image credit: Bamboo Works
Key Takeaways:
Knowledge-sharing site operator Zhihu reported its rate of revenue decline slowed sharply in the first quarter, as it focuses on areas where it believes it has an edge over AI
The company's focus on discussion for leading-edge topics and offline events could have big potential, though its online novel and video initiative could face stiff competition
How do you outfox AI? You get to the source of the original information first, before AI can find it. That's one of several new approaches being tried by Zhihu Inc. (NYSE:ZH) (2390.HK), a knowledge-sharing community sometimes called the "Quora of China," as it tries to stay one step ahead of AI large language models (LLM) that are stealing its business.
While Zhihu can't offer much advantage over AI for people seeking things like weekend trip suggestions, it believes it can offer an edge in emerging topics like next-generation large model development, AI-assisted video generation and model iteration. It does that by hosting discussions and bringing related experts onto its platform as the topics are still emerging, creating a category of "verified honored creators" just for such people.
Zhihu is also turning to a few more "human-centric," activities where AI has difficulty competing to boost its sagging businesses whose revenue have been falling for the last two years. Its most advanced initiative on that front is building up a new platform, called Yanyan Story, separate from its core Q&A business, offering user-generated short-form novels and videos that compete with a lot of similar platforms already out there.
Last but not least, Zhihu is also drawing on offline events to appeal to users who crave real human connections. In a nod to this need, the company repeatedly referred to terms like "real people," "real users" and "real user community," in its first quarter results released last week. Somewhat ironically, in that regard, opening remarks usually delivered by Zhihu founder and Chairman Zhou Yuan were delivered by his AI doppelganger "Victor Zhou" on the call, though the real Zhou Yuan answered ...
