Zhihu

Zhihu
Type Private
Headquarters Beijing, China
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Yuan Zhou
Shenshen Li
Jixing Huang[1]
Key people Yuan Zhou (CEO)
Slogan(s) Share your knowledge with the World!
Website zhihu.com
Alexa rank Increase 208 (February 2016)[2]
Type of site Knowledge markets, Q&A software
Registration Required
Available in Chinese
Launched January 2011
Current status Active

Zhihu is a Chinese question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by the community of its users. It has a similar product model as Quora. The company was founded on January 26, 2011. The number of registered users of Zhihu had exceeded 10 millions by the end of 2013,[3] and reached 17 millions as of May 2015[4] with 250 million monthly page views.[5]

In Classical Chinese, "Zhihu" means "Do you know?". Different from Quora, Zhihu is a media instead of a platform.[6] That is to say, Zhihu focuses more on delivering information; Quora focuses more on discussion. Chinese users nowadays increasingly resort to Zhihu for expert knowledge and insights into various topics.[7]

History

Starting from August 2010, Zhihu was under development.[8] It went through a closed beta test at the end of December 2010. The final product went on line on January 26, 2011. It has reportedly received fundings from Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation Works, Sequoia Capital and Qiming Ventures.[9][10][11]

Product Operation

At the beginning, user registration is almost invitation-only, with referral needed from a couple hundred of registered users. Otherwise new users had to apply to join, by filling a good amount of personal information and waited for reply.[12] This strategy at Zhihu's early stage insures a great number of high quality as well as professional questions and answers, which attracts more and more users to the community.

Zhihu started open registration in March 2013, which increased users from 400 thousand to 4 million in less than one year. Registered users are able to ask questions in the community while inviting specific users to answer. Each user is able to check his/ her Zhihu followees' updates(Likes, Answers, Following questions). Users are capable to check the status of their own following questions or activities of their answers and comments on the home page.

Impact

Zhihu is a highly interactive with best responses upvoted by others. It features high-profile Chinese entrepreneurs and public intellectuals among its users, increasingly providing Chinese netizens with a space for a rich discussion.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Who founded Zhihu?" (in Chinese). Zhihu. 2011-03-14. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  2. ↑ "Zhihu.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  3. ↑ Zhu, Xudong (13 July 2013). "Zhihu has over 10 million monthly active users" (in Chinese). QQ.com. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "知乎创始人周源：我也曾是正宗程序猿" (in Chinese). Sohu. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "知乎：用知识串联世界" (in Chinese). Xinhuanet. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  6. ↑ Wang, Faye. "How does the Chinese Q&A website Zhihu (知乎) compare to Quora?". Retrieved 27 Nov 2013.
  7. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  8. ↑ 张亮. 知乎从策划到上线花费了多少时间呢？ (in Chinese). 知乎. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  9. ↑ Anonymous. "How does the Chinese Q&A websiZhihu (知乎) compare to Quora?". Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  10. ↑ 李开复爆料创新工场已投资问答社区网站知乎 (in Chinese). QQ.com. 28 March 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  11. ↑ 启明创投投资企业：媒体和互联网 (in Chinese). 启明创投. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  12. ↑ Hu, Wei. "提交 "加入知乎申请" 后多久才能获得邀请". Retrieved 28 May 2011.
  13. ↑ Wong, Sue-lin. "In China, A New Space for New Questions". Retrieved 16 January 2014.

External links

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