China’s ‘giant online cafe’ Zhihu struggles to find monetisation model amid rapid growth

By the end of last year, Zhihu had more than 43.1 million cumulative content creators who contributed 315.3 million questions and answers. However, efforts to diversify its revenue streams through new functions, from live-streaming to content e-commerce, have not been very effective. — SCMP

“If Google is like a borderless virtual library, and Facebook is like a never-ending school reunion, then Zhihu is like a massive cafe where millions of people pass through and exchange their views and experiences.”

That was how Zhihu founder Zhou Yuan explained the Quora-like Chinese platform back in 2014.