Zhihu Inc. (ZH) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Chihu, Inc. second quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. Today's conference is being recorded and webcasted. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Demi Ng of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Sharon. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Jiu-Hu second quarter, 2026 Financial Results Conference Corps. Joining me today from our senior management team are Mr. Zhou Yuan, founder, chairman, security officer, Mr. Wang Han, chief financial officer, and Mr. Zhang Yongle, 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 Regitation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding this included in our public filings with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission and the Hong Kong Stock change. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. Additionally, today's discussion will include both GAP and non-GAP financial measures for comparison purposes only. For a reconciliation of these non-GAP measures to the most directly comparable GAP measures, please refer to our earnings release issued earlier today. The day of this conference call will be available on our IR website at ir.chihu.com. And today, Mr. Zhou Yuan will deliver prepared remarks in Chinese and followed by English translation.

Please go ahead, Seth. in the second季度 of performance. The second is in AI-Street, and then how the information, IT, and professional resources will be transformed into a new product and market value. In the end, I will briefly summarize the last few years of work and the next few years.

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining Jiu-Hu Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Today, I will cover three areas. Our core business performance in the second quarter, how AI is expanding the value of our community, content, IT, and expert network, and our priorities for… 环比增长5.9% 收入实现环比改善 同比降幅也进一步收窄

受到收入结构变化以及阶段性业务投入等因 净亏损为人民币1025万元 具体的财务表现和利用变动原因稍后将由CFO进一步介绍 在社区方面 我们的核心用户的使用深度保持稳定 第二季度核心用户日均使用时长只有39分钟 以去年同期基本持平 社区日均新增高质量的内容同比增长超过16% 延续了过去密度双位数的增长 Let me start with our core businesses.

Overall, our core businesses remain stable, while some areas continue to adjust and recover. In the second quarter, total revenue were R&B $619 million, down 3.7% year-over-year and up 5.9% sequentially, with a year-over-year decline narrowing further. Adjusting net rolls were R&B $10.25 million, reflecting changes in revenue mix and phased business investments. Our CFO will discuss the financial details shortly. Community engagement among core users remain stable. Average daily time spent was about 39 minutes. The daily creation of high-quality content grew more than 16%. As AIGC makes content creation easier, authentic experiences, clear sourcing, and professional judgment are becoming more valuable.

These remain the foundation of Juhu and our long-term value. 在营销服务方面 第二季度收入为人民币1.99亿元 同比下降10.7% 环比增长4% 本季度我们继续聚焦在科技 汽车 3C家电和游戏 这些以知乎用户和内容优势匹配的比较高的行业 我们的效果类产品整体消耗环比增长31% 其中游戏行业消耗环比增长22% 现在效果类产品的增长尚未完全转化为整体营销收入的恢复 但是它验证了我们继续聚焦在重点行业 补强产品和算法能力的这个方向 Now, we will continue to increase the customer's preferences and the customer's需求.

Turning to marketing services, revenue will be $199 million, down 10.7% year-over-year and up 4% sequentially. We continue to focus on key verticals, including technology, automotive, consumer electronics and home appliances, and gaming. Spending or performance is 21% sequentially, including a 22% increase in gaming. This has not yet translated into a broader recovery in the marketing revenue, but it supports our strategy of strengthening key verticals, products, and algorithms. Marketing services remain in structural recovery and will continue to improve the matching of professional content, user needs, and client demand. 会员的rp保持稳定 我们将继续优化会员内容和产品的体验 并且拓展知识类的内容 推动非能容形成故事加上知识的多元结构 在这个季度IP运营继续贡献增量

二季度版权合作数量环比增长105% 同比增长671% We will continue to推动核心业务企与企业务企业务企业务, For paid content and IP revenue-rich RMB 426 million are 4.4% year-over-year and 5.9% sequentially.

Average monthly subscribing members were 13.11 million, broadly stable, while member ARPU also remains stable. We'll continue to improve membership content and product experience while expanding knowledge-based offerings. IP operations continue to contribute incremental growth, licensing increasing 105% sequentially and 607% year-over-year. We're expanding Yanyan Story IP from one-time licensing to multi-format for lifecycle development. Overall, challenges remain but our business mix continues to adjust and our strategy direction remains unchanged. We will continue to stabilize our core businesses while maintaining the investment discipline.

The IP and the IP network are the most important part of our organization. AI is also in helping these capabilities to enter more new applications, and marketing environment. First, the community will become more open. AI is changing the way to find, 组织, and use of tools. For example, the開放 does not mean to change This is an important part of the community. In the past, the client mainly used to use the search for a search for the information, Now to see theõr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r. This is to become an asset, the solution in a networked the edge, and not yet to be removed. In the beginning, the workmanship of the user of the survey proved to be a result. We still need to check our vision of the desired effect of, 同时,我们也在探索社区智能局,AI看山就是其中一个具体的尝试,AI看山可以成为帮助用户探索知乎社区的一个伙伴,让用户更方便地发现真实的人,专业内容和不同的观点。 目前AI看山仍处于早期的测试阶段,我们将重点观察其对内容发现、用户互动和流程的实际驾驶,而不是单纯的追求使用规模。 之前我提到的AI Works,那么截止目前AI Works是继续推进的,平台已经沉淀超过2600个AI项目,数据开放平台已经有超过17600个AI项目。 其中的20%是来自知乎创作者以外的新增开发者 那么同时呢 我们还发布了新版的知乎CLI 进一步提升了开发者和用户在不同AI工具中发现和使用知乎内容的便利性 这意味着什么呢 这意味着知乎长期积累的内容 创作者和专业能力 未来不会只在知乎APP内被发现和使用 通过AI搜索智能体开放平台和开发工具 他们可以进入更多产品和使用场景 办理用户 开发者和客户 我们认为AI正在成为一种快速变化的新媒介 一个更加开放的知乎可以让承亮内容被重新发现 让专业创作者触达新的受众 Next, I would like to focus on Zhuhu in the AR area.

Zhuhu starts with the community, which means bringing the value accumulated within Zhuhu to more people through new products, formats, and use cases. Real users, professional content IP, and our next expert network remain our most important assets. AI is helping extend these capabilities into new applications and commercial scenarios. First, the community will become more open. AI is changing how content is discovered and used. For Juhu, openness does not mean changing our positioning. It means enabling the high quality content users to reach more users and developers through the AI tools and applications. This requires clear goals around content sourcing, creator rights, and community values. We are further integrating Zhuhu Zhida with Zhuhu Search, making AI-powered search a new gateway to community content rather than a substitute for it. Earlier testing has shown positive signals for user retention. We're also exploring community agents. AI Kenshan is one example. Rather than another general purpose chatbot, we wanted to help users explore Juhu and discover real people, professional content and diverse perspectives. The product remains at an early testing stage and our focus is on content discovery, interaction and retention. AI Works now hosts more than 2,600 AI projects. While the open data platform API has attracted more than 17,600 professional developers, about 20% were not previously Juhu created. We also released and updated Juhu CLI, making it easier to discover and use Juhu content across AI tool. Through AI search, agents, open platforms, and developer tools, Juhu's content and professional capabilities can reach more users, developers, and clients beyond the Juhu app. We believe AI is becoming a new medium that can help existing content, reach new audiences, enable new applications, and create new opportunities in content licensing, brand content assets, and expert services.

There is a source of information and information and information. This is the source of information in the AI era of a new product. Its core value is not just a single product, but it is to help the product to keep the product of the product. This is the source of information in the AI era, which can create a more extensive and more widespread value. 也让品牌信息更容易的被AI准确理解和引用 为了这个需求我们正在不断地尝试和推动AI内容资产业务 相关业务仍然早去跌断 在二季度合作的客户数量环比增长了50% 虽然今天项目数量和合作金融的增长还不意味着已经形成了稳定规模化的多个贡献 Second, marketing services are evolving from traffic value toward the content asset value.

As more information discovery happens through AI, brands increasingly care not only about visibility, but also whether the professional information can be accurately understood and cited by AI. We're helping brands build professional content assets with clear sourcing. Unlike a one-off campaign, these assets can continue to be discovered and used across such AI and other channels, creating longer-term value. Our AI content asset offering remains at early stage. In the second quarter, the number of clients increased 50% sequentially. This does not yet represent a stable or scalable revenue contribution, but it's beginning to demonstrate new commercial value.

Going forward, we'll focus on client outcomes with demand and product standardization. 文字向多媒体形态转化的门槛 对于知乎来说 这就意味着多年所积累的大量的原创的IP 可以通过漫剧短剧影视 以及更多新的内容形态 被更高效的并触达 那么在这个季度所实现的商业化的漫剧项目中 相当一部分它是来自于2025年 以及以前沉淀的优质原创IP 这说明优质内容不会因为时间而失去价值 技术改变的是内容开发的效率 呈现方式和触达范围 优质IP本身具有更长的生命周期 那么在上半年呢 我们在自制和诚挚方面也进行了一些尝试 初步项目在模式上 我们会根据项目情况 明火地选择 本权的授权 自制和诚挚的方式 并有选择地向产业链更前端延伸 未来内容多媒体化 将仍然是一个重要的趋势 我们会持续地提升IP筛选 和跨形态运营的能力 让更多长期积累的优质作品 获得更多的新用户和商业价值

Third, AI is accelerating the expansion of IP into multimedia formats. AI is lowering the cost and barriers of turning text-based multimedia formats. For Juhu, this allows our large base of original content to be developed more efficiently into comic dramas, short dramas, film, and television, and other formats. A meaningful portion of the Cormac drama projects monetized this quarter came from the works created in 2025 or earlier. This shows that high-quality IP can return value over time, while technology improves the development efficiency and expands its reach. In the first half, we also explored in-house with some projects showing encouraging early results. However, we'll remain disemployed and will not materially increase asset-heavy investments. We'll flexibly choose among licensing, in-house, and commission production based on the project economics. Going forward, we'll continue to strengthen our capabilities in IP selection, development, and cross-format operations to unlock more value from our content library. 第四这个专家数据的解决方案正在从项目的交付走向能力的附用 通过回答问题和创作内容把知识和经验分享给用户 那么在现在呢我们开始探索如何通过训练数据模型评测和复杂的任务设计 把这些专业知识经验和判断进一步转化为模型能力 这个业务定位为一个以研究为驱动的数据研究型实验室

它的核心不是传统的数据标注 而是持续的识别模型的能力边界和部阻 并围绕这些问题研发训练数据环境 帮助模型实现能力的提升 在上半年我们已经在代码搜索和深度研究视觉推理智能体等多个方面完成了 并且逐步形成了一个从模型能力分析,数据研发和生产到质量检验,模型效果存测的一体化能力。 智乎长期所积累的专家网络,也为我们形成了定义专业任务,建立质量标准和验证数据质量,这些工作提供了重要的基础。 专家的价值并不是只是参与数据的生产 更重要的是帮助定义专业的任务 建立质量的标准 并判断模型输出是否真的符合专业要求 那么在目前我们更加主动地研究不同模型的能力短板 自主研发相应的训练数据和评测方案 并通过实际的模型效果来验证数据价值

Fourth, expert data solutions are evolving from project delivery to work with usable capabilities. AI is creating new ways to use Juhu's expert capabilities, not only creating content for users. Experts can now help translate the professional judgment into model capabilities through training data, model evaluation, and complex task design. We position as a research-driven data lab. We identify model capability gaps and develop training data, evaluation systems, and complex task environments to help improve the model performance. In the first half, we completed projects across coding, search, and deep research, visual reasoning, and agents, while building capabilities spanning model analysis. Expert network plays an important role in defining the professional tasks, setting quality standards, and evaluating whether model outputs meet the professional requirements. We're also becoming more proactive in identifying motor gaps, developing training data and evaluation methods in-house, and validating the values through the actual motor performance. Our goal is not one-off data delivery, but reusable capabilities that can evolve across clients and motor iterations. In the next phase, we'll continue these and extend them into products, complex tasks and environments. to be more accessible and accessible to a better way to use, and enter a more open environment and new business experience. Finally, let me briefly summarize. In the second quarter, our core community remained resilient. Paid content remained stable, IP operation continued to grow, and marketing services improved sequentially. Our position in the ER area is also becoming clear. our authentic professional and trustworthy community remain the foundation, while AI helps us reach new users' applications and commercial scenarios.

This is the opportunity to continue to test AI, which is more open to the community environment, AI resources, IP, and other data sources. We will be more interested in the real-time customer value, and the value of our revenue, which is not just for a short period of time. We can also see that the new direction of the first step of the test 它还不等于已经形成了稳定的增长 因此我们在投入上仍然会保持审慎 坚持严格的投入回报的要求 在这个过程中三个季度的利润表现 仍可能会受到业务节奏和阶段性投入的影响 我们对提升经营效率和恢复可持续盈利的长期目标 始终没有改变 In the second half, we will focus on two priorities.

First, we'll improve this by improving user experience, maintaining a stable membership base, improving IP development efficiency and advancing the structural recovery of marketing services. And second, we'll continue to validate AI-driven opportunities across our open community ecosystem, AI content assets, IP and expert data solutions by focusing on real demand, client value, capability reuse and all right initial validation does not mean these initiatives have become stable growth drivers ability may fluctuate due to the business timing and face investments our long-term goals of improving operating efficiency and returning sustainable profitability remain unchanged over the long term we want you to be not only an authentic professional and trustworthy community but also an important platform connected content, knowledge, and AI applications. Thank you. I will now hand over to our CFO to review the quarter's financial performance.

Hi, I will now go over our second quarter earlier today. During the second quarter, our revenue change continued to improve sequentially, supported by growth in pay content and IP operations. At the same time, discipline cost management drove year-over-year reductions in operating expenses and operating losses. Now, turning to the financial highlights of the second quarter. Our total revenues for the quarter were R&B 690.1 million, down 3.7% year-over-year and up 5.9% sequentially. The sequential growth was primarily driven by content and then not the operations. Marketing Services revenue was R&B $199 million compared with RMB $222.8 million in the same period of 2025. Decrease primarily reflected our proactive and ongoing refinement of service offerings. Sequentially, marketing services revenue increased by 4% with improving traction in key verticals and performance-based products. We also continued to make early progress in AI-related commercial use cases. Content and IP operations revenue was R&B 425.9 million, up 4.4% year-over-year and 5.9% sequentially, primarily driven by continued growth in IP operations. Average monthly subscribing members remain stable at 15.1 million. We will continue to strengthen our paid content offerings while developing and modernizing selected IP across multiple formats with disciplined attention to project returns and risk. Other revenues were RMB 86 million in the same period of 1995. The decrease was primarily due to the continuous strategic refinements of our vocational training business.

Sequentially, other revenues increased by 12.7% and year over year decline continue to narrow.

Our gross profit for quarter was R&B 393.4 minutes compared with R&B 448.2 million in the same period of 2025. Gross margin was 57 percent compared with 62.5 in period of 2025. The decline in gross margin primarily reflected our continued efforts to broaden and enhance our content operations. Total operating expenses decreased by 13% to RMB 469.4 million from RMB 539.2 million in the same period of 2005, reflecting continued efficiency improvements across our operations. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 5.4% to RMB 308.7 million from RMB 326.3 million in the same period of 2020.

Discipline marketing spending.

Research and development expenses decreased by 25.4% to RMB 108.6 million from RMB 145.7 million in the same period of 2025. Primarily attributable to continued improvements in our research and development efficiency. General administrative expenses decreased by 22.7% to RMB 52 million from RMB 67.3 million in the same period of 2025, primarily attributable to lower personnel related expenses in the same period of 2025. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusting loss from operations narrowed by 32% to RMB 48.7 million from RMB 71.5 million in the same period of 2005. Investment income was RMB 16.4 million compared with RMB 140.8 million in the same period of 2005. The decrease was primarily due to an unrealized gain from the fair value of remeasurement of our investment in a privately held company in the same period of 2005. RMB 37.4 million compared with net income of RMB 72.5 million in the same period of 2005. On a non-GAAP basis, Adjustment Nine loss was RMB of $10.3 million compared with Adjustment Nine income of RMB of $91.3 million in the same period of 2025. As of June 30, 2026, we had RMB $4.4 billion in cash and cash-away coins, term deposit, restricted cash, and short-term investments, maintaining a solid liquidity position to support our own. As of June 13, 2026, we had repurchased an aggregate of 41.3 million Class A ordinary shares for total consideration of US 77.9 million on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. During the second quarter, we repurchased 6.5 million on Class A ordinary shares for total consideration of US 7.2 million. Looking ahead, In fact, we will continue to balance selective investments in new initiatives with operating efficiency. While quarterly profitability may be affected with this investment, our long-term objective of improving operating efficiency and returning to sustainable profitability remains unchanged. We will also maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation and continue to execute shared repurchase to enhance long-term shareholder returns. This concludes my prepared remarks on our financial performance for the quarter. I'll turn the call over to the operator for the GNA session.

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 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. Thank you. we will now go to the first question one moment please and your first question today comes from the line of thomas chong from jeffrey's please go ahead So I would trust him about this manager for taking my question.

So my question is, how should we think the revenue and profit trend in the second half of the year? And under the business adjustment and new business investment, are there any fluctuation between quarters? and the market has been affected by the market.

Our main point is to improve the product and performance of the advertising and performance of the market and the value of the market. It's not to increase the advertising and advertising to improve the advertising.

We are just speaking on behalf of CEO. Looking into the second half, we do not think it's appropriate the sequential improvement. Seeing in the second quarter, and different business have different operating rhythms. Marketing services remain in a period of structural recovery, like we mentioned before, and may continue to be affected by changes in clients, budgets, and industrial demand. We will strengthen our product R&D, and especially the performance advertising capabilities, and also increase the value per unit of traffic rather than drive. Pay content remains relatively stable, while IP operations will be influenced by project timing. Recent changes in industry standards and filing requirements may also affect the launch timing of certain projects. At the same time, we're still validating the new capabilities like AI content assets and expert data solutions.

We have seen like a client validation, but it might take time until we see scalable revenue contribution and will also require some near-term investments. 所以我们现在的这个阶段 我们更加关注的是核心业务本身的稳定 新业务能不能形成真实可持续客户价值 包括它可复用的能力 以及我们整体的投入汇报是否合理 我们会持续的保持一个比较省深的投入 但这个目标是没有变的 可能依然是改善我们的收入结构 和恢复可持续盈利的能力

So, at this stage, we are more focused on the stability of our core businesses while whether new initiatives can create real client value and reusable stuff and ROI. We'll continue to invest prudently. Our long-term goals remain to improve our revenue mix and return to sustainable profitability. Next question, please.

Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Vicky Y from Citi. Please go ahead. 管理层晚上好,谢谢接受我的提问,能不能请公司分享一下您对漫剧行业的看法,公司的策略,以及我们知乎优势和护城河,谢谢。 Would management share some color about your view on the AI-generated comedy dramas, and how should we think of two whose advantages? Thank you.

Thank you.

This is based on behalf of COO, we are very positive on the AI comic from our market and believe the industry see you in a clear growth trend. On one hand AI content generation capabilities continue to improve rapidly including like character consistency, visual quality, motion and the overall production efficiency. And on the other hand as more For creators under the market, we're seeing greater diversity in ideas and formats. So AI comic dramas are gradually becoming a new form of content consumption.

As the production continues to improve, we expect content quality and user acceptance to rise further. 在这个过程中我们也观察到整个行业的竞争的关键点也在发生变化 早期呢大家还是在比拼谁能更快的使用AI更低成本的能够伸展出内容 但当随着这个AI整个的制作能力越来越普及之后 整个的竞争又回到了什么内容的一个本身 有没有好的故事 有没有持续的创意供给 and good user-focused ability, IP that continues to develop and become the key to the competition.

At the same time, the basis of computation is also changing. In the early stages, the focus was on who could adopt AI faster and produce content at lower cost. As AI production becomes more widely available, the real scarcity shifts back to the content itself, like the good stories, a sustainable pipeline of creative ideas and the ability to consistently turn IP into compelling virtual content. And this is where Zhiyu has a clear advantage through Indian Story and other products. We have viewed a broad ecosystem of original stories and creators. Our advantage is not simply the size of the library, but our ability to continuously generate the new content and identify the strongest titles, supported by a well-established creator. And this helps reduce the trail and error costs in IP development and improve the overall efficiency of our content portfolio. of the first three.

At the same time, we began to try to do a better job. This is a good result. With AI, the whole new generation of the story can be seen as a new community. AI actually helped us to and the duration of the life of the IP and the life of the IP and the life of the IP.

We already seen these validated in the AI comics. According to the third quality data, in the first half of 2026, Yingying Story became one of the leading IP providers for native AI comic dramas on TikTok and ranked among the top three IP providers on Hong Kong. We also began the in-house and commission production in the second quarter, and have seen encouraging key rates so far.

As AI creates new media formats, a strong story can be visualized, and in this way, AI helps extend the life cycle of quality IP and improve the monetization efficiency of our existing content assets. 从策略上来说,我们的核心还是继续发挥支付在内容和创作者生态上的优势,同时利用AI技术在剧本制作、发行各个环节不断地去提升IP的开发效率。 In a specific project, we will maintain a more realistic development mode, including a more clear process of marketing feedback. We will also be able to expand the front end of the industry.

Strategically, our focus is to build on Juku's strength in the content and our greater ecosystem, like we mentioned before. While using AI to improve the development efficiency across scripting production and distribution, we will remain flexible in our business models, including licensing in-house products. Where the market demand and project economics are well validated, we may selectively move further options in the value chain. Over the long term, we believe GQ smoke in this market will come from a combination of capabilities, including a sustainable supply of the original IP content selection based on real user behavior, a stable creator ecosystem, and a clear license framework, and AI-enabled cross-media IP development.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next question, please.

Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Shuiqing Zhang from CICC. Please go ahead.

Thank you. As a data lab focused on improving the data frontier model capabilities. So simply put, we continuously study where models do have capability gaps, identify the tasks they cannot perform reliably, and then design the training data, complex task environments, and benchmarks around these gaps. We then validate whether these efforts actually improve the performance through the training and evaluation. Our goal So it's not simply to deliver data, but to solve the specific model capability problems for our clients. our business model currently includes the customized R&D projects based on the client's frontier needs. Well, we're also increasing our own research and exploring ways to productize selected capabilities. As we complete more projects, we aim to standardize and reuse our data pipelines, environment building capabilities, evaluation frameworks, and know-how across more clients and different generations of models. And these should improve both scalability and capability we use.

Agents, search for deep research, and search for deep research. It's based on the non-organization, and to do a machine experiment, and to do a machine experiment.

To whose expert network is an important part, at the same time, we are building an end-to-end R&D look from identifying motor gaps and designing tasks and training signals to building environments and graders and ultimately validating model performance. In areas such as coding search and deep research, data production increasingly rely on the model requirements rather than the large scale manual work. Experts therefore play a greater role in setting standards, providing the professional judgment and validating the results. The investment profile of this business will differ from the traditional one. Going forward, more or much more will be directed toward compute, model usage, and R&D infrastructure, with the goal of building capabilities that can continuously evolve and be reused. So at this stage, we are focused on three things. Whether we can consistently improve the model performance, whether the long-term relationships with the clients and whether our capabilities can be reused across them. So if these metrics continue to validate resources in a measured way based on the client demand and the ROI. And thank you.

Thank you. That concludes today's Q&A session. The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.