Zhihu - Q1 2024
June 12, 2024
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Zhihu Inc. First Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Yolanda Liu, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Yolanda Liu (Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Zhihu's Q1 2024 financial results conference call. Joining me today are Mr. Zhou Yuan, our Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Wang Han, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, 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 Securities Litigation 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 these and other risks and uncertainties is included in our public filings with the U.S. SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.
Additionally, the matter we will discuss today will include both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purposes only. For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please see the earnings release issued earlier today. In addition, a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on our website at ir.zhihu.com. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Wang Han, CFO of Zhihu. Han, please go ahead.
Han Wang (CFO)
Thank you, Yolanda. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining Zhihu's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. I'm pleased to deliver today's opening remarks on behalf of Mr. Zhou Yuan, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Zhihu. The Q1 of 2024 marked a significant turning point for Zhihu. Strategically, we concentrated on our core strengths and the most crucial aspects of our development in the AI area. This involved a series of tactical adjustments, including resource reallocation and organizational optimization. From an operating perspective, our top priority in the short term is to achieve profitability. The advent of AI has disrupted the traditional internet business model, which relied on expanding user base, enhancing user engagement, and boosting user ad value to gain market share. In AI era, the focus has shifted to high-quality content and user value.
Zhihu's core value lies not only in possessing China's highest quality content library, but also in our unique content creation mechanism and our community's professional atmosphere, which foster continued emergence of new high-quality content. Zhihu users are not passive recipients of information, but are active participants in content creation and knowledge sharing. These core strengths provide us with a first mover advantage in exploring new business models and position us uniquely in the market, increasing our pricing power. Following our proactive reduction in community-related user acquisition costs, the size of our user base declined to some degree in line with our expectations. However, engagement among our monthly active users increased. Core user retention sustained its growth momentum, and daily active user timespan also increased significantly. Furthermore, our efforts to enhance trustworthiness within the Zhihu community continued to drive community prosperity.
Our strategy for cultivating scenario-oriented content ensures a continuous stream of authentic, in-depth, high-quality content based on our users' own experiences. As of the end of the Q1, the cumulative pieces of content on our platform reached 804.2 million, including 611 million Q&As, up 15.4% year over year. Cumulative content creators within Zhihu community reached 73.6 million, an increase of 13% year over year. We also observed a notable year-over-year increase in the proportion of highly active users engaged in creation and a percentage of high-level daily active creators. Utilizing the power of AI-driven technology, we continue to equip our content creators with a variety of user-friendly creation tools, offering a professional and supportive environment to help them bring financial rewards.
In the Q1, the total number of content creators who earned income on Zhihu grew by more than 25% year-over-year. Notably, the number of content creators benefiting from our Haiyan Plan was nearly fourfold compared to the same period last year. In the AI area, we have continually upgraded our cybersecurity capabilities to ensure better protection of our user data privacy and intellectual property rights. At the same time, we fully leverage AI models' capability to enhance efficiency of content identification, review, and governance within the Zhihu community. In certain scenarios, AI reviewers can achieve higher accuracy compared to the manual identification and review, allowing us to significantly reduce the number of manual reviewers while maintaining high efficiency. We continue to refine and upgrade our existing systems, Dali and Wukong, leveraging our Zhihai Tu LLM.
These improvements have further enhanced user engagement and effectively combated fake traffic, leading to a continued decline in users' negative feedback and propelling Zhihu's community sustainable development. We're progressing just steadily towards our goal of achieving quarterly profitability within this year. To that end, we have accelerated our loss reduction through two operating tactics. First, was to continually improve employee efficiency, further reducing labor costs. Second, was to reduce community-related user acquisition costs. Meanwhile, we have maintained a higher ROI in our paid membership and vocational training businesses, which extended our reach beyond the Zhihu community. With these efforts, the cost of revenue and total operating expenses in Q1 decreased by over RMB 130 million quarter-over-quarter.
Notably, we recorded our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in gross profit margin, and three consecutive quarters of sequential decline in our sales and marketing expenses in the Q1. Additionally, we have been accelerating the application of Zhihai Tu LLM to further enhance our operating efficiency across every aspect of our businesses. For example, teaching, learning and research aspects for our vocational training business. By integrating our own knowledge library, we have driven notable efficiency improvements in AI teaching assistants, self-services, homework assessment, and more. As a leading content-centric community, Zhihu serves as a landing platform where professionals engage in the most extensive and in-depth discussions on AI-related topics. Since the beginning of this year, the amount of AI-related content and the number of creators has continued to surge by double-digit year-over-year growth.
Specifically, the number of AI field creators certified by Blue Label has increased by 130% year-over-year. Moreover, tens of thousands of specialized terms related to AI are being discussed within our community. In 2024, our exploration of investment in AI will shift to focus on application layer. Our investment in AI enables us to enhance operating efficiency across our existing businesses, as well as to unlock emerging potential beyond the Zhihu community, all built on a foundation of trustworthiness. Since the launch of our AI-powered search feature in March, we have observed double-digit growth in app active days, user retention rates, and user engagement among users who are using our new AI search feature. Now, I would like to dive into more details of the progress we achieved across our multiple business lines for the Q1.
First, our vocational training business continued to grow robustly, with the revenue increasing by 35.9% year-over-year to RMB 145.4 million. Its contribution to our total revenue also grew, surpassing 15% for the first time. As of the end of the Q1, we established more than 30 sub-category courses through both self-operated business and acquisitions. Notably, our self-operated offerings are closely connected to Zhihu community, allowing us to address users' needs swiftly and precisely while yielding higher profits. Our acquired offerings, on the other hand, meet specific demands and cater to a broader market. Together, these courses complement each other and broaden our offerings in driving the rapid and the similar growth of our vocational training business.
In the Q1, our self-operated offerings grew rapidly, particularly AI, AGI, and self-exam courses, demonstrating excellent profitability and rapid growth. Currently, our program tutors are also content creators within the Zhihu community. With this dual role, tutors are deeply involved in the course development, while maintaining ongoing interactions with students in the community about real course experiences, skill improvement, and other topics. This approach effectively addresses the ever-growing new demands of our new users. Growth from our acquired offerings remained steady during this quarter, further elevating our brand name, awareness, and service advantages. In April of this year, one of our subsidiaries, Pingzhi Education, hosted a dedicated live broadcast inviting executives from the CFA Institute. It provided professional insight into CFA exam reforms, offering firsthand preparation, guidance, and expert analysis. This initiative garnered significant attention and sustained feedback from both the industry and examinees.
Our paid membership business remained our largest revenue contributor this quarter, reaching RMB 449.7 million. As of the end of this Q1, our average monthly subscribing members stood at 14.8 million, showing a slight decrease of 0.8% year-over-year, but an increase of 4.1% quarter-over-quarter. Average revenue per user remained stable compared to the same period last year. Leveraging the support of Zhihu community and our unique positioning, our premium short stories continue to capture way they resonate with our users. In April, 123 historically chart-topping pieces, including Zhihu's exclusive story, Scent of Time, Xi Qian Hua, and Endless River, Seawards Flows, San Wan Li He Dong Wu Hai, were included in the National Library's Digital Collection.
Zhihu's premium content library, including short stories, continued to expand in the Q1. The total volume of premium content increased by 14% year-over-year, attracting new subscribers while encouraging increased consumption among existing subscribers. On the incoming creator side, we're delighted to see our creators building a solid market reputation and achieving financial rewards on our platform.... In the Q1, the number of content creators who earned income increased by 78% year-over-year. In addition to top creators earning substantial income, many mid-tier and long tail content creators within our community also earned significant income through high-quality content creation this quarter. As a market leader, Zhihu continues to unlock the monetization potential of our vast array of premium short story IPs, spearheading our expansion into the short drama market and consistently setting new industry benchmark for growth.
In the Q1, IP monetization revenue increased by 165.7% year over year. In April, another short drama, Zhibi, adapted from a story in Zhihu's content library, achieved a new record high for popularity on its debut day on Tencent's micro drama platform. In the long run, the ongoing expansion of our premium content and diverse content, consumption formats will continually drive growth in the lifetime value of subscribing members. Let's now shift to our marketing services. In Q1, marketing services revenue were RMB 330.5 million, representing a decrease of 15.7% year over year. Within this total, revenue from our brand advertising business increased significantly by 40% year over year. While our performance-based advertising business returned to a growth on a quarter-over-quarter basis.
Our key clients in cornerstone verticals continue to demonstrate healthy improvements in retention rates, consumption, and ARPU. Apart from IT/3C industry, which maintained its year-over-year growth, growth rate of over 40%, the fast-moving, consumer goods sector also experienced high double-digit year-over-year growth. We're currently in the process of upgrading our CCS product, including, like, proactively enhancing content governance and reducing the distribution of commercial content that negatively impacts user experience. As we are striving for quarterly profitability by the Q1 of 2024, we are giving our efforts to narrow our losses. Meanwhile, we firmly believe the emerging potential of our AI search and the value we continue to unlock across Zhihu's trustworthy community, will provide fresh momentum for our sustainable growth and a clear path to profitability for the remaining quarters of this year. This concludes Mr. Zhou Yuan's remarks.
Now, I will review the details of our Q1 financials. For a complete overview of our Q1 2024 results, please see our press release issued earlier today. We have continually optimized our cost structure over the past several quarters. As a result, we recorded our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in the gross profit margin. On expense side, we significantly reduced community-related user acquisition costs while maintaining a prudent level of investment in cutting-edge technology, including AI. This initiative has effectively optimized our fixed costs, enhancing our commercialization efficiency. With this proven strategic adjustments, we are confident of achieving quarterly profitability, within 2024. Our marketing services revenue for the Q1 were RMB 330.5 million, a decline of 15.7% year-over-year.
This decrease was primarily due to the ongoing refinement of our CCS product to strategically focus on margin improvement. However, we have observed a recovery in our brand advertising segment in the Q1. Performance-based advertising also demonstrated sequential growth, notably, IT and 3C, as well as fast-moving consumer goods, led this growth by vertical. Pay membership maintained a stable trend in Q1, reaching RMB 449.7 million. The number of subscribing members grew to 14.8 million, up 4.1%, quarter-over-quarter. Vocational training revenues for the quarter were RMB 145.4 million, increasing by 35.9% year-over-year. Our self-operated offerings, particularly AI agent software exam courses, delivered robust growth, while our acquired business also retained solid momentum.
Benefiting from enhanced operating efficiency, our gross profits was for Q1 increased by 6.1% year-over-year to RMB 543.5 million, propelling a gross profit margin improvement of 45.1 percentage points year-over-year to 56.6%. Our total operating expenses for the quarter were RMB 768.2 million, compared with RMB 729.0 million in the same period last year. Selling and marketing expenses increased to RMB 478 million from RMB 445.6 million in the same period of 2023. Moving forward, we'll maintain our prudent financial policies and rigorously narrow ROI across marketing channels.
Our research and development expenses this quarter increased to RMB 197.4 million, from RMB 183 million in the same period of 2023. The increase was primarily due to our increased spending on technology innovation. G&A expenses decreased by 7.5% to RMB 92.9 million. The decrease was primarily due to lower share-based compensation as expenses, combined with improved operating efficiency. As a result of all the above, our GAAP net loss for the Q1 narrowed by 7.4% year-over-year to RMB 165.8 million. Our non-GAAP net loss for Q1 was RMB 135.7 million.
As of March 31, 2024, the company had cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, and short-term investments of RMB 1.2 billion, compared with RMB 5.5 billion as of December 31, 2023. In the Q1, the company repurchased 4.8 million Class A ordinary shares for a total price of $8 million. In summary, as we continue to optimize our costs and expense structure, our operating efficiency is steadily improving. Throughout the remainder of 2024, we're confident that our strong strategic execution will provide a solid foundation for achieving our quarterly profitability goals in the near future. This concludes my prepared remarks on our financial performance for this quarter. Now I'll turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.
Operator (participant)
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. If you would like to state your question in Chinese, you may do so, but then please also restate your question in English. Our first question is from the line of Xueqing Zhang from CICC. Please go ahead.
Xueqing Zhang (Media Analyst)
Thanks management for taking my question. My question about the breakeven target. Could management update with us on your timetable to achieve a quarterly breakeven, and what's the latest progress? Thank you.
Han Wang (CFO)
This is Han. I will answer this question. Our profitability target has not changed. We still expect to achieve single-quarter non-GAAP breakeven in this year's Q4.
Speaker 9
This is from Wang Han, CFO of Zhihu. Our profitability target remains unchanged. We expect to achieve a quarterly non-GAAP net, net profit in the Q4 of this year.
Han Wang (CFO)
我们在一季度末，二季度初进行了策略性的调整和取舍，因此我们会带来结构性的减亏，会很明显。而且从Q2开始，会逐步给大家看到更多的明显的数字表现。核心的思路跟我们上个季度跟大家说的就是一致的，就在用户规模和质量两个目标之间，我们坚定会选择用户质量，保护和提升知乎核心用户的体验，保证高质量的内容持续生产。因为我们相信AI时代和互联网时代的逻辑有一个很大的变化，就是互联网的主要逻辑就是媒体市场，比的就是大规模的用户数乘以L乘以CPM等等。而AI时代，模型和算力带来的杠杆，就把头部用户和最优质的语料的价值带来增加。所以最重要的3个要素是什么？第一个，有钱买卡训练模型。第二个，你有最高质量的语料，第三个，你有生产高质量语料的最优质的生产用户。那在知乎呢，我们在去年第一个已经投入这个大模型，已经使我们成为了中国不多的拥有大模型牌照的这个平台公司。然后在第二和第三，优质语料和高质量生产用户上面，知乎有最天然的优势。我们很幸运，AI时代给了知乎一个很好的机会，只要回到知乎最原始最擅长的质量问答就好了，这也使得我们的策略调整上可以非常的坚决和正确。
Speaker 9
At the end of the Q1 and start of the second, we strategically refined and restructured our approaches, driving a notable reduction in losses. Starting from the Q2, you will see more pronounced improvements across our metrics. The core philosophy behind this, these adjustments is what we shared at last earnings. We will always prioritize user quality over user scale. We're dedicated to protecting and elevating our core users experience and ensuring a continuous flow of high quality content, or corpus. We believe that our industry is undergoing a fundamental shift as we move from the internet era to the AI era. In the internet era, the dominant logic here is to maximize user engagement through large user bases and metrics like ad load and eCPM.
But currently, in AI era, advancements in LLM and compute power are amplifying the importance of top-tier users and high quality content. So the most crucial factor for Zhihu going forward are, first of all, having sufficient capital to invest in high-performance chips. Second, having the highest quality content and data. And third, having the highest quality and productive content creators. So Zhihu has been a pioneer in these aspects. First, our substantial investments have made us one of only a select few platforms in China with a license to operate to self-operate LLMs. And second, we already have natural advantages, thanks to our abundant high quality content and high quality user base....The advent of AI era presents a golden opportunity for Zhihu to return to what we do best. That is high quality Q&A's.
This has enabled us to make strategic adjustments with confidence and spontaneity. Next question, please.
Operator (participant)
Sure. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Steve Cho from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Steve Cho (Managing Director)
Hey, 晚上好，管理层，想请教一下关于我们这个销售费用 的一个问题啊。就是请教一下，咱们这个 selling marketing 的这个管控举措，实施之后呢，用户的一个趋势，然后包括就是我们社区有哪些这个新的 一些战略去提升这个用户的活跃度? Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. I would like to ask about the user trends, post your selling and marketing discipline strategy, and what are the future strategy to further improve your user engagement? Thanks.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
谢谢 Steve，我是周源。这个 sales and marketing 策略的调整呢，这个核心是质量导向。我们也刚开始，总体呢，是符合我们的预期的。在趋势上，核心用户留存呢，保持了持续的上涨的一个趋势，日活用户的时长呢也有显著的增长。
Speaker 9
Thanks, Steve, for your question. This is Zhou Yuan, Zhihu CEO. Our sales and marketing strategy adjustment is based on a quality-oriented approach. Overall, these adjustments are in line with our expectations. While our core user retention rates maintain its growth momentum, our DAU time spent also increased significantly.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
那么 sales and marketing 策略调整呢，其实只是社区整体策略调整的一部分。我们在社区内容和氛围的建设工作，对我们的用户活跃也是至关重要的。
Speaker 9
The sales marketing strategy adjustment is just one part of our broader community strategy. Our efforts to build and enhance the community's content and atmosphere are also crucial to improve the activeness of our users.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
首先呢，是来自于专业用户，大量专业价值被低估的专业人士和职业人群，在知乎上呢，获得了一个讨论分享的舞台。我们各个行业的专业人群是有着极高的渗透度的。比如啊，知乎上拥有浓度最高的AI行业从业者和头部大模型公司，大模型公司的技术管理者，参与前沿技术的深度讨论。我们的AI从业者的小蓝标身份认证同比增加了130%。
Speaker 9
The trustworthiness of Zhihu is primarily from our professional users. Many professionals and industry experts, whose professional value is often underestimated, have found a platform for discussion and sharing on Zhihu. We have very high penetration rates among professionals in various industries. For example, Zhihu has the highest concentration of AI industry professionals and senior technical executives from leading LLM companies who engage in cutting-edge discussions on our platform. The number of our Blue Label certified AI participants grew by 130% year-over-year as of the latest.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
社区运营的一个很重要的工作，就是面向我们的核心创作者体验进行升级。比如最近一段时间，我们优化了社区的知识计划，通过优化收益分配的算法，科学工程等泛知识领域的收益环比提升了30% to 50%。
Speaker 9
Thus, one important aspect of community daily operation is to enhance the experience for our core content creators. For example, recently, our [Foreign language] plan in the community, in which by optimizing the revenue distribution, our goals, the revenue in broader range of knowledge-related fields, such as science and engineering, increased by 30% to 50% quarter-over-quarter. Yes.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
那么这个升级的调整呢，从Q2开始，正在逐步地，展开。我们聚焦创作者的工作模式是运营驱动，产研提效，对应的算法分发体系也会向专业深度和真实的内容提高权重。
Speaker 9
This adjustment has been happening in Q2. Our approach to support creators focuses on operations driven with enhanced efficiency through product development and research. Accordingly, on the content distribution-wise, we will prioritize professional in-depth and authentic content.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
那么，第二呢，就是来自于专业深度和真实的内容，知乎集结了真实用户的多样性经验和深度见解。比如啊，最近面壁智能在开源领域遇到了一些事件，那这个讨论呢，也上了知乎的热榜。我们看到内容里面呢，有首席科学家的亲自作答，国内外AI行业的从业者、开源社区的运营者、创业者、律师都参与其中，引发了非常广泛的关注和传播。
Speaker 9
Secondly, it comes from professional, in-depth, and authentic content. Zhihu gathers a diverse range of real user experience and deep insights. For example, the recent incidents involving ModelBest in the open source field became a hot topic on Zhihu, with the chief scientists personally responding. AI industry professionals, open source community operators, and lawyers from both domestic and international communities participated in the discussion, generating widespread attention and dimension.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
这些内容所带来的影响力啊，它不是普通的一种吃瓜流量，而是通过专业的力量，让更多的人获取新闻背后的常识，收获获得感。所以我们呢，会继续升级内容获得感标准所对应的运营体系。
Speaker 9
The influence generated by this content is not just ordinary traffic from curious onlookers, but rather it empowers more people to gain common knowledge behind the news through professional insights, providing a sense of fulfillment. We will continue to upgrade our operational system in line with our content fulfillment standards.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
第三呢，就是社区的讨论氛围。我们在二季度已经开始将我们的运营体系和我们的社区治理，包括我们的用户服务的团队，做了重新梳理和整合。这个呢，目的呢，是提升专业，认真、专业和友善的社区氛围。我们现在看到啊，在很多的热点问题下，专业深度和理性乐观的内容占比正在不断的上升，这些变化呢，是符合我们的预期的。谢谢。
Speaker 9
Thirdly, but not the last, the community culture and atmosphere. In the Q2, we began integrating and streamlining our operational system and community governance, including the user service team, to enhance our community culture of sincerity, expertise, know-how, and respect. For example, the proportion of professional, in-depth, and rational content in discussion on training topics is steadily increasing in line with our expectations. Thanks. Thank you for the question.
Operator (participant)
Yeah. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Daisy Chen from Haitong International. Please go ahead.
Daisy Chen (Research Analyst)
晚上好，管理层，谢谢接受我的提问。我的提问是关于AI的，可能涉及到两个。第一个是想问一下我们在AI应用方面的一个进展，比如说上个季度咱们也发布了这个AI搜索功能，就现在最近的话，有没有什么新的产品？以及能否多讲一些，就是说这些产品对于社区用户的一个体现，然后比如说对于知乎的用户，有没有什么，有哪些正面的一些影响？然后这是第一个问题。第二个问题是因为我们也观察到，就是最近的话，Reddit跟OpenAI这边是有广泛的合作，然后呢，也跟Google有这个人 工 智 能 的训练数据的协议。Google这边的话，每年也是跟，呃，像Reddit支付大概$60 million的一个收入。想请问一下，我们，是否也考虑有类似的一个业务的模式来增加更多的收入？嗯，I'll translate myself. Good evening, management.
Speaker 9
Thanks for taking my question. I'd like to, I have two questions about AI. The first one is, I'd like to ask about the recent development of our AI applications, such as the, AI powered search feature, which was launched last quarter. Do we have any new products? And can management, elaborate more about how these products empower Zhihu community? And, for example, does management see any positive impacts on the user activity or behaviors?
Following that, I think as a second question, we noted that Reddit had announced the partnership with OpenAI to bring its current AI content into OpenAI's products, and they also reached a deal with Google to also authorize its data for some AI training, that would bring it roughly over $60 million per year to Reddit's revenue. So my question is about whether we consider a similar business model to add more revenues to Zhihu? Thank you.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
好，谢谢你的提问。我先来回答第一个问题。我们其实在三月底啊，发布了这个AI搜索的发现版，啊，这其实是一个，尝鲜的测试版本。我们呢，其实看到了不错的测试结果。简单说呢，就是使用AI搜索的活跃用户呢，会显著地变得更加的活跃。我们认为这是，这将是在使用场景上的一个重要的扩展。
Speaker 9
Thanks for your two questions. This is Zhou Yuan, Zhihu CEO. In the late March, sorry, I will just answer the first question. In the late March, we introduced a beta version of our AI search feature, Discovery, named Discovery. The initial results of the testing phase has been very promising. User utilizing our AI search become notably more active. We regard this as a positive indicator, demonstrating a significant expansion in our users content consumption scenarios.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
所以呢，结合过去这两个多月用户使用的情况和反馈，我们将在六月底呢，推出一个新版，也会有一个全新的产品名字。
Speaker 9
Building on the feedback and usage patterns from the past two months, we are excited to announce that we will launch a new version of AI search by the end of June. This version will have a fresh product name.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
这产品呢，首先会在PC端上线。我们认为呢，PC端是一个重要的生产力和效率场景，和移动端会有很好的一个互补关系。
Speaker 9
It will initially be available on our PC platform. We believe that our PC platform is a crucial scenario of productivity and efficiency, perfectly complementing the mobile end.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
那么在AI时代呢，用户和内容的质量的重要性是远远大于数量。知乎的AI搜索功能呢，它依托的是社区内高质量、可信赖的内容，能够为用户提供高质量的搜索结果。
Speaker 9
In the AI era, the quality of user and content are far outweighs the importance of quantity. Our AI search function relies on the high quality and trustworthy content within our community, and it enabled it to provide users with high quality search results.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
那我们认为呢，AI搜索是一个快速高效的工具使用场景，而社区呢，则是一个多人在线互动的场景，这两者呢，有着很强的互补关系。所以呢，我们在产品上，AI搜索和社区生态的结合将是产品的重心。
Speaker 9
We believe that AI search serves as efficient tool-based scenario, while the community offers a multi-user online interaction environment. These two have strong complementary characteristics. Integrating AI search with our community ecosystem will be our central product development focus moving forward.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
关于您的第二个问题，确实有很多公司想来，想买，也来找我们。我们还没定。谢谢。
Speaker 9
For the second question, indeed, many companies are interested in acquiring corpus from us, but we haven't made a decision yet. Thank you. Thanks for the two questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Cici, from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Cici Cheng (Equity Research Analyst)
啊，谢谢关系同事，这是我的提问，我想请教一下，就是我们职业培训业务未来长期的一个增长前景，以及我们怎么把我们的产品跟其他的教育机构做一个区隔。然后我很快翻译一下, what's the long term growth outlook for vocational training business? And how could company differentiate yourself from other educational institutions? Thank you.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
谢谢你的提问。这个在一季度呢，我们，职业培训业务呢，它是实现了高于行业同比的这个增速的。里面呢，主要是得益于社区赋能的自营业务，在这个季度呢高速增长，尤其是就是刚才在 opening remarks 里面提到的 AI、AGI 软考 这些技能兴趣类的课程，它，收获了用户良好的口碑，同时呢，也体现了更好的利润水平。
Speaker 9
Thank you for your question, Cici Cheng. This is Zhou Yuan, Zhihu CEO. In the Q1 , our vocational training business continued to outperform the industry with a year-over-year growth rate of 35.9%. This is primarily driven by the robust growth of our, community-enabled, self-operated offerings. Notably, the AI, AGI and software, and other vocational skills and interest courses mentioned in the opening remarks, not only received positive feedbacks, but also demonstrated improved profitability.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
知乎堂对比其他教育机构的不同之处在于知乎堂呢，是始于社区高质量内容和知识沉淀的，从而扩展出到有这个学习督导的服务交付。... 这个过程呢，是由用户，也就是我们的潜在学员的需求去自然引导。
Speaker 9
Unlike other educational institutions, Pingzhi Education is built on the foundation of high quality content and accumulated knowledge originating from our community, which naturally extends to supervised learning services. This process is primarily driven by the needs of our users, who are also potential learners of our vocational training business.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
上个季度呢，我们也分享过啊，知乎的社区机制能够持续地发现和快速地验证职业培训细分领域的需求，同时呢，带给我们很好的一个获客的优势。社区的用户和创作者能够有效地支持我们的课程的研发，在已有的学科中体现出很高的效能水平。
Speaker 9
As we shared in last quarter, Zhihu's community mechanism continuously identifies and rapidly validates our users' demands in vocational sub-segments, providing us with a significant customer acquisition advantage. Community user and content creators effectively supports our course development, resulting in high labor efficiency across existing offerings.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
那除了此之外呢，始于社区的学员需求，在得到了服务的交付之后啊，学员呢，他又可以反哺社区，推动一些学科二期、三期课程的推出，也延长了自身的LTV，这个一定程度上克服了职业教育行业难有复购续费的这种情况。
Speaker 9
Besides, our community-based approach means that when learners' needs are satisfied, they can in turn contribute back to the community, fostering the development of subsequent programs and extending learners' lifetime value. This helps mitigate the common challenge of low renewal rates in the vocational training industry.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
我们的职业培训未来的增长策略呢，也是一系列性增长。第一呢，在学历考试、招录资格考试、技能兴趣这三个大方向上，我们会做细分学科的持续的拓展，主要呢，还是聚焦在确定性更高、利润率更好的技能兴趣类课程。同时呢，会借助知乎社区的独特优势，提升学员的续费和复购，从而推动我们课程平均的GMV的提升。
Speaker 9
Our future growth strategy targets enhanced profitability. First of all, we will continue to expand into sub-segments across three main categories: academic improvements, career enhancements, and vocational skills and interests. Our primary focus will remain on vocational skills and interests, which are with higher certainty and better profit margins. We aim to enhance our learners' renewal and repurchase rate by leveraging Zhihu's unique advantages, thereby increasing our average GMV.
Zhou Yuan (CEO)
第二呢，我们会进一步提升资源投入的ROI的水平，并利用AI赋能，提升内部的运营效率，尽快迈上，经营层面上的break even，这一点与知乎整体的经营目标也是一致的。谢谢。
Speaker 9
Second of all, we will further improve the ROI of our resources in investment and leverage AI to enhance internal operational efficiency. Our goal is to achieve operational break-even as soon as possible. This is in line with Zhihu's overall top priority. Thanks. Next question, please.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vicky Wei from Citi. Please go ahead.
Speaker 9
管理层晚上好，谢谢接受我的提问。我的问题是关于会员业务的，想请问公司现阶段如何看待会员业务的竞争格局和业务的战略？能否请管理层也分享一下近期Yan Yan Story用户的付费的情况和版权运营方面的业务的情况。Thanks management for taking my question. My question is related to the membership business. How should we think of membership, business, competition, landscape, and business strategy? Would you please share some color about Yan Yan Story paying user behaviors, and also other business such as IP operation, business updates? Thank you. Thank you.
Han Wang (CFO)
我是王涵，我来回答这个问题。关于竞争格局，知乎仍然是这个新闻赛道的领头羊，我们也看到这个赛道也有来自大厂的一些竞争，短期也不是没有过作者和头条上的波动，但是我们看到一段时间之后，大量的回流证明了知乎仍然是最适合短篇创作者的成长的氛围和土壤。
Speaker 9
Thank you, Vicky, for your question. This is Han, Zhihu CFO. In terms of the competitive landscape, we remain the leader in this segment. While we have experienced competition from other big Internet companies, as well as some fluctuation in content creator numbers and submissions. A significant number of content creators have returned to Zhihu, notably confirming that Zhihu provides the best environment for short story creators to thrive.
Han Wang (CFO)
关于战略方向呢，想分享两个点。
Speaker 9
I would like to share two points on our strategic plan.
Han Wang (CFO)
第一个，市场上有很多知道知乎的故事做得很好，但是也有些人会拿知乎的故事呢当成一个偏负面的事，好像是你有故事，就是知乎社区内容水化的标志。对这件事呢，我们也想分享一下我们不一样的这个理解吧。就您看，诺贝尔奖都有文学奖，纽约时报都有畅销的小说榜。文学本身呢，是好内容，是毋庸置疑的。核心问题是，我们未来如果将更多的非故事内容和故事内容分开陈列和分发，就会给很多不同偏好的用户带来更好的体验。你看全世界最好的图书馆，最高级的书店，也都是有fiction和non-fiction的分类的，所以重点是分开陈列，就能给大家更好的观感。因此，我们的盐言故事APP，就是我们尝试区分用户的一种尝试。盐言的APP对MAU在一季度也实现了近40%的环比增长，已经有数百万的量级，让我们可以在这个单独的场域内，对这类更精准的喜欢故事用户放心大胆地进行定向优化，但是并不影响那些不喜欢看故事的用户体验。
Speaker 9
Zhihu's excellence in short form story segment has been widely recognized. However, some view this negatively, as if the presence of stories on our platform dilutes the quality of our content library. So on this, we would like to share some insights. We believe that literature itself is undeniable, valuable content. After all, the Nobel Prize has a literature prize, and, New York Times has a best seller list of novels. But we have concluded that by separating the display and, distribution of story content from non-story content, we can provide better experience for users with different preferences. The best libraries and, bookstores globally also categorize fiction and nonfiction separately to enhance users' experience. Therefore, we launch the standalone Yan Yan Story app. Yan Yan Story achieve a nearly 40% quarter-over-quarter increase in MAU for Q1 2024, reaching millions of users. This segmentation allows us to optimize each domain for specific users' preferences, without affecting the experience, of the other group of users.
Han Wang (CFO)
继续讲第二点。最近由知乎故事改编的精品短剧《执笔》取得了很好的市场效果，成为了截至目前分账金额最高的精品短剧，所以各大视频平台也更多地认识到知乎故事的本质价值，很多最精品的频道来找我们讨论合作，我们的故事IP价值，IP的价值也在水涨船高。短故事的IP价值应该如何理解呢？恰好也跟大家分享一下，我们最近还有一些学术界的朋友的交流，再讲一下他们的视角。他们说，短篇故事可能是内容进化方向上最先进的载体，短篇可能领先长篇五年，而网文可能领先影视剧又五年。因为它是用最简洁、最锋利的方式，展现了最贴近人民群众的最新审美和价值观的趋势。所以希望未来能跟大家分享越来越多知乎IP内容成长走红的好消息。
Speaker 9
Second of all, Zhihu's short story Zhibi has become the most popular premium revenue sharing drama on the market. The premium short drama Zhibi, adapted from Zhihu's short story, has achieved excellent market results, becoming the highest revenue sharing short drama to date. Its success has raised the major video platforms' awareness of the value of Zhihu's short story copyrights. Premium channels are approaching us for collaboration, further allocating the value of our IPs. How should we understand short story IPs value?
So, in our recent discussion with the academic community, we share that short story may represent the most advanced format of content evolution, as we precisely and quickly showcase the latest authentic and value trends. Short story may be as much as five years ahead of novels, novels, which in turn, are five years ahead of film and television production. We look forward to sharing more Zhihu IP content success stories with all of you in the future. Thank you for your question.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Thomas Chong from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thomas Chong (Managing Director and Regional Head of Internet and Media)
谢谢管理层接受我的提问。我的问题是关于我们的营销服务的。就想问一下我们营销服务的收入预期和我们怎么看我们的长期战略？
Speaker 9
Thanks, management, for taking my question. My question is about our marketing services. I want to ask about our marketing revenue outlook and our long-term strategy. Thanks.
Han Wang (CFO)
Thank you for your question. I am Wang Han. I will answer this question. As we said last quarter, Zhihu, in order to gain trust, does not hesitate to sacrifice some short-term low-quality revenue as the price. So we actively conducted governance of commercial content and distribution mechanisms. CCS has active contraction, but our overall advertising in the off-season also achieved year-over-year growth of more than 40%, and performance advertising also has quarter-over-quarter growth compared to this Q4 of 2023. So for the subsequent several quarters this year, the empowerment of AI and data infrastructure will also be our focus for improvement in performance advertising.
Speaker 9
Thank you for your question. This is Wang Han, Zhihu CFO. As we mentioned in last quarter, Zhihu is committed to enhancing the community's trustworthiness, even at the cost of satisfying some short-term, low-quality revenue. As such, we proactively refine our commercial content and distribution mechanism, resulting in an expected CCS decrease. However, our brand advertising increased by 40% year-over-year during the non-peak season, and performance advertising delivered a quarter-over-quarter growth compared to Q4 2023. For the rest of 2024, we will focus on improving performance advertising through enhancing AI and data infrastructure.
Han Wang (CFO)
长期来看呢，我们认为大家在理解知乎在商业上的潜力时，也并非要把眼光局限于只是站内流量上，而是要看到知乎能够给品牌在全网带来品牌溢价的潜力。我们来举一些实际的案例，比如新兴的国货3C科技领军品牌，在知乎讨论他们的研发技术原理。他们认为，只有在知乎能够把技术客户做到足够的专业与深度，建立起一个新品类的市场认知。他们再去根据社区的数据和用户反馈，进行自身产品的迭代和升级。
Speaker 9
In long term, we believe that, Zhihu's commercial potential should be assessed with Zhihu's brand premium, instead of only focusing on in-platform traffic. Let's take, an example: many emerging domestic 3C tech brands showcase their R&D technologies and principles on Zhihu. They believe that only on Zhihu can they, popularize their tech in a sufficiently professional and in-depth, in-depth approach, and establish market awareness for new product categories. They even integrate and upgrade, their, product based on Zhihu's data and user feedback.
Han Wang (CFO)
在 大 消费 行业 当中 ， 大家 可能 有些 人 知道 ， 市场上 大部分 的 产品 其实 是 比较 雷同 的 ， 货 很 雷 同 。 所以 更多 大家 在 拼 的 是 投放 水平 的 差异 。 而 能够 在 知乎 的 社区 积累 起 专业 用户 口碑 的 商品 ， 那 可能 他 的 货 是 真的 得 有 一些 硬 实力 了 。 大家 可能 在 互联网 上 经常 看到 一些 内容 ， 叫 知乎 高 赞 冒 号 什么 什么 ， 或者 是 知乎 大 V 什么 什么 作为 文章 的 标题 ， 这 证明 知乎 二 字 相对 于 大众 互联网 上 全部 的 内容 ， 有 信誉 的 溢价 和 背书 的 能力 。 所以 我们 相信 推 到 商业 上 也是 一样 ， 知乎 在 未来 也会 有 越来越 多的 为 品牌 增强 背书 的 潜力 和 实力 。 谢谢 ！
Speaker 9
In the consumer industry, most products on the market are actually quite similar. The main difference is the level of investment in advertising and promotion. However, products that can earn a solid reputation among professional users within Zhihu community likely have a genuine competitive edge. You might have seen phrases like, "Zhihu high praise," followed by the rest of the title, or "Zhihu KL" plus the rest of the title in many articles. These validate the trust, premium and endorsement value of Zhihu's content compared to that of content from other Internet platforms. We are quite confident that, in commercial area, Zhihu has great potential to further enhance brand credibility. Thank you for question.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. That concludes today's question and answer session. At this time, I will turn the conference back to Yolanda for any additional or closing remarks.
Yolanda Liu (Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you, operator. Thank you all once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please contact our IR team directly or PSN Financial Communications. Thank you!
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.