Zhihu - Q3 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Welcome to the Zhihu Inc. Q3 2023 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Miss Iris Lu, IR Manager. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our Q3 2023 financial results conference call. Participants on today's call will include Mr. Zhou Yuan, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Zhihu; Mr. Li Dahai, Chief Technology Officer; and Mr. Harry Xia, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's prospectus and other public filings as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.

During today's call, management will also discuss certain Non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purposes only. For a definition of Non-GAAP financial measures and the 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 IR website at ir.zhihu.com. I will now turn this call over to Mr. Harry Xia, CFO of Zhihu.

Harry Xia (CFO)

Thank you, Iris. I'm pleased to deliver today's opening remarks on behalf of Mr. Zhou Yuan, founder and CEO of Zhihu. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining Zhihu's Q3 2023 earnings call. During the quarter, we made considerable progress in our multi-engine commercialization across the entire community, boosting our total revenue by 12.1% year-over-year. Notably, revenues from our membership and the vocational training business increased 39.2% and 85.6% year-over-year, contributing 45.7% and 14.2% of our total revenues, respectively. Throughout the quarter, we continued to unlock the vitality and prosperity of the Zhihu community, inspiring our content creators' high-quality production, while continuously expanding our user base and encouraging user interaction.

Our number of MAUs reached another milestone for the quarter, rising to 110.5 million. We continue to view cost control and operational efficiency as one of our strategic priorities. Consequently, we witnessed a 5 percentage points increase in our gross margin, bringing it to 53.7% for the quarter, along with a notable 10.1% reduction in our non-GAAP net loss compared to the previous year. Going forward, I will be dedicated to leading the team to enhance our operating efficiencies and further narrow losses. Now, I'd like to dive into the details of our Q3 initiatives and discuss our progress concerning content and the creators and the commercialization progress. Let's start with our content and the content creators.

As of Q3, the accumulated pieces of content across the Zhihu community reached 743.7 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 28.4%. In addition to expanding our overall content library across various verticals, since our users carnival in July, we have specifically focused on expanding and enriching content related to new generation professionals' evolving demands, including their career growth, lifestyle, and consumption-related scenarios. Furthermore, to bolster our community ecosystems, we continued to focus on the organic commercialization of our content. At our Zhihu Business Conference in September, we announced the official release of a new commercial content product, Zhi Yao, designed for credentialed professionals. With this product, professionals can answer questions, share product experience, and provide industry insights as experts in their specific fields.

Alongside these initiatives, we also enhanced our new generation professional content creators by providing high-quality traffic support through our Macro Influencer Incubation Plan, Bowen KOP, leading to greater and more direct influence on users' consumption decisions. We also launched a data product, the Zhihu You Shu Mini Program, which can help our merchants and the brands capture precise market growth potential by analyzing trending topics, industry research, and many other factors as a valuable part of our marketing services. We also drove increase the operational efficiency and the performance across the Zhihu community in the Q3, as we continued to elevate our content supply by integrating AI and other technologies, by enhancing algorithms and AI-powered content comprehension, we were able to deliver more customized and balanced content to users, especially content with a higher commercial value.

Content creators continue to contribute immense value to the Zhihu community. During the quarter, in addition to enhancing our content library, we strove to inspire new content creators to join us, while also increasing support for our existing content creators. During Q3, the average financial income of content creators who received the financial income from our platform, increased by more than 30% year-over-year. We stimulated both the quantity and the quality of their production by actively engaging in operating activities. Simultaneously, we provided support through improved community governance and strengthened the interest protection mechanism. Additionally, we intensified our crackdown on pirated content. To promote the sustainable growth of our dynamic and flourishing content ecosystem, we adopted a more active approach to our multi-engine commercialization in this quarter.

As a result, our membership business maintained its accelerated growth momentum, and the revenue contribution from the vocational training business continued to increase. This stands as a strong testament to our outstanding content monetization capability, and the effectiveness and the resilience of our business model. Our total revenue for the quarter was CNY 1.0 billion, up 12.1% year-over-year. Among our various revenue streams, paid membership revenue grew by 39.2% year-over-year, and average monthly subscribing members increased by 35.9% year-over-year to 14.8 million. This strong revenue performance was boosted by our persistent efforts to broaden content coverage, while improving content distribution efficiency. Zhihu IP products have begun to demonstrate huge potential within the online entertainment industry in China.

Our content and the blockbuster IP have garnered a broad recognition beyond the Zhihu community, amplifying the potential for audience-based growth. A hit TV drama, Scent of Time, adapted from novel, Xi Qian Hua, on the Zhihu platform, debuted on Youku in October to broad market acclaim. We believe that the strong sense of connection and the broad appeal of the original stories in Zhihu's library offer great opportunities for film and television adaptation, which will further unlock our content ecosystem's growth and the monetization potential for our valuable IPs. Zhihu has already accumulated more than 100,000 IPs in its library, including short stories and science fiction, et cetera. There are currently many other Zhihu works in the film and television pipeline, and we look forward to sharing more details of these projects once they are available.

By leveraging our technology and operation capabilities, we are confident we can share the massive value and influence of our IPs with our users, content creators, and business partners. We will continue advancing the tech development of our high-quality IP content and integrate AI technologies from content creation to commercialization. The array of functions and tools we have recently launched or improved, such as our AIGC-powered illustration tool, Writer Assistant, have significantly boosted content creation. Meanwhile, our updated interactive functions, together with our broader and more diverse content categories, have effectively expanded our user coverage. Moving forward, we will continue to strengthen our commercialization capabilities through innovation and exploration to increase ARPU. Moving on to marketing services. In the Q3, our marketing services were still affected by the overall fluctuations in the macro environment.

Despite these challenges, our cornerstone verticals, especially those advertisers products requiring a relatively longer decision-making process, with high values, have been widely recognized among brands and manufacturers. For example, IT and 3C, and home appliance continue to make solid progress. Together, these increased significantly by double digits year-over-year, highlighting the effectiveness of our content-centric marketing solutions. To further unleash the commercial value of the Zhihu community's high quality content, traffic and other opportunities for brands and manufacturers, we have been consistently upgrading our products and expanding content consumption scenarios. We have enhanced our partnerships with third-party e-commerce platforms, such as Taobao, for traffic data and analysis. This includes a live monitoring of comprehensive indices, including traffic volume, user engagement, user acquisition, and a transaction number. This enables merchants and brands to enhance their ROI through more optimized performance-based marketing.

Our newly launched content product also helps to maximize the value of the credentialed professionals and influence our users' consumption decisions. Furthermore, we continue to upgrade our underlying technology capabilities to achieve better ROI for our brands through our smart advertisement allocation model and streamline all the placement functions. Boosted by these efforts, our advertising business recovery has begun to pick up sequentially in the Q4. Moving forward, we are confident that our operational effectiveness and enhanced brand recognition will enable us to capture the market's growth potential. Moving on to our vocational training business. We have been striving to broaden and diversify our program offerings by identifying and fulfilling users' demand for academic and vocational qualifications, as well as employment skills.

Our well-rounded product and service spectrum now covers postgraduate entrance examination, civil service examination, ESG, CFA, and CPA examinations, language testing, writing or data analytical skills, and AGI, among others. As a result, vocational training revenue soared 85.6% year-over-year in the Q3. We will continue to adjust our service offerings to capture market growth. We also boosted the operational efficiency of our vocational training business, and a focus on resources and post-merger integration during the quarter. The resulting optimized ROI in user acquisition significantly strengthened our business product competitiveness. Furthermore, we remain confident in the opportunities that the AI revolution is bringing to education industry. As such, we continue to fortify our, R&D capabilities and integrate AI into products and services to improve user experience.

During the quarter, we released the AI-powered paper correction tool, which sets a new benchmark for user experience in the vocational training industry. We also expanded our AI technology application scenarios to improve our sales conversion and users' interactive learning experience. Our strategic investment in AI technology is playing a pivotal role in our development as we approach our next stage of growth. Our large language model, Zhihai AI, which received regulatory approval in early November, has now reached 100 billion level parameters. With the regulatory approval secured, Zhihai AI can serve more users and commercial clients, marking another milestone in the process of transforming the Zhihu community into Zhihu intelligent community. We believe Zhihai AI's advantage lies in the ability to naturally combine large language model with specific scenarios, powered by superior content understanding and the inference abilities.

We will gradually open our large language model, benefiting our users and partners, while preparing the sustainable growth of the entire industry. We will better empower our content creators and users in various scenarios, while enabling brands and manufacturers to reap the benefits and reach their operational targets. In short, Zhihu's success and resilience are underpinned by our dynamic ecosystem, with high quality content at its core. With progress across content and the commercialization of our diverse revenue streams in this quarter, we are well positioned to capture drive, driving healthy and sustainable growth while enhancing profitability. Going forward, we will continue to seek and seize opportunities to empower users and creators with advanced technology, creating value for all our, our stakeholders. This concludes Mr. Zhou Yuan's remarks. Now, I will turn to our financial details in the Q3.

For a review of our Q3 2023 results, please see our press release issued earlier today. I'm pleased to announce another solid quarter with accelerated progress in our multi-engine commercialization, driven by robust growth in paid membership and the vocational training business. Our total revenues for the quarter increased with strong resilience, rising by 12.1% year-over-year, which is in line with our management's guidance provided previously. As we consistently broaden and diversify our products and service, paid membership revenue for Q3 increased by 39.2% year-over-year, while vocational training revenue increased by 85.6% from the same period of last year. Our gross margin for Q3 further expanded by 5 percentage points year-over-year to 53.7%, as we focused on high-margin business and projects.

Our ongoing improvements, cost control measure, and operating efficiency enhancements also improved the company's bottom line. Accordingly, our Non-GAAP net loss for Q3 narrowed by 10.1% from the same period of 2022. Our paid membership revenue for the quarter was CNY 466.8 million, up 39.2% from CNY 335.4 million for the same period of 2022. This increase was prepared by the continued growth of our subscribing members, which increased by 35.9% year-over-year to 14.8 million. Our vocational training business revenue for the Q3 was CNY 144.8 million, up 85.6% year-over-year.

This organic growth came from new courses offerings provided by our existing business, and notably, our newly launched online courses for ESG related examination preparation received excellent feedback from our users. The remainder of the revenue growth was attributable to the acquisition of MBA Master, which is acquired previously. Our marketing services revenue for the quarter was CNY 383 million, despite the overall industry challenges. Our cornerstone verticals, including IT, 3C and home appliance, maintained their growth momentum, increasing significantly by double-digit year-over-year. Gross profit for the third quarter increased by 23.4% year-over-year to CNY 548.5 million, with gross margin expanding to 53.7% from 48.7% for the same period of 2022.

Primarily due to our enhanced monetization efforts, as well as our improved efficiency in cloud services and the bandwidth utilization. Total operating expenses were CNY 898.6 million for the Q3, compared with CNY 723 million for the same period of 2022. Selling and marketing expenses for the Q3 increased to CNY 534.3 million from CNY 478.3 million for the same period of 2022. As we continued to invest in promoting our products and brand names. Research and development expenses increased to CNY 249.7 million for the Q3, from CNY 160.8 million for the same period of 2022.

The increase was primarily attributable to our increased spending on technology innovation, as we believe strongly in the potential opportunities in large language model technology. General and administrative expenses increased for the quarter to CNY 114.6 million, from CNY 83.9 million in the same period of 2022, due to increased rental expenses and an increase in share-based compensation expenses from our acquired business. In this quarter, we incurred approximately CNY 18 million relocation expenses as we moved into our new headquarters in Beijing. Driven by our ongoing efforts to control costs and operational efficiency improvements, our GAAP net loss for the quarter was CNY 278.4 million, narrowed by 6.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Our non-GAAP adjusted net loss, which primarily excludes share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisition, was RMB 225.3 million for the Q3, narrowed by around 10% from the same period last year. As of September 30, 2023, the company had cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, and short-term investments of approximately RMB 5.7 billion, compared with RMB 6.3 billion as of December 21, 2022. As of September 30, 2023, we repurchased approximately 18.3 million Class A ordinary shares, for a total of $42.6 million on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. This concludes my prepared remarks on our financial performance for this quarter.

Let's turn the call over to the operator for Q&A session. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. 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. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question today comes from Steve Kee with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Steve Qu (VP and Equity Research Analyst of China Consumer)

嘿，喂，晚上好！谢谢关心，接受我的提问啊。我可能就问一个关于咱们这个大模型进展的一个问题。那十一月初的时候，咱们也是取得了这个知海图模型的一个备案，可否分享一下，这是我们AI大模型的一个进展，以及未来有哪些这个商业化的一个落地场景。Thanks for taking my question, so first congratulating on receiving the approval for our large language model Zhihai AI.

Could management share with us, the latest progress of our large language model as well as the future monetization roadmap? Thanks.

Dahai Li (CTO)

好的，谢谢你的问题，我是知乎的CTO李大海，我来回答这个问题。我们，概括来说呢，知乎还是充分利用了我们自身的独特的这个高质量内容的数据优势，在大模型能力建设方面呢，我们还是取得了重大的进展。接下来呢，我们会把重点的精力放在大模型的业务运用上，就应用的落地上。具体来说呢，是知海图的AI。

Thank you, Steve, for the question. This is Dahai Li, CTO of Zhihu. To summarize, Zhihu is well positioned as a content community that has high quality content and data on its platform, and we have made tremendous progress in terms of building up our large language model capabilities in the past months. In the future, our, our key focus will be on the application of our Zhihai AI into different business scenarios on our platform.

Steve Qu (VP and Equity Research Analyst of China Consumer)

具体来说，我们的知海图 AI 已经升级为千亿级参数的多模态大模型，并且于十一月初取得大模型备案。在大模型的落地方面，我们在内部已经广泛地把知海图大模型用在了现有的生产流程里面。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

More specifically speaking, our Zhihai AI is now upgraded to 100 billion level parameters of multi-model large, large language model. In early November, we have obtained the regulatory approval for our large language model. In terms of application, internally, we have used our Zhihai model into different first aspects of our daily operations.

Dahai Li (CTO)

在内容理解方面，我们使用大语言模型，在内容分类体系、搜索、推荐上进行优化。举个例子，我们通过知海图把升级一次内容分类体系的时间从一个季度降低到两周，极大地提升了这个，内容分类体系升级的版本升级的效率。通过这些改进呢，我们可以去有效地提升用户的参与度和粘性。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Speaking of content comprehension, our large language model has been used on the content classification, our content search and recommendation to enhance its operating efficiency. For example, in the past, our content classification system upgrade takes about one quarter, and now it's shortened to two weeks. In this way, we will enhance our user engagement and stickiness.

Dahai Li (CTO)

在商业变现方面呢，我们采用大模型进行标题改写的工作，来进行广告内容的推荐优化，从而提升商业化的转化效率。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

In terms of our marketing services, our largest model helps us to refine the titles of our content commerce articles, and help us to refine our content products to enhance our commercialization conversion rate.

Dahai Li (CTO)

在付费会员业务的实践里面，我们还使用多模态模型能力来赋能内容封面的生成，并且向用户提供围绕故事的深度互动的虚拟角色，让用户更加深入地了解和体验故事内容。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Our multi-model large language model also facilitates the generation of cover pictures, of stories, of our members paid membership business. In this way, user will be able to interact with the virtual characters of our short stories and get an in-depth understanding of the contents of the stories.

Steve Qu (VP and Equity Research Analyst of China Consumer)

在职业培训业务里面，我们利用大模型来对论文、作业等进行批改，并代替教务老师就学生的简单问题进行AI的自动答复沟通，这样能够有效地提升教育业务的运营效率。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Speaking of our vocational training business, our large language model helps the system to correct the essays for our students, and also help our tutors to answer the basic or frequent questions from the students. In this way, to enhance the operation efficiency of our vocational training business.

Steve Qu (VP and Equity Research Analyst of China Consumer)

在安全审核方面，我们通过大模型的生成与语义识别能力，帮助过滤低质量内容，提升不合规内容的识别效率，提升回答和评论的审核效率以及准确性。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

In terms of our content auditing, the large language model with the help of our large language model, the in-depth meaning and identification abilities, the large language model is able to filter low quality content and identify the non-compliant contents of our questions and user reviews. In this way to enhance the overall efficiency and accuracy.

Steve Qu (VP and Equity Research Analyst of China Consumer)

以上呢，是我们在各个业务里面的，过去做的这个大模型相关的实践。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

...So this summarize our past explorations in terms of the utilization of large language models in our community.

Steve Qu (VP and Equity Research Analyst of China Consumer)

随着大模型备案工作的完成呢，我们计划将知海图应用在更多用户可见的产品之中，去提升创作效率和内容消费体验。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

In terms of our future plans, with the approval of the regulators, we plan to utilize our Zhihai AI into more products or functions that can be accessed by our users to enhance our content creation and consumption experiences.

Steve Qu (VP and Equity Research Analyst of China Consumer)

AI 对 知乎 而言 是 一个 重要 的 机遇 。 我们 通过 知海图 AI 大 模型 的 研发 ， 不断 升级 底层 技术 能力 ， 为 用户 和 创作者 去 营造 更好 的 体验 ， 并 提升 我们 商业化 的 效率 。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

AI as to Zhihu is a very important opportunity, and through the R&D of Zhihai AI large language model, and continuously upgrade our basic model capabilities, we will provide better experiences for our users and content creators, and also enhance our commercialization efficiency. Thank you for your question!

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Zhang Shuiqing with CICC. Please go ahead.

Zhang Shuiqing (Analyst)

Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on another solid results. The membership business once again demonstrates strong growth this quarter. What's the strategy for this business in the future? And how does the company view the recent development trend of micro drama series?

Thank you.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

水晴，你好，我是周元。我们的这个会员业务啊，刚才有个数据的介绍，我们的Q3呢，这个增长呢，是39.2%。那其实到现在呢，我们已经积累了1500万这个量级的月活跃付费的用户。当然这是个数字啊，这个数字的背后呢，其实是我们其实从创作到消费侧都有非常稳定的创作群体和消费有习惯的这个消费群体。

Thank you, Zhang Shuiqing, for the question. This is CEO, this is Zhou Yuan, CEO of Zhihu. As you can see that, as our CFO have introduced previously, in the Q3 this year, our revenue from paid membership business has increased year-over-year by 39.2%, and we have accumulated average monthly paying users for about, fifteen million, and, and currently we have accumulated a mass audience, pro, audience base and content creator interface for our paid membership business.

实际上呢，我们所有的工作啊，都是在这个比较完善的一个业务飞轮的基础上，啊它一方面呢，还在这个比较健康地增长，另外一方面呢，其实呢，我们也在这个基础上做很多新的工作。一方面呢，就是这个刚才我们大致也说了一下，是我们的这个内容的IP化。那么其实在今年呢，其实我们也有了这个效果还不错的这个试点，我们在优酷上线的热播剧呢，还是广受好评的，我们也会进一步来进行这个IP化的这个尝试。

Based on our content business fairly well, our paid membership business is experiencing resilient growth. Firstly, we have explored our content IP commercialization currently, and in October, our hit drama Scent of Time has released on Youku and have received broad market appeal from the market.

另外一方面，其实我们在整个会员业务上的技术投入呢，是非常持续的，是持续地在进行技术上的这个提效，其实也包含创新。那我们今年呢，是这个也当然也随着这个，大模型的这个，这个，牌照的这个通过吧，我们现在是积极地把这个AI技术呢引入到我们会员业务之中。刚才提到的这个，包含我们的这些插画的工具和这个创作助手，它其实呢，是随着时间的推移，它一定会不断不断地去提升我们这个内容创作的效率。

Secondly speaking, our paid membership business has constantly, constantly improved in terms of our operating efficiency with the help of technology innovation. As Dahai Li has mentioned just now, with the approval of AI large language models, our AI technology will facilitate us in terms of the Writer's Assistant, and also the cover picture generation for our stories in our paid membership business.

那刚才大海提到的这个，涉及到一些深度互动的东西，其实也跟AI相关，但是这个呢，我们认为它其实，不属于这个提效的部分，它是属于这个AI的场景方面的一些，创新。那这一块呢，我们现在......

Harry Xia (CFO)

正在不断地做这方面的尝试，也有许多用户，一部分用户吧，开始进行了使用了。那我们呢，这个一方面呢，其实给用户呢，提供更多，新鲜，这个他们所喜欢的场景。另外一方面呢，也是为了不断提升我们的商业化能力，提升 ARPU 值。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Another aspect I would like to mention is that AI will not only help us to enhance operating efficiency, but it will still help us to create more in-depth interaction with the content of the stories. For example, in interaction with virtual characters in the stories, and in this way, we will create more in-depth content and content consumption, and help to increase our ARPU for our paid membership business.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

至于你提到的其他媒体形式，包括这个短剧，我想，任何媒体，其实都离不开高质量的内容。知乎的严选，其实在我们内容库里面，已经积累了超过10万余部，故事、科幻小说等等这些IP的，这些内容量。其实，对于我们来说，就是任何适合严选用户的媒体形式，我们都会积极地进行尝试。谢谢.

The final aspect I would like to mention is that we are constantly exploring different means of media for our paid membership business. And in our hand selection business, not only the short video dramas you have mentioned that is developing very rapidly in China recently, but we also have about 100,000 number of stories or contents in our paid membership business, and we will constantly innovate our media and to help us to enhance our paid membership business.

Harry Xia (CFO)

This is Harry, the CFO of the company. So thanks for your question. To come to the right answers to our CEO about the short form, the TV drama, we believe it's a huge market with a brilliant potential. As our CEO mentioned, Zhihu is equipped with a very large... We accumulated more than 100,000 stories in the library, so we believe that the market will recognize that Zhihu's IP, the scarcity value of the Zhihu IPs in this very, how to say, unique and booming market. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Vicky Wei with Citi. Please go ahead.

Vicky Wei (VP of Internet Research)

管理层晚上好，谢谢接受我的提问。我有一个小问题是关于我们的广告收入的，想请问我们知乎近期广告业务的进展和双十一的情况是怎么样的？我们应该如何看待明年的展望？谢谢。Thanks management for taking my question. Will management provide some color about the recent progress of the marketing service business and the performance of the Double Eleven performance? How should we think of 2024 outlook for the, for this business? Thank you.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

你好，我是周元，我来介绍这方面的情 况。因为确实呢，也刚过了双十一，那么整体双十一呢，其实我们在我们的营销业务上还是取得了很多的这个进展的，特别是我们，大家比较熟悉的，我们的这个CCS的业务，其实今年呢，也在双十一有了数字上的一些新高。

Thank you, Vicky, for your question. This is Zhou Yuan. To introduce some of the noticeable progresses about Double Eleven campaign, our Content Commerce Solutions business have made some historical marks for the past Double Eleven campaign.

我们的双十一期间呢，我们整体的搜索量呢，它的同比是增长了188%。然后社区的用户啊，他在双十一期间，美端的消费均价超过了CNY 1,300，啊，这个数字呢，其实比之前还是要有所增长。

So for some of the specific progress or metrics we have achieved for the Double Eleven campaign, during the Double Eleven period, our relevant content search volume has increased year-over-year by about 188%. In terms of our average selling price of our commerce products, the average selling price have achieved more than CNY 1,300.

那么从品类上看，就是知乎的一些，大家平时可能比较关注的优势的品类，比如数码呀，电脑啊，它的单量和消费量在双十一期间呢，都是有一个几十%的增长。这里其实还有一些新的品类，比如说这个户外啊，登山啊，旅行装备啊，日化美妆、食品饮料啊，这个呢，其实也有十几%的增长，从单量和消费量都还是比较显著。

In terms of different verticals of our content of our marketing services, firstly speaking, for our IT, 3C and home appliances sectors, the business volume have achieved double-digit growth year-over-year. For other sectors like outdoor and consumption and cosmetic products, the growth is also noticeable.

那我们呢，现在跟这个电商平台呢，有比较深入的合作，就体现在我们的效果类的这个商业产品，它是会进行这个数据上的这个合作和打通。那么到了现在呢，我们其实可以看到，今年的知乎通过合作所产生的这个到店率，我想想要有啥？有成交率，还有这个新客的比例其实都有显著的提升。

We have established cooperation for partnerships with a lot of e-commerce platforms in terms of our data and other aspects. And during the Double Eleven period, the transaction volume and the new client rate for our marketing services have also increased noticeably.

那我们，我具体说两个数字吧，就是我们那个垂直的那个行业的到店率呢，均值是达到6%，然后我们垂直行业的成交率呢，均值是达到8%。这啥意思呢？就是，就是8个在双十一之间看知乎的人，有，就是100个看知乎在双十一期间的人，他有8个最后呢都完成了转化。

For some of the verticals of our marketing services, the conversion rate or the, the conversion rate of these verticals have reached about 8%. So that is to say, among 100 of the people who have visited our platform, about 8 of them have been successfully converted.

然后呢，因为我们今年比较专注于把知乎的这个用户群体定义为我们的新职人用户群体，我们也有一些比较有趣的这个数据的洞察或者发现吧。这第一呢，就是我们今天看到今年悦己类的这个消费，它是成为一个新趋势的。比如说像这个家用咖啡机啊，洗地机啊，微单啊、运动相机啊，在知乎呢基本上都有一个大几十倍的增长。

We have been targeting new generation professionals starting from this year, it's one of our key targeted users, and in this year, we have noticed some trends, interesting trends. For example, some of the lifestyle-related consumptions have increased significantly in our platforms. For example, some of the cameras and washing machines or high-quality IT 3C products.

另外呢，我们在这个社区里面看到这样的现象，其实我们的新职人呢，是更加信任我们的这个专家，包括我们的就刚才所介绍的只要用户的专家的一个背书的，这里涉及比如说产品的配方啊，成分啊，技术相关的这方面的查询。我们看到今年像这个Mini LED，骨传导，还有智能灯光在知乎的增长其实都是倍数级的提升。

Another interesting trend we have noticed is that in our content platform, our users is very reliant on the introduction of the professionals, in their introductions of their different products, especially some detailed metrics of these products. For some of the products, such as LED or different electronic devices, the transaction volume has almost doubled or tripled in our platform.

那我想说的是呢，就是，一方面这个双十一呢，知乎在之前的投入的这个关于电商平台的这个数据建设，其实呢还是收获了比较显著的这个成效。另外一方面呢，也得益于我们在平台基础能力方面的不断的升级，那它体现为我们，更加精准的商业化内容的推送，和这个用户可感知的这个ROI。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Another thing is that thanks to our continuously improved data establishment and our data cooperation with different e-commerce platforms, the data capabilities of our platform has significantly improved, and in this way, our content commerce solutions and content recommendation capabilities have also converted or translated into higher ROI for performance based marketing services.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

从现在的数据上看呢，我们整个Q4的情况是有恢复的这个态势的，所以我们也有比较有信心，明天呢我们在这一块业务上的这个，表现会逐步地恢复，我们也会持续地加大我们在这个社群类、数据类上商业产品的投入。谢谢。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

And finally, at the outlook for next year or Q4 of this year. In the Q4 of this year, we have noticed a recovery trend for our marketing services and with the enhancement of our performance based marketing solutions, we are confident that next year our marketing services will see a more noticeable recovery. Thank you for your questions.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Daisy Chen with Haitong International. Please go ahead.

Daisy Chen (Analyst)

嗨，管理层晚上好，啊，感谢接受我的问题。我的问题是关于教育业务的。对，我们有看到就说这个季度的话，教育同比来看其实增速非常强的。就想问一下管理层的话，对于知乎这次之后几个季度教育业务这里的增速，还有利润率水平的一个展望。I'll translate myself. Thank you for taking my question. My question is about the education business.

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

...We noted that Zhihu's education segment, year-on-year growth rate is quite strong this quarter. So can management share your view on the growth rate and the margins for your, vocational education business for the next few quarters? Thank you.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

好的，谢谢Daisy。我们的教育业务呢，不好意思，刚刚打断了。我们的教育业务呢，其实整体看来它的增速呢还是比较快的，这个85.6%。然后其实从数字上看，我们今年上半年知乎知学堂的这个，就是半年的数据其实就超过了去年的全年，所以同比看呢，是一个非常快的一个增长。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Thank you, Daisy, for your question. This is Zhou Yuan. In terms of our revenue from the vocational training business is rapidly growing. For this quarter, the revenue from vocational training has grown 85% year-over-year compared to the same period last year. And during the first half of this year, the revenue of vocational training business is already comparable to the full year last year.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

那，我们的其实职业教育业务呢，它其实某种意义上来说是满足了我们同一群用户的这个相邻的需求。我们其实是在新职人的这个职业发展，自我成长，包括它相应的资格考试、认证这些方面，然后进行布局和提供服务。那大大小小呢，加起来可能有个几十个品类。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Speaking of the different varieties of the vocational training courses provided by our business, is actually serving the similar demand of the same audience or the same target group of our platform, the new generation professionals. Our courses help them to grow in terms of their personal development and their career development, and also education certification. In our platform, we already have about more than 10 kinds of courses in our platform.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

但是其实这些品类啊，它结合了整个知乎社区的用户的这个成长数据的地图，我们是能够更好地来为大家完成服务的。一会给大家举一个例子。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

We have paid attention to the data in terms of the user growth in our business operations, and I will give a more specific example.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

我们在第三季度，职业培训业务里头呢，我们以ESG和AI技术，其实为代表的职场技能的培训呢，它的增速呢是比较显著的。这个它其实反映了我们知乎社区用户的一个刚需，同时呢，也顺应了整个大市场的需求。比如说AI培训类，从前几个月我们推出，它按照逐月的增长，都是一个大几倍的一个增长。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

In this quarter, the professional training, the vocational training business has seen a very interesting trend for some of the genres provided in our platform, such as ESG or artificial intelligence related courses. It's very catered to the growing demand of the market to fulfill the career growth of our users. For example, the AI related courses have seen almost doubled or tripled growth in the recent months.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

那关于明年的，就是下一步的这个发展重心呢，其实我讲两点：第一呢，还是这个，就是比较优质的这个品类的扩展，和我们AI技术的升级提效。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Moving on to the future, I think our key focus will be focused on the expansion of the different kinds of courses in our platform, and also with the help of AI, our operating efficiency will be enhanced.

Zhou Yuan (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

另外一点呢，就是大家都知道，我们，这个行业呢，因为它的这个数字化率其实并不是很高，我们前期呢，进行了这个技术中台建设这样的投入，所以在明年呢，我们也有比较重要的一个工作，是进行整合提效的工作。那我们相信呢，随着整合提效工作的进行，也会让我们的技术投入逐渐地摊薄。

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

In this industry, we have seen that there is a large room for improvement for the digitalization or enhancement in this industry. What we are doing currently is that we are focusing on integration and operating efficiency enhancement for this segment. As with the help of the business expansion and commercialization, we are confident that the investment or commitment we have made in this segment will be seen in the future.

Harry Xia (CFO)

But just to conclude, we have the vocational training business, okay? So I think this vocational training business will achieve more than like a 20% year-over-year growth in next year. But we are still, as Zhou Yuan, our CEO, mentioned, that we made a technology investment integration in this business. So we believe that is still like in the investment stage of the business. Thank you for your question.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Thomas Chong with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thomas Chong (Managing Director, Head of China Internet)

Thanks, management, for taking my questions. My question is about margin and the OPEX trend. Can management comment about the outlook for our GP margin as well as the OPEX outlook? On that front, can management comment about the timing to achieve breakeven? Thank you.

Harry Xia (CFO)

Hi, Thomas. Sorry, Thomas, thank you for your question. Our outlook for the GP margin, that will be somehow yeah be more certain or more sustainable at around maybe 53-55 percentage points percent, as we are improving our utilization of... As you may know, as we introduced in the remarks that we said that we improve our utilization of the cloud services and focus on improving the operation efficiency for the cost control. And as you can see, we have a shift in our revenue structure, and those two C businesses, for example, like paid membership as well as the vocational training business.

Maybe their margin is not as high as the advertisement business, but going forward, we believe that we will keep that around like the GP margin be between 53%-55%. That's question one. About our OPEX trend, we believe that we have seen some like opportunities that to lower the percent the percent of our sales marketing as a percent percent of our revenue in the next year, because we are a content platform. So we believe that there is still some room space to do more like better cost control in the OPEX spending. And about the breakeven point, we believe that will happen in the next year. Yeah. Thank you for your question.

Thomas Chong (Managing Director, Head of China Internet)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Eileen Lin with China Renaissance. Please go ahead. Eileen, your line is now open.

Eileen Lin (Equity Research Associate)

谢谢管理层，你们能听见我的声音吗？

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

可以的。

Eileen Lin (Equity Research Associate)

I will translate myself. Thanks for taking my question. I have a follow-up question to Thomas question. Can management share more quarter-to-quarter trends for the breakeven timing? And is there any color you can share on the selling and marketing expense?

Harry Xia (CFO)

Hi, Eileen. This is Harry. Thank you for your question. Because we are in the year-end budgeting, work streams, so I think, we will, update with the markets, our progress about the breakeven point. We believe that will be somehow, some quarter, maybe one quarter next year. About the sales marketing, as I mentioned in the previous question, we believe that there is still, still some like percentage point space to lower our, sales marketing as a percentage of our total revenue in the next year and in the next quarter. Yes. That's my answer to your question.

Eileen Lin (Equity Research Associate)

Thanks. Thank you.

Harry Xia (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Iris for any closing remarks.

Iris Lu (IR Manager)

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please contact our IR team directly or PSST Financial Communications. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today.