforms. Creators insert "good product recommendations" in their answers, introduce and recommend products in the answer content, and after generating relevant sales revenue, Zhihu will share the commission paid by the third-party e-commerce platform with the creators.

Online Education: Zhihu provides third-party online education courses through users and charges commissions based on pre-agreed commission rates.

V. Summary

In general, Zhihu's content formats are gradually developing towards diversification and popularization. It uses algorithm recommendations to differentiate user matching content, thereby retaining native high-quality Zhihu users and expanding new fronts to meet the needs of mainstream audiences. There is a vague trend of replacing Baidu Knows.

Following the general trend of content videoization, Zhihu has also joined the content video army. In its early years, Zhihu had conquered the video area, but the results were not ideal. Currently, Zhihu has added a video menu and is testing the video mode. Perhaps because of a failed experience, it is now cautiously exploring a video path that suits it.

"Video + Q&A" is a very novel video format with Zhihu characteristics, but the video playback format in the video menu still needs to be carefully considered and improved. We cannot blindly imitate the general entertainment style. We must find our own positioning and take a differentiated path from the currently popular video platforms. It is not possible to just add or delete a few functions and put on the skin of Zhihu.

If we blindly pursue algorithms, we will only get closer and closer to TikTok and Toutiao. Human nature prefers relaxing content, so we will recommend more content that encourages consumption, caters to people's preferences, is extremely immersive, and is hot entertainment. An excellent product not only prioritizes user preferences, but also creates demand and provides channels for users. That is, we cannot simply rely on algorithms to recommend content to users, but must actively output our own high-quality content to users.

The content marketing market is a blue ocean. Zhihu takes content marketing business as its core, vigorously promotes "Zhi+", and gives priority to exposing "Zhi+" answers. Although it is beneficial to the company's profits and advertisers' marketing, it has caused certain troubles to users, causing them to believe that Zhihu is a place for soft advertising and it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of the answers.

According to Zhihu's current trend, it will continue to vigorously develop its content marketing business, but it must be wary of over-commercialization, otherwise Zhihu will lose the trust of users.

Author: A Panda

Source: A Panda