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Tech Planet reported on Tuesday, 19 April that Zhihu, a leading online Q&A platform to be listed in Hong Kong, will lay off between 60% and 70% of its employees within its video department, while the remaining staff will be transferred to the firm’s community and membership departments.
This is the third time Zhihu has officially denied layoffs within its video department this year, stating the video business is an imperative part of the platform’s content ecology.
Why it matters
According to Tech Planet, Zhihu might have lost the war in the video business. Compared to short video platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Station B, Zhihu Video apparently has less differentiated content and weaker monetization ability.
Recently Zhihu has been reducing the weight of videos, and users see that the frequency of videos is decreasing on their feed. Tech Planet also revealed that Zhihu has recently tested a new version in grayscale.
Context
Zhihu was established in December 2010 and listed on the NYSE in March 2021. After many rounds of financing, the company has grown from a closed community with a small number of users to the largest online Q&A community in China with monthly active users exceeding 100 million.
In October 2020, Zhihu launched a package plan including 500 million yuan ($78 million) in cash incentives and tens of billions of traffic support to attract video creators.
