In Q1 2022, China’s Quora Zhihu’s user base discontinued its rapid growth, with average MAUs increasing by 19.4% year-over-year to 101.6 million (103.3 million MAU in the previous quarter). The average MAUs for the year 2021 was 95.9 million.
Zhihu’s average monthly paying members reached 6.9 million in Q1 2022 (6.1 million in Q4 2021), representing a growth of 72.8% YoY. The average monthly paying members for 2021 was 5.1 million, representing a growth of 114.8% from 2020.
Its total revenues were RMB743.2 million (US$117.2 million) in Q1 2022, representing a growth of 55.4% YoY. Total revenues for 2021 were RMB2,959.3 million (US$464.4 million), representing a growth of 118.9% from 2020.
As Zhihu’s number 1 growth engine, content-commerce solutions achieved year over year growth of 87.7% in revenue.
The rise of paid digital content in China
Zhihu’s gross profit was RMB335.5 million (US$52.9 million) in Q1 2022. The gross margin was 45.1%, compared to 57% in Q1 2021.
Net loss was RMB614.3 million (US$96.9 million) in the first quarter of 2022, compared with RMB324.7 million in the same period of 2021.
As of March 31, 2022, Zhihu had cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, restricted cash, and short-term investments of RMB7.1 billion (US$1.1 billion), compared with RMB7.4 billion as of December 31, 2021.
Zhihu just became a public company listed on the New York Stock exchange during the first quarter of 2021. Read its profile here.
China social media users’ content preference by education levels