Zhihu Inc. Q2 FY2026 Earnings Call

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Zhihu Inc.'s First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be question and answer session. Today's conference is being recorded and webcasted. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Yolanda Liu, Director of Investor Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Amber. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Zhihu's first quarter, 2026 results conference call. Join me today on the call from the senior management team are Mr. Zhou Yuan, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, Mr. Wang Han, chief financial officer, and Mr. Zhang Rongle, our chief operating officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Security Legitation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may be materially different from views expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in our public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not assume any obligation on to update any forward-looking statements except as required under active law. Additionally, the discussion today will include both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purpose only. For a consideration of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our earnings release issued earlier today. In addition, a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on our IR website at ir.zhuhu.com. Today, Victor Zhou and AI agent representing Mr. Zhou Yuan will deliver prepared remarks in English on his behalf. As Victor is still being refined, we appreciate your understanding. Victor, please go ahead.

Thank you, Yolanda. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Zhihu's first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Victor Zhou, and I'm pleased to deliver today's opening remarks on behalf of Mr. Zhou Yuan, our founder, chairman, and the CEO. The first quarter of 2026 marked a strong start to the year. As we advanced our high-quality growth strategy, our community ecosystem continued to thrive, fueled by a more dynamic user base, deeper social connections, and stronger engagement. Average daily time spent per DAU reached nearly 42 minutes. Our content creators remained highly active and expanded across AI and other specialized domains, further strengthening our trusted expert network. This quarter, professional, authentic, and in-depth content from real people continued to flourish across our community. Its influence extended beyond our platform and reinforced our unique competitive mode in the AI era. We also accelerated the integration of AI capabilities across our platform and business operations, with the social interactions significantly enhanced across multiple use cases. Building on this solid foundation, Jifu has continued to gain momentum along its recovery trajectory. In the first quarter, our total revenues achieved positive sequential growth, and the year-over-year decline narrowed substantially, reflecting our healthier business ecosystem and more efficient monetization. Our core businesses are showing encouraging signs of recovery. while our new initiatives continue to gain momentum and deliver steady growth. Specifically, marketing services saw a meaningful narrowing of the year-over-year decline, signaling near-term stabilization. Revenue from IP operations delivered robust growth. Capitalizing on our premium IP library, we have significantly elevated both the production capacity and the quality of our short drama and comic drama adaptations. Multiple short dramas and comic dramas garnered billions of views and consistently topped popularity charts. This success serves as a strong validation of the commercial potential of our high-quality IPs. Our expert data solutions have started to gain traction among key clients with early-stage monetization opportunities gradually taking shape. Our vibrant community fosters genuine connections and deep user trust assets that are increasingly valuable in the age of AI. This has directly fueled continued growth in user engagement on our platform. In 1Q26, average daily time spent per DAU reached approximately 42 minutes, increasing on both year-over-year and a quarter-over-quarter basis. The daily active user coverage of positive interactions also grew year over year underpinning this momentum our content ecosystem is scaling at a healthy pace as of the end of the first quarter cumulative content volume reached 972 million entries and the cumulative topics grew to 4.38 million up 8.8 percent and 15.7 percent respectively from the same period last year. High quality content creation continued to gain momentum. This quarter, daily creation of high quality content rose 18% year over year, with professional AI related content growing over 30% year over year. Against the backdrop of rapid AI evolution, Jihoo's professional ecosystem and high quality creator network continue to offer distinct differentiated value. As a hub for frontline developers, researchers, and tech professionals, Zhihu remains the premier platform where cutting-edge industry trends are first discussed, rigorously analyzed, and professionally evaluated. In the first quarter, we saw heightened engagement from subject matter experts across top universities, leading internet companies, and AI labs. They actively participated in deep discussions on topics such as AI self-evolution, next generation, large model development, video generation, model iteration, and open source ecosystems. From computer science scholars at institutions like Tsinghua University to R&D leaders at tech giants and leading AI startups like Alibaba, Bytedance, and Moonshot AI, Kimi. A growing number of professionals are sharing their frontline insights, technical reproductions, and in-depth analysis on Zhihu. A substantial cohort of core experts from top-tier labs has joined the platform and remains highly active. In addition, updates to mainstream AI products consistently spark systematic technical interpretations and professional evaluations within our community. Notably, this quarter saw substantial in-depth discussions surrounding Deep6 expert mode, Alibaba's new video model, Happy Horse, and developments related to Google's Gemma 4. This high-quality content ecosystem, continuously enriched by frontline practitioners, not only enhances Jihu's professional credibility, but also further solidifies our core competitive mode in the AI era. Professional creators are the core engine that powers the vitality, trustworthiness, and uniqueness of our expert network. work. In the first quarter, the number of verified, honored creators on Jihoo grew over 10% year over year. Reflecting our continued commitment to amplifying their industry influence, momentum in AI-related creator activity remains strong. We have aggregated over 19 million AI-focused creators who not only fuel our community's high-quality content ecosystem but also represent a robust pipeline of potential 2B service providers. We also saw a notable influx of top research teams, institutional executives, and core developers in fields like commercial aerospace and frontier technology. Their active participation has further solidified Zhihu's standing as a hub for professional discourse on advanced tech. At the same time, in the film, entertainment, and cultural verticals, we deepened our reach and engagement among upstream IP holders, core production teams, and dedicated enthusiasts. In May, we hosted the 12th Zhihu Xinzi Youth Conference, Xinzi Qingnian Da Hui in Beijing. This year's event placed a strong focus on the value of human creativity in the AI era, exploring the irreplaceable worth and core strengths of authentic creators amid rapid technological advancements. Overall, sustained engagement of high-quality creators across diverse verticals not only strengthens our foundation of professional, trustworthy content, but also enhances the strategic value of our content assets. This ecosystem directly accelerates our AI-driven commercialization and reinforces the unique competitive advantages of our trusted expert network. Alongside the deeper professional engagement, our ecosystem is also becoming increasingly social and interactive. In the first quarter, we optimized both the creation and the consumption experiences for our short-form ideas product this initiative effectively lowered barriers to entry while significantly boosting community vitality looking ahead we will focus on deepening the synergies between ideas and our community-based circle product by implementing more refined operations and expanding distribution scenarios we aim to drive further positive momentum in core user retention and total time spent Ultimately, this will unlock and expand a wider range of native commercial monetization opportunities. We continue to integrate core AI capabilities across content creation, discovery, consumption, and community interactions. Through our open platform API Shuju Kaifang Pintai and offline events like the AI Hackathon, we empowered developers and creators to explore AI-native content and interaction formats, further extending the practical application of AI technologies across the Jihu community. As we embrace AI as a tool for creative efficiency, we further refined our AI-generated content governance framework to rigorously filter out low-quality machine-generated spam. Since the start of 2026, we have removed over 250,000 pieces of low-quality AI-generated content and have penalized more than 11,000 violating accounts. These efforts have meaningfully safeguarded Jihu's authentic atmosphere and significantly enhanced the experience for our creators and users. Now, turning to commercialization. In the first quarter, total revenues grew sequentially and the year-over-year decline narrowed significantly signaling a clear recovery underpinned by a healthier commercial ecosystem our monetization efficiency continues to improve with new growth momentum steadily materializing let's take a closer look at our performance by segment first paid content and the ip operations starting from the first quarter of 2026, we combined IP-related revenue previously included in other revenues with our existing paid membership revenue into paid content and IP operations revenue. This change more accurately reflects the commercialization potential of our Yanyan story franchise. This quarter, revenue from paid content and IP operations reached RMB 402.3 million, increasing 15.8% sequentially, driven primarily by the rapid growth of our IP operations, which reflected strong momentum in unlocking the commercial value of our original content IP. Average monthly subscribers reached 13.1 million, up 7.9% sequentially, with structural optimization. This growth was primarily driven by seasonal content consumption during the Chinese New Year holiday and improved customer acquisition efficiency with Jifu's premium short-form paid content continuing to play a key role in attracting and retaining users. We maintain disciplined high ROI standards by proactively optimizing inefficient acquisition channels to drive high-quality growth in our subscriber base. Meanwhile, synergies between our AI-powered comic dramas and paid membership businesses are gradually emerging. By distributing Jifu's high-quality IP and adapted content beyond our community, we effectively attract new users to in-community consumption scenarios. creating a strong connection with membership benefits. This strategy expands the reach of our IP, while driving conversion among potential members, improving overall acquisition efficiency, and enabling us to continuously optimize the returns on our marketing spend. Revenue from IP operations delivered strong growth momentum this quarter. The number of our IP partnerships grew more than five-fold year-over-year and more than doubled sequentially. Several of our top titles sold both film and gaming rights, and we signed additional licensing deals in verticals like science fiction. Together, these deals further validate both the depths of our IP monetization capabilities and the pricing power of our IP assets. Supported by our IP library, both the production capacity and the content quality of our short drama and comic drama adaptations remained stable in the first quarter. Multiple short dramas and comic titles achieved billions of views, consistently ranking at the top of various major platforms. Looking ahead, leveraging our strong IP pipeline, we will continue to pursue end-to-end multi-dimensional commercialization and further extend the life cycle of each individual IP. Moving to marketing services, in the first quarter, marketing services revenue was RMB 191.4 million, broadly in line with the same period last year. Our disciplined execution across client mix optimization and product upgrades continued to deliver results. On client mix, Apple rose sharply both year-over-year and sequentially in core verticals like gaming and automotive. our industry mix also continued to improve with commercial efficiency improving notably across gaming travel and transportation this was supported by the ongoing consumption recovery and the wave of new game launches during the quarter on commercial products in march we launched our technology themed ip tech bites texture at this year's appliance and electronics world expo with a focus on the home appliance and consumer electronics sector at the on-site immersive exhibition zone shihu creators hosted guided walkthroughs to answer consumer questions with professional technical insights they also share the latest trends in home appliances and consumer electronics at the same time shihu reviewers jury hosted an online discussion forum, helping decode industry jargon and highlight the real value behind the product innovation. Turning to other revenues, in the first quarter, other revenues were RMB 57.8 million. As I mentioned earlier, we have reclassified IP-related revenue into our new paid content and IP operations segment, which better reflects how each business is developing. Within other revenues, our expert data solutions business won recognition from leading enterprise clients and began generating revenue this quarter. As a pioneer in defining and delivering high-value data solutions, we are now translating our expertise into tangible value for our clients. Our differentiated value has been firmly validated by the top-tier AI labs. Looking ahead through the rest of 2026, we remain committed to deepening our services for key clients while expanding our footprint into new industries. To wrap up, the first quarter gave us a solid start to the year. As we move through 2026, our priorities remain clear. We will continue to strengthen operational profitability while leveraging our unique strengths in the AI era to drive higher quality, accelerated growth. We believe the combined power of high-quality content times expert network times AI capabilities will further set Jihu apart in this new era. Over the next three quarters, we will continue to execute on our strategy with discipline. We expect our core businesses to show an accelerated recovery. In parallel, our AI-related new initiatives should continue to gain traction and contribute meaningfully to growth. With that, I will hand the call over to our CFO, Wang Han, whose remarks will be delivered through his AI voice agent. Han, please go ahead.

I will now go over our first quarter 2026 financials. For a complete overview of our results, please refer to our press release issued earlier The first quarter marked a strong start to the year, with our operations and financial performance both improving. Building on the full-year non-GAAP profitability achieved in 2025, we delivered a strong sequential return to profitability in the first quarter, supported by continued gross margin recovery, discipline cost management, and focus resource allocation. These results reflect the cumulative impact of our multi-quarter structural optimization and provide a strong foundation for continued growth as we move through 2026. Now turning to the financial highlights of first quarter 2026. At the non-GAAP level, we are pleased to report that adjusted net profit turned positive in the first quarter of 2026, reaching RMB $17.2 million, compared with an adjusted net loss of RMB $39.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Our total revenue for the quarter reached RMB $651.6 million, compared with RMB $729.7 million in the same period of 2025. The year-over-year decline reflects our continued efforts to optimize revenue mix and to prioritize high-quality services. More importantly, revenue grew on a sequential basis, driven by strong revenue contribution from our paid content and IP operations segment. Our marketing services revenue for the quarter was RMB 191.4 million compared with RMB 197 million in the same period of 2025. The stabilization in marketing services reflects our proactive and ongoing refinement of service offerings, with a notably improving sequential trend. Paid contents and IP operations revenue was R&B $402.3 million, compared with R&B $420.9 million in the same period of 2025. Average monthly subscribing members were $13.1 million, an increase of 7.9% on quarterly basis. We continue to focus our resources on strengthening user engagement and monetization opportunities. In addition, revenue growth from our IP operations served as an earnings driver, supported by expanding IP initiatives. Other revenues were RMB 57.8 million. Compared with RMB 111.8 million in the same period of 2025, the decrease was primarily due to strategic refinement of our vocational training business. Our gross profit for the quarter was RMB 388.3 million. Compared with RMB 451.1 million in the same period of 2025, gross margin was 59.6 percent compared with 61.8 percent in the same period of 2025. Notably, gross margin improved sequentially from 53.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025. This improvement was attributable to prudent cost controls across content and cloud operations. Our total operating expenses decreased by 10.4% year-over-year to RMB 451.2 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared with RMB 503.7 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease in total operating expenses was in line with revenue. Supported by management's careful cost controls, R&D expenses fell by 22.4% year-over-year, while selling and marketing expenses also decreased by 11.1% year-over-year. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 11.1% year-over-year to RMB $285.1 million from RMB $320.6 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease was primarily due to more disciplined marketing spending and a decrease in personnel-related expenses. Research and development expenses decreased 22.4% year-over-year to RMB, $110.1 million from RMB, $141.9 million in the same period of 2025. The decrease was primarily driven by ongoing improvements in our research and development efficiency. General and administrative of expenses were RMB $56 million compared with RMB $41.2 million in the same period of 2025. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in the allowance for expected credit losses on trade receivables. Accordingly, our net loss narrowed by 15.6% to RMB $8.5 million from RMB 10.1 million in the same period of 2025. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted net income increased by 147.2% year-over-year to RMB 17.2 million from RMB 6.9 million in the same period of 2025. As of the 31st of March, 2026, the company had RMB 4.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, restricted cash, and short-term investments. As of the 31st of March 2026, the company has repurchased 34.8 million Class A ordinary shares on the open market for an aggregate value of US$70.7 million on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. During the first quarter of 2026, the company repurchased 3.7 million Class A ordinary shares for a total consideration of U.S. dollar 4.2 million. The share repurchase program continues to deliver value back to our shareholders. Building on the solid momentum achieved in the first quarter, we expect 2026 to be a year of high quality growth. We remain focused on strengthening operational profitability and improving execution efficiency, while further leveraging the unique advantages from our high quality content, expert network, and AI capabilities. As these three pillars continue to evolve in unison, they will further highlight our distinctive value in the AI era. Looking ahead, we will continue to execute our established strategy with discipline and focus, driving sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value. This concludes my prepared remarks on our financial performance for this quarter. Let's turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for the name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. In the interest of time, please ask one question each time. If you have any follow-up questions, please go back to the queue. We will now take our first question. And our first question comes from the line of Xue Qing Zhang of CICC. Please ask your question, Xiexin. Your line is open.

Thank you, Guanyu-Ten, for your question. My question is related to AI. Guanyu-Ten, can you share some of the latest strategic thinking and roadmap around AI? Thanks, Manjeman, for taking my question. My question is about AI. Could you share some of the latest strategic thinking and roadmap around AI? For example, in terms of integrating AI with the知乎 community, what's our latest plan and progress?

Thank you. 它实现了从环比比较显著的一个增长 那这个变化呢 它首先呢还是来自于在过去一段时间 我们围绕高质量可信赖的社区生态所坚持的核心策略 是在不断发挥作用的 换句话说呢 人和人之间的讨论交流 在社区里呢它本身呢就在变得更加的活跃 即使没有AI 这种活跃呢也依然会发生 因为在社区里这个用户真正所需要的它其实并不是AI本身而是认知的提升经验的分享以及人和人之间真实的连接 所以建设一个高质量可信赖的真人社区 是之后这个团队从创立第一天开始就在做的事情 无论经历了移动互联网时代还是今天的AI时代 我们背后的宗旨是从来没有改变的 所以比起把社区看成AI的应用场景

Thank you for the question, Xiexin. I believe the relationship between the community is not AI plus or plus AI. So as I mentioned earlier, average daily time span per DAU increased. And I reckon it's mainly things from our position core strategy over the past period, which centers on building a high-quality, trustworthy community. So in other words, the interpersonal connections are becoming more active. And this vibrancy would still occur even without AI. So, what users truly need is never AI itself, but rather like cognitive enhancement, experience sharing and real connections. So, building a high quality trustworthy community is what Jifu has been doing since day one. Whether navigating the internet area or today's AI area. Our underlying mission has never changed. Therefore, rather than viewing the community as an AI application scenario, we focus on how to leverage technology to better serve people.

The workshop and coffee chat has a lot of things related to AI. We also have a lot of activities, fitness and fitness. Everyone from here, it is still for us. The knowledge of AI is not just the knowledge of AI. It is more than the knowledge of AI and AI. This is the knowledge of AI. 大家 这边是一个比较量的价值,我们也一直认为,市伏的社区生态,它并不是一个服务浅层注意力的这么一个形成的生态,包括前面提到的用户的一些互动还有时长的提升,它所对应的用户群体也不是模糊的所有人,而是整个中高注意力的这个用户群体的活跃的变化。 So, we will continue to build a building for people to be able to raise awareness and to create new connections to the right-wing system. This goal is for two years, we have done four things. First, we have to invest in the community environment. Second, we have to invest in the experience. Third, we have to invest in the底层. We have to invest in the foundation.

Take the Shinji conference as an example. This year, on-site attendance exceeds 80,000, which setting a historical record. We have over 100 partners on-site featuring numerous workshops and coffee chats related to AI, and there's also non-AI activities such as handicraft workshops, fitness areas, and food markets. So, ultimately, people gather together for the engagement. And the meaning of Shinjiu does not merely represent the new knowledge, but the new cognition and the new connections. And this is precisely the core value of the Zhihu's community. And we have always believed that Zhihu's community ecosystem is not built to serve shadow attention, and the increasing time span corresponds not to a concept of like everyone, but to the active growth of a mid-to-tight attention user cohort. So our core priority is to continuously build Jehu into a positive feedback system that helps people elevate the cognition and establish connections. And to achieve this, we have executed four initiatives over the past two years. So the first one would be the sustained investment in the community operations. And the second would be the simplification of the product experience. And the third one would be the long-term investment in the underlying technical infrastructure. And the last one would be the advancement in AI innovation and efficiency.

So, we have to continue to maintain a原则 that AI is not a problem, it is not a problem, it is not a problem, it is a problem. Let me tell you, we are in the first stage, it is a solution. 这个产品呢 我们是希望可以把AI搜索和社区的可信内容结合起来 让答案呢不仅仅来自模型 更加能够去溯源到真实的人和真实的经验 那么在今天呢 我们已经进入第二个阶段了 一方面呢 我们正在建设数据平台 这个数据平台上的其实沉淀着社区长期积累的经过清洗啊可信排序的高质量的数据 目前的我们已经通过 mcp 和 skills 等等方式开放给了开发者来使用 另外一方面呢我们也正在建设开放平台 就是这个是在数据平台的基础之上 我们在进一步的开放社区的 api把这个能力开放出去 嗯 我们其实呢 已经举办了第一届 呃 机遇这个开放平台上的黑客马松 呃 今天呢 这个 呃 探索呢 我们会逐渐的把它 产品化 成为一个长期开放的平台 它的目的呢 是让更多新一代的创意工程师和创作者 能够在社区上持续的呃 呃 创新 呃 也能够得到反馈 所以呢 社区跟 AI 的结合 其实并不是简单的把 AI 放进社区 We want to do it through a platform to allow more creators to continue to create a new value in the community.

Regarding AI, we have one principle. So AI is not the end goal, but people are. So like in the phase one, for知乎指導, we aim to integrate AI search with our trustworthy community content, ensuring answers not just generated from the models but could be tracked back to real people and experiences. And the phase two, which is our current stage, we are advancing in two areas. So firstly, we are building on a data platform, aggregating the high quality long-term community data that have been cleaned and credibly rent. It's open to develop via like MCP or skills. And secondly, we are building an open platform, which is our community APIs, and we hosted our first open platform based hackathon. Now, it's currently project-based, and we're turning to a product as a long-term open platform to enable the engineers and AI creators to continuously innovate. Therefore, integrating the community and AI is not simply dropping into. It's about to leverage open platform to empower more creators to generate new value.

It has been created by the AIMMG. Today, the AIMMG is a part of the organization. This is a more traditional way of the community. The community has created the content. The content will become the IP. The IP will be able to create a new technology. We believe that the AIMMG industry will grow and grow.

We believe that the AIMMG is growing. our exploration extends further, if the open platform unlocks creativity, AI dramas or the comics unlock the value of our IP. Our paid content in your story and today's AI dramas are all organic extensions of our authentic discussions. This exemplifies our strategy of starting from and extending beyond the community. A community creates content and content generates IP, which leverages the new technologies to reach broader users. As the AI drama industry shifts from the volume growth to quality, we believe the value of our IP will further unlock. 最后我想说就是直播团队是一家相信长期目标的公司 过去两年我们取得了一些进展 它并不是来自于规模化的打法 我们的核心策略过去段时间始终都没有变 那它就是深根社区专注于人 然后利用AI创新更好的服务和赋能于人 And finally, Juhu believes in long term. Our current progress is not driven by skill-focused tactics. Our core strategy remains unchanged. Deeply cultivate the community and focus on people. Leverage AI innovation to better serve and empower people. And continuously drive the positive cycle of starting from the community and extending beyond it. Such transition cannot materialize within a single quarter or even a full year. Our current results sink from consistent execution over the past two years, while our ongoing efforts are laying groundwork for structural improvements in the next three years. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now proceed to take our next question from the line of Vicky Wei of Citi. Please ask your question, Vicky. Your line is now open.

Thank you,管理层. Thank you for receiving my question. So thanks management for taking my question. Mike, we noticed that starting from the first quarter, the company merged the original paid membership revenue with membership-related copyright licensing and IP derivative revenue into a single category. Does this change reflect a new strategy we think by management regarding the market potential and growth drivers of this business? And furthermore, how should we think of Zihu's advantages and opportunities within this newly defined market space? Thank you.

还有《炎炎故事》内容生态的持续发展 我们已经看到一个优质的故事 它的商业价值不是仅体现在这个前端的会员订阅 还可以进一步延伸到整个短剧、慢剧 甚至长剧的影视化 包括游戏改编等更多的一个内容形态 我们同时也在社区看到很多《炎炎故事》的创作者 已经开始从故事创作者升级为编剧

Thank you for the question, Vicky. This is from Zhihu's CEO, Zhang Rongle. This revenue reclassification indeed reflects a strategic outbreak in how we view our paid content and IP operations. And previously, the market saw our paid content as just membership revenue. But as China's top premium short form original platform, the growth of Yan Yan story has unlocked far broader value beyond the subscriptions. Our IPs now monetize through like short dramas, comics, film or TV shows and games. Creators are already becoming writers and producers. So effective since the first quarter of 2026, the reclassification aims to better showcase the full life cycle value of our content and IP. 这也意味着我们正在把这个业务从单一的订阅变现升级为IP全链路的运营与开发 会员订阅仍然是非常重要的我们整个业务的基础 他在帮助我们不断的验证内容的吸引力 包括用户的付费意愿 还有这个故事IP的潜力 This means it's upgrade from a single subscription model to the full chain IP operation and development. It remains as a crucial foundation, helping us validate the content creation, the user willingness to pay and IP potential. Building on this content could unleash commercial value through the IP partnerships, script adaptions, short dramas, and et cetera. And we aim to form a complete close look from the content to consumption and to the IP screening and multi-format monetization. In this new market landscape, we believe who has four competitive advantages. Orientian story is the leading player in the short story track. It has accumulated a vast library of premium short stories over time. Short stories naturally feature concentrated plots, clear character relationships, and high density conflicts, making them highly suitable for the adaption into new content. Compared to incubating content from scratch, adapting the existing IPs deliver high efficiency in both content screening and monetization conversion.

提供了很多的一些文字变现的渠道 也是通过像小说创作加上剧本改编 帮助优质创作者获得更长生命周期的一个商业回报 我们也非常高兴地看到 其实创作者除了具备小说创作和改变剧本的能力以外 在AI辅助灵感激发 还有整个视频生成模型的使用上 也具备非常高的一个潜力 那在26年的第一季度 我们的创作者的版权总收益的同比增长

We continue to strengthen our creator ecosystem. Through the incentive mechanism, we discovered the mid-tier creators and extend their life cycle by enabling the transition from novel writing to script adaption. Meanwhile, our creators are showing high potential in utilizing AI for content inspiration and video gen motors.

So in first quarter, total creator earnings surged 5.6 times year over year and further demonstrating the IP monetization. 第三个优势是整个AI漫剧行业的发展 促使了整个IP的变现正在进入一个加速发展的一个阶段 那在第一季度我们的版权合作总量是同比增长了564% 环比增长了248% 这说明市场对知乎的这个优质的原创内容的认可度是在快速提升的 也验证了我们整个平台内容资产的商业化深度和溢价能力 我们也观察到就是最近国内的一些AI漫剧行业正在发生一些变化 其实行业会更加注重视整个内容和它的一个原创性 这个趋势呢其实跟我们之前的判断是一致的 我们也非常坚信AI漫剧行业的竞争最终会回归到内容本身的一个竞争 Through the development of the business of business and business, we believe that every single day of IP has a wide open space.

AI short traumas are really speeding up our IP monetization. In the first quarter, our total IP partnerships surge like 564% year-over-year and 248% quarter-over-quarter. fully validating the commercial dip and the premium pricing power of Zhuhu's content assets. The competition will ultimately return to the quality of the content. As the industry evolves, the lifetime value of individual IPs will be further unlocked.

The fourth point is that AI has the entire production production and the revenue of the company. This is a huge increase in AI, which is a huge increase in AI. We can see the situation in the market, which is a short version of the content. Actually, the cost of the content is very high. The short version of the content is completely different. The content of the content is higher. So we will continue to participate in the content of the development, and the development of the content. 并集合AI在分井角色设定画面生成脚本辅助这些制作效率上的提升内容侧的整个的生产成本有望进一步的得到优化利润率也会有机会达到一个更好的水平 换句话说AI不是简单的在增加整个内容的产量而是能够帮助到我们知乎的这些创作者能够更高效的把他们的优质IP转化为多形态的一个商业价值 AI has increased the production capacity.

Our short-form IPs offer natural high-yield advantages for adaption. As we deepen our participation, leveraging AI for storyboarding, image generation, scripting, and distribution, we anticipate the lower cost and higher margin.

Ultimately AI doesn't just increase output, it empowers creators. 短矩,慢矩等更多IP开发形态的一个整体的发展,不断地提升每个IP的生命周期的价值,并把整个的付费内容和IP运营打造为知乎新的一个增长引擎之一。

Therefore, the revenue reclassification isn't just an accounting adjustment. It reflects how we redefine the commercial potential of Ian Story and our original IPs. Going forward, we will drive deeper synergies across paid content, IP licensing, short dramas, AI comics, and other formats, and this allows us to maximize the LTV of each IP and turning the paid content and IP operation into a growth drive driver.

Thank you.

Thank you. We will now proceed to take our next question from the line of Luqing, Joe of Goldman Sachs. Please ask your question, Luqing.

Your line is open. 以及公司将如何平衡这些业务的投入和整体的盈利目标。 So, thanks, management, for the opportunity. My question is regarding the AI investment. Can management elaborate more on the specific areas of allocation of your AI investment? And how do you plan to balance those new investments with the group's long-term overall profitability goals?

Thank you. 感谢您的提问,我是老涵,我们肯定是把AI会融入到公司的各个业务当中,但是我感觉您可能和市场最关心的还是我们什么时候能有AI驱动的这个收入能让我们重新增长,对吧? 所以我们目前仍然支持,坚持之前的那个判断,就是在AI短剧慢剧和AI数据的两个原因还是一样,因为这两个呢,前者可能是用户最愿意付费的AI生成的内容。 Thank you for the question, Luqing.

This is from Zhihu's CFO, Han Wang. We are certainly integrating AI into all aspects of our operations. However, I understand that the market is likely most concerned about when AI-driven revenue will accelerate our growth. We maintain our previous strategic focus, specifically targeting two fields, the AI short dramas, comic dramas, and the expert data solution. The former represents the AI-generated content that users are most willing to pay for, whether the latest serve as the selling water and shovels to the AI industry. Therefore, regarding how we balance new business investments with profitability, these two selections represent some of the healthiest cash flow profiles among all AI verticals, and Zhuhu holds a distinct competitive advantage here. of course there's challenges ranging from industry competition to the macro environment which would require a medium to long-term perspective. However, we will not pursue a strategy of burning cash to chase growth. Our investments will focus on building core long-term capabilities to deliver fundamentally superior products. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now proceed to take our next question from the line of Daisy Chun of Hightong International. Please ask your question, Daisy.

Your line is open. 想問一下公司在二零二六年的股東回報計劃的方式還有力度方面是否有更新。 Thanks, management for taking my question. 知乎的貨幣提供出現出了更新的成果。 但是, management have any update to the shareholder return plan such as the measures and the payout scale? 好,很感謝DCT們。 簡單說,我們會堅持大規模的回購不變。 This two years, we are always the most important part of the company. Since 2022, the company has sold 6,350,000 A-lay. It costs 1.13 million USD. From now on, the company has sold 461,000 A-lay. It costs 506,000 USD. which is 1.74% in the QE in the 2020 year. In the QE, the 372,000 AV普通股 have already been sold.

Thank you for the question, Daisy. We remain firmly committed to our share repurchase. We believe Zhuhu has been one of the most active Chinese ADRs in terms of buyback intensity over the past two years. And since 2022, the company has repurchased or accumulated like 63.5 million Class A ordinary shares in the open market with a total cost of U.S. dollar $130 million. And year-to-date in 2026, the company has repurchased 4.61 million shares for over the cost of U.S. dollar for $5.06 million, representing 1.74% of total shares outstanding. And share repurchased during the first quarter of 2026 have all been fully cancelled. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes today's question and answer session. At this time, I'll turn the conference back to Yolanda for any additional or closing remarks.

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please contact our IR team directly for Christensen advisory. Thank you all.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.