Zhihu Inc (ZH) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Zhihu Inc. First Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Today's conference is being recorded at this time.

女士們、先生們，感謝大家的耐心等待，歡迎參加知乎公司 2021 年第一季財務業績電話會議。 （操作員指示）此時正在錄製今天的會議。

I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Jingjing Du, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

我想請投資人關係主管杜晶晶女士主持會議。請繼續，女士。

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2021 financial results conference call. Joining us today are Mr. Zhou Yuan, Chairman and CEO of Zhihu; and Mr. Sun Wei, our CFO.

謝謝你，接線生。大家好。歡迎參加我們的 2021 年第一季財務業績電話會議。今天加入我們的有知乎董事長兼執行長週原先生；以及我們的財務長孫偉先生。

Before we start, we would like to remind you that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from those mentioned in today's announcement and this discussion. The company does not undertake any obligation to update this forward-looking information, except as required by law.

在開始之前，我們想提醒您，今天的討論可能包含前瞻性陳述，其中涉及許多風險和不確定性。實際結果和成果可能與今天的公告和本次討論中提到的內容有重大差異。除法律要求外，本公司不承擔更新此前瞻性資訊的任何義務。

During today's call, management will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purpose only. For definition of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of non-GAAP to -- of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please see the earnings release issued earlier today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on our website at ir.zhihu.com.

在今天的電話會議中，管理階層還將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標，僅供比較之用。有關非 GAAP 財務指標的定義以及非 GAAP 與 GAAP 與非 GAAP 財務績效的調節，請參閱今天稍早發布的收益報告。提醒一下，本次會議正在錄製中。此外，本次電話會議的網路直播重播將在我們的網站 ir.zhihu.com 上提供。

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Sun Wei, our CFO. Please?

我現在將電話轉給我們的財務長孫偉先生。請？

Okay. Thank you, Jingjing. I'm pleased to deliver today's opening remarks on behalf of Mr. Zhou Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zhihu Inc. Thank you, everyone, for joining our first earnings call.

好的。謝謝你，晶晶。我很高興代表知乎創辦人兼執行長週原先生致開幕詞。感謝大家參加我們的第一次財報電話會議。

I'm pleased to report that Zhihu delivered a strong set of results in the first quarter of 2021. Our user base and revenue both experienced significant growth during the period. In Q1, our user base continued to grow rapidly. Our average MAUs reached 85 million, representing a year-over-year growth of 38%. This is an impressive growth momentum we successfully managed to maintain. Even after the significant growth we realized in Q1 2020, during which most users spend more time online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our revenue increased significantly, growing 154% year-over-year to RMB 478.3 million. This growth was largely attributable to our commitment to the execution of our content-centric monetization capabilities.

我很高興地向大家報告，知乎在 2021 年第一季取得了強勁的業績。在此期間，我們的用戶群和收入均實現了顯著增長。第一季度，我們的用戶群持續快速成長。我們的平均每月活躍用戶數達到 8,500 萬，較去年同期成長 38%。我們成功地保持了這令人印象深刻的成長動能。儘管我們在2020 年第一季實現了顯著增長（由於COVID-19 大流行，大多數用戶在網上花費了更多時間），但我們的收入仍大幅增長，同比增長154% 至4.783 億元人民幣。這種成長很大程度上歸功於我們致力於執行以內容為中心的貨幣化能力。

Now I will elaborate a bit of our revenue growth by business line. Most impressively, our Content-commerce solution, also known as Zhi+ continues to deliver, expectation beating results, contributing RMB 121 million in revenue during the first quarter. This compares with an annual revenue of RMB 136 million from this business line in 2020. The strong growth momentum of Zhi+ was reflective of the market recognition of its high marketing efficiency among merchants and brands. The number of customers for the business line experienced a tenfold increase compared with Q1 last year.

現在我將按業務線詳細闡述我們的收入成長。最令人印象深刻的是，我們的內容商務解決方案（也稱為「Zhi+」）繼續交付超出預期的業績，在第一季度貢獻了 1.21 億元人民幣的收入。相比之下，2020年該業務線的年收入為1.36億元。Zhi+的強勁增長勢頭反映了其高營銷效率得到了商家和品牌的市場認可。該業務線的客戶數量較去年第一季成長了十倍。

In addition, our growing merchants and brand portfolio for the business line also represents a much broader industry coverage, such as fast-moving consumer goods, education, beauty and personal care as well as daily life services. We see great growth momentum in the business line, delivering optimal marketing efficiency to our customers and contributing great commercial content to our users.

此外，我們業務線不斷增長的商家和品牌組合也代表了更廣泛的行業覆蓋，例如快速消費品、教育、美容個人護理以及日常生活服務。我們看到該業務線的巨大成長勢頭，為我們的客戶提供最佳的行銷效率，並為我們的用戶貢獻精彩的商業內容。

The Zhihu advertising business continued its rapid growth in Q1 2021, effectively overcoming the negative impact of COVID-19 on the Internet advertising sector. In the quarter, our advertising revenue reached RMB 214 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 70%. The increase was mainly due to the growth of brand advertising, which was driven by our growing user base and brand recognition as well as our strong capability in offering tailored marketing solutions to our brand customers. We also saw a steady increase in performance-based advertising revenue.

知乎廣告業務在2021年第一季持續快速成長，有效克服了COVID-19對網路廣告產業的負面影響。本季，我們的廣告收入達到人民幣2.14億元，年增70%。這一成長主要是由於品牌廣告的成長，這是由我們不斷增長的用戶群和品牌認知度以及我們為品牌客戶提供客製化行銷解決方案的強大能力所推動的。我們也看到基於效果的廣告收入穩定成長。

We expect the advertising sector will experience a strong recovery as the implication of COVID-19 pandemic continue to weaken, and we will continue to benefit from both a favorable industry trend as well as our strong recognition among advertisers' target audiences, uniquely strong product offering and execution capability.

我們預計，隨著 COVID-19 大流行的影響持續減弱，廣告業將出現強勁復甦，我們將繼續受益於有利的行業趨勢以及我們在廣告商目標受眾中的高度認可以及獨特強大的產品供應和執行能力。

The revenue growth of Zhihu's paying member is another important engine driving the development of Zhihu's content-centric business model. In the first quarter of 2021, revenue from paid membership was RMB 127 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 127%. The average quarterly paying members reached 3.98 million, representing a 138% increase on a year-over-year basis.

知乎付費會員的收入成長是推動知乎以內容為中心的商業模式發展的另一個重要引擎。 2021年第一季，付費會員收入為1.27億元人民幣，較去年同期成長127%。季度平均付費會員達398萬，年增138%。

The paying ratio reached 4.7% in the quarter. Our paid membership program is a vital component of our community with great growth potential. We will continue to invest in its growth through offering more premium content and improving our paying members' user experience.

本季支付率達4.7%。我們的付費會員計劃是我們社區的重要組成部分，具有巨大的成長潛力。我們將透過提供更多優質內容並改善付費會員的用戶體驗來繼續投資於其成長。

In the first quarter, we continue to expand the coverage and depth of Zhihu's paid content library. By the end of Q1 2021, items of paid content had increased by 190% on a year-over-year basis, with a broader range of categories offered.

第一季度，我們持續擴大知乎付費內容庫的覆蓋範圍和深度。截至 2021 年第一季末，付費內容數量年增 190%，類別更廣泛。

In the first quarter, we continue to fine-tune and execute our other content-centric monetization channels and initiatives, such as Recommended Goodies. In the first quarter, the GMV generated by Recommended Goodies reached RMB 1.5 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of about 214%. With our business benefiting from deep ongoing cooperation with our strategic shareholders, such as Taobao and JD, we expect to make further breakthrough in the e-commerce space.

在第一季度，我們繼續微調和執行其他以內容為中心的貨幣化管道和計劃，例如推薦好東西。一季度，推薦好物產生的GMV達到15億元人民幣，較去年同期成長約214%。受惠於我們與淘寶、京東等策略股東的持續深入合作，我們期望在電子商務領域取得進一步突破。

We continue to deepen our monetization in the education sector as we sought to enhance the quality and depth of our education content offerings, including our self-operated course portfolio, which has expanded from examinations to now also cover courses in finance and business. We have also expanded offering to cover more target audience through a variety of partnerships with off-line third-party vendors. We will continue to seek strategic partners in the education sector to offer great growth potential and product synergies with Zhihu's current offerings.

我們繼續深化在教育領域的貨幣化，努力提高教育內容的品質和深度，包括我們的自營課程組合，從考試擴展到現在還涵蓋金融和商業課程。我們也透過與線下第三方供應商的各種合作夥伴關係擴大了產品範圍，以接觸更多目標受眾。我們將繼續在教育領域尋找策略合作夥伴，以提供巨大的成長潛力並與知乎現有的產品產生協同效應。

Now let's dig a little bit into -- deeper into -- to review our operations across a couple of our key operating perspectives: content, content creation, user growth and monetization capabilities. As a comprehensive online content community, we are dedicated to addressing the needs of people as they seek information and solutions, make decisions or have fund. In Q1, we have maintained lifestyle and consumer content category as our most active and popular category on our platform. This was closely followed by the entertainment category and Zhihu's cornerstone categories, including natural science, engineering, psychology, politics, et cetera, which form the backlog of our content library.

現在，讓我們從幾個關鍵營運角度深入研究我們的營運：內容、內容創建、用戶成長和貨幣化能力。作為一個綜合性的線上內容社區，我們致力於滿足人們尋求資訊和解決方案、做出決策或擁有資金時的需求。在第一季度，我們將生活方式和消費者內容類別保持為我們平台上最活躍和最受歡迎的類別。緊隨其後的是娛樂類別和知乎的基石類別，包括自然科學、工程、心理學、政治等，這些類別構成了我們內容庫的積壓。

Active content creation, especially those focusing on high-quality content, is a vital factor in driving strong growth of our user base and monetization capabilities. To this end, we continuously strive to enhance the breadth and depth of our content offering with strong product development and refined operational initiatives. During Q1, we also concentrated on the strengthening the timeliness of content created in response to trending events and enriching the format of our content offering to include more videos carrying strong Zhihu content features and styles.

積極的內容創作，尤其是那些專注於高品質內容的內容創作，是推動我們的用戶群和變現能力強勁成長的重要因素。為此，我們不斷努力透過強大的產品開發和精細化的營運措施來增強內容提供的廣度和深度。第一季度，我們也專注於加強了針對熱門事件創建的內容的時效性，並豐富了我們的內容提供形式，包括更多具有強烈知乎內容特徵和風格的影片。

Trending topics in Zhihu communities are also attracting an increasing number of themes. In-depth discussions on trending topics have generated significant organic traffic and word-of-mouth recommendation. Zhihu trending topic, in Chinese Zhihu (foreign language) has become a favorite place for in-depth discussion following the current major events. In the first quarter, more than 23,000 trending topics events were discussed on Zhihu. Discussions of these topics increased user activities and interactions on our platform. This further strengthens Zhihu's brand recognition by encouraging users' participation in both spontaneous content creation and in-depth discussion.

知乎社群的熱門話題也吸引越來越多的主題。對熱門話題的深入討論產生了巨大的自然流量和口碑推薦。知乎熱門話題，中文知乎（外文）已成為關注時事重大事件的深度討論的熱門場所。第一季度，知乎上討論的熱門話題事件超過2.3萬個。對這些主題的討論增加了我們平台上的使用者活動和互動。透過鼓勵用戶參與自發性內容創作和深入討論，這進一步增強了知乎的品牌認知度。

Through our 10 years of operations, we have successfully developed a comprehensive system for attracting users and increasing their interactions on our platform. In order to cater to the various demands of users, we encourage our content creators to generate a diverse spectrum of content, making full use of the rich media format our platform has to offer.

經過 10 年的運營，我們成功開發了一套全面的系統來吸引用戶並增加他們在我們平台上的互動。為了滿足用戶的各種需求，我們鼓勵內容創作者充分利用我們平台提供的富媒體格式來產生多樣化的內容。

We also launched creative online campaign for targeted demographics. Highlights of these included content-creation workshop specifically organized for younger and amateur users, and open forum focusing on certain specialized areas for certain group of users.

我們也針對目標族群推出了創意線上活動。其中的亮點包括專門為年輕和業餘用戶組織的內容創作研討會，以及針對某些用戶群的針對某些專業領域的開放論壇。

All these events were well received by users and generated a great volume of content creation and engagement activities. We are focusing on offering a broader range of such events to a great catalog of categories and have received satisfying results. By the end of the first quarter, our content library, measured by the accumulated content pieces on Zhihu platform, grew about 60% year-over-year.

所有這些活動都受到了用戶的好評，並產生了大量的內容創作和參與活動。我們專注於提供更廣泛的此類活動，並已收到令人滿意的結果。截至第一季末，我們的內容庫（以知乎平台累積的內容片數衡量）年增約60%。

Now I will spend a little bit of time on our video-lization initiatives, which is rapidly becoming a core part of our business. [Staying] time spent on video by video viewers has increased by 1.6x in the quarter compared to the same period of last year. We saw very impressive growth in the volume of uploaded mid-form videos in the quarter, increasing 17x on a year-over-year basis. We believe that leveraging our rich content pool, Zhihu is well placed to capitalize video's increasing dominance in online content consumption by adopting a video-lization strategy for our platform. Our accumulated library of premium content will be consumed by ever-larger groups of users, further accelerating our user growth.

現在我將花一點時間討論我們的視訊化計劃，該計劃正在迅速成為我們業務的核心部分。本季影片觀看者在影片上花費的[停留]時間與去年同期相比增加了 1.6 倍。我們看到本季上傳的中型影片數量出現了非常驚人的成長，年增了 17 倍。我們相信，利用我們豐富的內容庫，知乎可以透過為我們的平台採用視訊化策略，充分利用影片在線上內容消費中日益增長的主導地位。我們累積的優質內容庫將被越來越多的用戶群所消費，進一步加速我們的用戶成長。

As part of our video-lization strategy, we launched various video creation utilities and tool kit for our video content creators and have also introduced a dedicated video tab on the app homepage. Going forward, we believe our premium video content will differentiate Zhihu in the market and will be a key driver of growth for the segment. To facilitate our strategy, we will continue to invest in product innovation and introduce more monetization channels for video content services. As we move to the next stage, we are committed to providing more mid-form video content with a differentiating sense of fulfillment for our users.

作為我們視訊化策略的一部分，我們為影片內容創作者推出了各種影片創作實用程式和工具包，並在應用程式主頁上引入了專用的影片標籤。展望未來，我們相信我們的優質影片內容將使知乎在市場上脫穎而出，並將成為該細分市場成長的關鍵驅動力。為了促進我們的策略，我們將繼續投資於產品創新，並為視訊內容服務引入更多的變現管道。當我們進入下一階段時，我們致力於為用戶提供更多具有差異化滿足感的中型影片內容。

Our content creators continue to be highly active on our platform. In the first quarter, there were 3.4 million active content creators per month on average, representing an increase of 100,000 from the fourth quarter of 2020. Our creator community contributed more than 12.8 million pieces of content in March 2021 alone. These achievements reflect our continuous effort in improving the ecosystem for our content creators. We provide our creators with a sophisticated and dedicated platform encompassing various effective creativity tool kits and utilities, such as AI-powered media creation functionality that greatly simplifies the process of making video content.

我們的內容創作者在我們的平台上繼續保持高度活躍。第一季度，平均每月有 340 萬活躍內容創作者，較 2020 年第四季增加 10 萬。光是 2021 年 3 月，我們的創作者社群就貢獻了超過 1,280 萬則內容。這些成就反映了我們在改善內容創作者生態系統方面的持續努力。我們為創作者提供了一個複雜且專用的平台，其中包含各種有效的創意工具包和實用程序，例如人工智慧驅動的媒體創建功能，可大大簡化影片內容的製作過程。

We also offer full-service assistance to the video content creators, through a project we call [Project High End], which includes training courses on video creation, traffic support, cash incentive plan and connectivity with the merchant partners for content monetization. We are excited to see that these efforts have led to a rapid increase in video creation volume over the past 12 months.

我們還透過一個名為「Project High End」的計畫為影片內容創作者提供全方位的服務協助，其中包括影片創作培訓課程、流量支援、現金獎勵計畫以及與商家合作夥伴的內容變現對接。我們很高興看到這些努力導致過去 12 個月內影片創作量的快速增長。

As I just mentioned, mid-form videos increased 17x in the quarter on a year-over-year basis. Notably, we are seeing more and more video content created not only by our top content creators but also from medium level and new content creators, encompassing and increasing coverage ratio among our content creators. Our continuously solidifying partnerships with a growing group of new, talented creators will help us further accelerate the video-lization of our business.

正如我剛才提到的，本季中型影片年增了 17 倍。值得注意的是，我們看到越來越多的影片內容不僅由我們的頂級內容創作者創作，而且還來自中級和新內容創作者，涵蓋並提高了我們內容創作者的覆蓋率。我們不斷鞏固與越來越多的才華橫溢的新創作者的合作夥伴關係，這將幫助我們進一步加速業務的視訊化。

In addition to supporting operations and content creation, we have also provided our content creator community with multiple channels for recognition and ways to monetize their contribution. An example of this is our recent new generation of knowing ceremony, in Chinese, (foreign language). Here, we recognized, awarded and honored 187 outstanding young people who provided premium answers to high-quality topics on our platform. By continuously building partnerships with younger generation and new content creators, we are fortifying our ecosystem by building a pipeline of future premium content to the benefit of our entire community.

除了支援營運和內容創作之外，我們還為內容創作者社群提供多種認可管道以及將其貢獻貨幣化的方式。這方面的一個例子是我們最近推出的新一代中文（外語）認識儀式。在這裡，我們表彰、獎勵並表彰了187位傑出年輕人，他們為我們平台上的高品質主題提供了優質答案。透過不斷與年輕一代和新內容創作者建立合作夥伴關係，我們正在透過建立未來優質內容的管道來強化我們的生態系統，從而造福整個社區。

Zhihu has maintained its industry-leading position in terms of the user acquisition efficiency by adopting a content and technology-driven growth strategy. The acquisition cost per new MAU for Q1 was RMB 37, which represents an optimal level of cost efficiency among other players in the online content community industry. Going forward, we will continue to grow our user base while maintaining user acquisition efficiency.

知乎透過內容和技術驅動的成長策略，在用戶獲取效率方面保持了行業領先地位。第一季每個新增 MAU 的獲取成本為 37 元人民幣，在線上內容社群產業的其他參與者中代表了最佳的成本效率水準。展望未來，我們將持續擴大用戶群，同時維持用戶獲取效率。

On our tenth anniversary in January this year, we launched a series of branding campaigns to further improve Zhihu's brand's awareness in the marketplace centered around our new tagline: if there's a question, there will be an answer, in Chinese, (foreign language). We believe this branding concept clearly reflects Zhihu's value and mission and will enable us to attract a wider range of users for our content community.

今年一月，在成立十週年之際，我們推出了一系列品牌活動，以進一步提高知乎品牌在市場上的知名度，圍繞我們的新口號：有問題，就會有答案，中文（外語）。我們相信這個品牌概念清楚地反映了知乎的價值和使命，並使我們能夠為我們的內容社群吸引更廣泛的用戶。

In the quarter, we launched events, such as [influencers evening with answers], (foreign language), and online new generation of knowing ceremony, (foreign language), aimed at encouraging excellent answers and recognizing them for their contribution to our community. This branding campaign have enhanced Zhihu's brand identity and recognition among online community users. In future, we will continue to invest in our brands, which is a key asset to driving long-term user growth.

本季度，我們推出了【網紅答案之夜】（外語）、線上新生代認識儀式（外語）等活動，旨在鼓勵優秀答案，表彰他們對社區的貢獻。此次品牌推廣活動增強了知乎的品牌形象和線上社群用戶的認知度。未來，我們將持續投資品牌，這是推動用戶長期成長的關鍵資產。

The foundation of our closed-loop ecosystem is trust. Trust in our community enhances the partnerships among content creators, brands and merchants, encouraging an integrated approach to answering user acquisition and fulfilling their needs.

我們閉環生態系的基礎是信任。對我們社群的信任增強了內容創作者、品牌和商家之間的合作夥伴關係，鼓勵採用綜合方法來回答用戶獲取問題並滿足他們的需求。

In the first quarter, the number of content creators that received income on the Zhihu platform increased by 296% compared to the same period of last year. This is a solid evidence of how the growing maturity and success of our content-centric monetization approach has incentivized our content creators.

一季度，在知乎平台獲得收入的內容創作者數量較去年同期增加296%。這有力地證明了我們以內容為中心的盈利方法的日益成熟和成功如何激勵了我們的內容創作者。

In conclusion, we are very pleased with Zhihu's solid growth in the first quarter. In the past 10 years, we have become China's largest Q&A-inspired online content community. Going forward, our growing user base, enriching premium content, expanding content creator base and diversifying monetization channel will continue to make Zhihu well positioned to capitalize opportunities in China's rapidly expanding online content sector.

總而言之，我們對知乎第一季的穩健成長感到非常滿意。在過去的10年裡，我們已經成為中國最大的問答型線上內容社群。展望未來，我們不斷成長的用戶群、豐富的優質內容、擴大的內容創作者基礎和多元化的獲利管道將繼續使知乎處於有利地位，以抓住中國快速擴張的線上內容產業的機會。

Okay. This concludes the remarks of Mr. Zhou Yuan, our Founder and CEO. I will now start with our financial performance review for the first quarter 2021.

好的。我們的創辦人兼執行長周原先生的演講到此結束。我現在開始回顧 2021 年第一季的財務表現。

As a quick review, in the first quarter of 2021, our total revenues experienced solid growth. Our total revenues amounted to RMB 478.3 million, representing 154% year-over-year increase compared with the same period 2020. This was driven by our strong user growth and fast-evolving content-centric monetization model. In the first quarter, our new monetization channel continued to grow and contributed a more balanced portion to our total revenue.

快速回顧一下，2021 年第一季度，我們的總收入經歷了穩健成長。我們的總收入達到人民幣 4.783 億元，較 2020 年同期增長 154%。這是由我們強勁的用戶增長和快速發展的以內容為中心的貨幣化模式推動的。第一季度，我們的新變現管道持續成長，在總收入中的佔比更加均衡。

For example, content-commerce solutions represented 25% of our total revenues in the quarter compared with 0.6% in Q1 2020 and 10% in 2020 full fiscal year, while the contribution of advertising revenue decreased to 44% -- 27% from 66.8% in the same period of last year. Paid membership accounted for 26.5% of our total revenues compared to 29.6% in Q1 2020, and other revenues accounted for the remaining 3.6% for the first quarter 2021.

例如，內容商務解決方案占我們本季總營收的25%，而2020 年第一季為0.6%，2020 年整個財年為10%，而廣告收入的貢獻則從66.8% 下降至44% - 27 %去年同期。付費會員收入占我們總營收的 26.5%，而 2020 年第一季為 29.6%，其他營收佔 2021 年第一季剩餘的 3.6%。

Gross profit for the quarter was RMB 272.7 million, up 248% year-over-year. Our gross margin was also significantly enhanced to 57% in the quarter compared to 42% in Q1 of last year, benefiting mainly from our change in revenue mix with higher contribution from business contributing significantly higher margins, such as content-commerce solutions.

該季度毛利為人民幣2.727億元，較去年同期成長248%。我們的毛利率也從去年第一季的 42% 大幅提高至 57%，這主要得益於我們收入結構的變化，以及內容商務解決方案等利潤率顯著提高的業務的貢獻增加。

Moving on to the cost and expenses. Our costs increased in line with our growth of our business scale, though at a relatively lower pace, delivering a higher gross margin. In particular, increased advertising execution and content-related costs drove much of our 87% year-over-year increase in cost of revenue, which were RMB 205.6 million for the quarter.

繼續討論成本和費用。我們的成本隨著業務規模的成長而增加，儘管速度相對較低，但毛利率較高。特別是，廣告執行和內容相關成本的增加推動了我們收入成本年增 87%，本季收入成本為 2.056 億元。

We also saw increases in cloud services and bandwidth costs incurred in support of the significant increase in user traffic and activity on our platform. As an illustration, our average MAU increased by 38% in the quarter on a year-over-year basis, and we experienced a 138% year-over-year increase in average monthly paying members.

我們也看到雲端服務和頻寬成本的增加，以支援我們平台上用戶流量和活動的顯著增加。例如，本季我們的平均每月活躍用戶數年增 38%，平均每月付費會員較去年同期成長 138%。

Our total operating expenses also increased in support of our growth with the total expenses amounting to RMB 650.1 million. As a percentage of total revenue, it decreased to 129% in the quarter compared with 154% during the same period of last year. This shows a continuously enhancing operational efficiency, which we focused a lot in association with driving our growth.

我們的總營運費用也有所增加，以支持我們的成長，總費用達到 650.1 百萬元。佔總收入的百分比從去年同期的 154% 下降至本季的 129%。這表明營運效率不斷提高，我們非常重視這一點以推動我們的成長。

The main driver of operating expense growth in the quarter was selling and marketing expenses, reflecting various marketing and branding events and campaigns we launched during the same period. We also experienced higher personnel and share-based compensation costs as we continue to invest in talent to support our growth.

本季營業費用成長的主要驅動力是銷售和行銷費用，反映了我們在同一時期推出的各種行銷和品牌活動。隨著我們繼續投資人才以支持我們的成長，我們也經歷了更高的人員和股權薪酬成本。

Loss from operations was RMB 342.5 million, compared to RMB 210.9 million for Q1 2020. And net loss for the quarter was RMB 324.7 million compared to RMB 201.3 million for the same period of last year.

營運虧損為人民幣 3.425 億元，而 2020 年第一季為人民幣 2.109 億元。該季度淨虧損為人民幣 3.247 億元，而去年同期為人民幣 2.013 億元。

Our adjusted net loss, which is a non-GAAP measure that includes share-based compensation expenses, was RMB 193.6 million for the first quarter of 2021. Proceeds from our IPO continue to enhance our balance sheet. As of end of March 2021, the company had cash and cash equivalents, term deposits and short-term investments of RMB 7,960.4 million.

2021 年第一季度，我們的調整後淨虧損（按照非公認會計準則衡量，包括股權激勵費用）為人民幣 1.936 億元。IPO 收益繼續改善我們的資產負債表。截至2021年3月末，本公司擁有現金及現金等價物、定期存款及短期投資人民幣79.604億元。

I will make a brief remark on our financial outlook. Looking into the second quarter of 2021, the company expects that our total revenue will be in the range of RMB 622 million and RMB 627 million. This only reflects our current and preliminary estimate and is subject to any change due to factors, including those that are beyond our control.

我將簡要評論我們的財務前景。展望2021年第二季度，公司預計總收入將在人民幣6.22億元至人民幣6.27億元之間。這僅反映了我們當前和初步的估計，並可能因因素（包括我們無法控制的因素）而發生任何變化。

This concludes our earnings remarks. We will take questions from the audience. Could the operator please open the line and let us commence our Q&A session.

我們的財報評論到此結束。我們將回答觀眾的提問。請接線生打開線路，讓我們開始問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Piyush Mubayi from Goldman Sachs.

（操作員指令）我們的第一個問題來自高盛的 Piyush Mubayi。

Congratulations on your numbers as well as the listing a couple of weeks ago. My first question centers around your MAU progression, which we note has done very well. May I ask you to talk through the MAU as of the end of the quarter? And where are you seeing that growth come through? And if possible, could you reflect on the trajectory you're observing at the end of the quarter and whether that quarter -- that trajectory can be maintained at that pace through the rest of the year potentially? That's my first question.

恭喜您的號碼以及幾週前的清單。我的第一個問題圍繞著您的每月活躍用戶數進展情況，我們注意到您的進展非常好。我可以請您談談截至季末的月活躍用戶數嗎？您認為這種成長來自哪裡？如果可能的話，您能否反思一下您在本季末觀察到的軌跡，以及該季度是否可以在今年剩餘時間內以這種速度保持這一軌跡？這是我的第一個問題。

My second question. At the time of the IPO, you talked about -- you disclosed what the total visitor number was. And I wonder if we could go back and get a feel for how that visitor number has changed potentially since the last time we saw that number reported in the filings.

我的第二個問題。在首次公開募股時，您談到——您披露了訪客總數是多少。我想知道我們是否可以回去了解一下自上次我們在文件中報告的數字以來，訪客數量可能發生的變化。

[Interpreted] The MAU growth in Zhihu has always been driven by our content. We have a very high percentage of new users are coming from the content created by the organic traffic. And in terms of performing, our new users, we noticed that they are presenting the same features and behaviors generally. However, relatively speaking, I should say, the female new users are giving us a higher percentage on a year-on-year basis.

【解讀】知乎的月活躍用戶數增長一直是由我們的內容所驅動的。我們有很高比例的新用戶來自自然流量創建的內容。在表現方面，我們的新用戶注意到他們通常呈現相同的功能和行為。不過，相對而言，我應該說，女性新用戶的比例比去年同期更高。

Okay. In terms of our content, our ecosystem has been growing very sustainably, and we are well penetrating into a wider range of topic areas. In different scenarios, we are able to meet the demand from various uses. We have the best-in-class content as well as content creators in 10 knowledge areas. And we have been maintaining our advantage in our industry all the time.

好的。就我們的內容而言，我們的生態系統一直在非常永續地發展，我們正在很好地滲透到更廣泛的主題領域。在不同的場景下，我們能夠滿足不同用途的需求。我們在 10 個知識領域擁有一流的內容和內容創作者。我們一直保持著我們在行業中的優勢。

I can give you some example. For instance, our unique visitor number increased by 220% in material science and by 560% in microeconomics year-on-year. Whereas at the same time, we are also well positioned in other topic areas such as hobbies. For instance, in ACG, in 3Cs and in gaming, the content and content creators are also very active. These help us to attract more younger users. Our percentage -- the percentage of users under 25 years old are also on the rise.

我可以舉一些例子給你聽。例如，材料科學領域的獨立訪客數量年增了 220%，微觀經濟學領域的獨立訪客數量較去年同期增加了 560%。同時，我們在嗜好等其他主題領域也處於有利地位。例如二次元、3C、遊戲領域，內容和內容創作者也非常活躍。這些有助於我們吸引更多年輕用戶。我們的比例－25歲以下的使用者比例也在上升。

Okay. In terms of -- on top of knowledge sharing and interest discussion, we are also helping our users to solve their actual problems. These kind of content are also on the rise. For instance, we have a very popular topic that is about preparation for the exam for graduation schools in China. Right now, every day, there are more than 1 million users looking at those information. And we're also helping our users to gain life skills, such as cooking, and we are also providing solutions for the newbies in the workplace. So these will help our users not only to share their views about their interest, but also solving their actual problems in their work and life.

好的。在知識共享和興趣討論之外，我們還幫助用戶解決他們的實際問題。此類內容也不斷增加。例如，我們有一個非常熱門的話題，是關於準備中國畢業學校的考試。目前，每天都有超過 100 萬用戶查看這些資訊。我們也幫助使用者獲得生活技能，例如烹飪，我們也為職場新手提供解決方案。因此，這些不僅可以幫助我們的用戶分享他們對自己興趣的看法，還可以幫助他們解決工作和生活中的實際問題。

We see that in both retention rates and impact, these new content are giving us very nice numbers in terms of users that we have. And we will continue to invest and gaining more and more users this way. Thank you.

我們看到，無論是在保留率還是影響力方面，這些新內容都為我們提供了非常好的用戶數量。我們將繼續投資並以這種方式獲得越來越多的用戶。謝謝。

As to your second question, the monthly viewers we are having right now is 460 million, maintain a stable level. And also, the percentage of MAU to monthly viewers are also on a state of -- on a stable uprising trajectory. Thank you.

關於你的第二個問題，我們現在的每月觀看人數是4.6億，保持穩定水準。此外，每月活躍用戶數佔每月觀看人數的比例也處於穩定的上升軌道。謝謝。

The next question comes from Alex Xie from Crédit Suisse.

下一個問題來自瑞士信貸銀行的 Alex Xie。

Congratulations on very good results. I'll ask my questions firstly in Chinese and translate in English by myself. (foreign language)

祝賀取得非常好的結果。我會先用中文提問，然後自己翻譯成英文。 （外語）

My first question will be about the progress and -- in the video-ilization strategy. Would you be able share some more figures about the scale of video consumption and the production? Also, what will be the key initiatives to further drive penetration of video in MAU and content creators.

我的第一個問題是關於視訊化策略的進展。您能否分享更多有關影片消費和製作規模的數據？此外，進一步推動影片在每月活躍用戶和內容創作者中滲透的關鍵舉措是什麼？

And my second question is about the GP margins breakdown and outlook. If you can show us about the segment, business segment GP margins, such as for example, GP margins for content-commerce solutions and the membership business. Also, how should we think about the GP margin trend in the rest of this year?

我的第二個問題是關於毛利率的細目和前景。如果您可以向我們展示該細分市場、業務細分市場的 GP 利潤率，例如內容商務解決方案和會員業務的 GP 利潤率。另外，我們該如何看待今年剩餘時間的毛利率趨勢？

[Interpreted] Well, thank you. Mr. Zhou Yuan will address your first question about video strategy. Well, video content is a very important part in our ecosystem. And in the past couple of months, you see that our volume of video, both in terms of creation and consumption, increased significantly. For those videos that are over 1 minute long, the daily uploading volume increased by 17x on the past quarter. And the average consumption on video also increased by over 60%.

[已翻譯] 嗯，謝謝。週元老師將解答您第一個問題關於視訊策略的問題。嗯，視訊內容是我們生態系統中非常重要的一部分。在過去的幾個月裡，你會看到我們的影片量，無論是創作量還是消費量，都顯著增加。對於超過 1 分鐘的視頻，日上傳量較上季增長了 17 倍。影片的平均消費量也成長了60%以上。

Our Zhihu community is very open and highly accommodating to different kinds of content creators, different kinds of media formats and different kinds of user groups. So right now, you see video penetrated DAU is now over 30%. People do enjoy watching video on user platform.

我們的知乎社群非常開放，高度包容不同類型的內容創作者、不同類型的媒體格式和不同類型的使用者群體。所以現在，你會看到影片的 DAU 滲透率已經超過 30%。人們確實喜歡在用戶平台上觀看影片。

And also, as we are progressing in our product as well as technology innovation, video is going to be a very important element to content creators as one of their creation tools. And we believe that every answer on Zhihu should have a video version. Text and image as well as video are just part and parcel of our entire content library.

此外，隨著我們在產品和技術創新方面的進步，影片將成為內容創作者的一個非常重要的元素，作為他們的創作工具之一。我們相信知乎上的每個答案都應該有視訊版本。文字、圖像以及影片只是我們整個內容庫的重要組成部分。

As you can see in our community, video is presenting very nice growth rate. And also the content as well as the categories are looking very healthy. On the other hand, in the entire industry of video, mid-from video is still at a very early stage. If you look at many other similar content communities, if we put all the uploading volumes of mid-form videos altogether, the daily uploading volume is only by hundreds of thousands. And we believe that going forward, this volume will exploded to about -- to by millions on a daily basis. So we believe that this sector still has enormous potential. And we believe that we will be able to see more and more quality video content and video content creators in the community of Zhihu.

正如您在我們的社區中看到的，影片呈現出非常好的成長率。而且內容和類別看起來都非常健康。另一方面，在整個影片產業中，中階影片還處於非常早期的階段。如果你看看其他很多類似的內容社區，如果把所有中型影片的上傳量加起來，每天的上傳量就幾十萬。我們相信，展望未來，這一數量將激增至每天數百萬。所以我們相信這個行業仍然有巨大的潛力。而我們相信，我們一定能夠在知乎社群中看到越來越多的優質影片內容和影片內容創作者。

Thank you. And I also want to mention the ecosystem that we're building for video development. Unlike many other platforms, our community's video strategy is driven by our ecosystem, which is very healthy that promotes the good quality to come out from the rest. And this will again will import a healthy atmosphere that we are enjoying in our community. In Q1, we actively taking some measures to control the low-quality content, meaning that it will give more exposure opportunities for better quality video. And also at the same time, our content creators for better quality videos are enjoying a wider space for their creation. And in the second quarter, we expect -- we hope to make some structural changes to the content videos as well as we further build on our ecosystem so that as an entirety, our video business will continue to grow very fast.

謝謝。我還想提一下我們正在為影片開發建構的生態系統。與許多其他平台不同，我們社區的視訊策略是由我們的生態系統驅動的，該生態系統非常健康，可以促進優質內容的脫穎而出。這將再次帶來我們在社區中享受的健康氛圍。在第一季度，我們積極採取一些措施來控制低品質的內容，這意味著這將為更好品質的影片提供更多的曝光機會。同時，我們追求更高品質影片的內容創作者也享受了更廣闊的創作空間。在第二季度，我們預計 - 我們希望對內容影片進行一些結構性改變，並進一步建立我們的生態系統，以便作為一個整體，我們的視訊業務將繼續快速成長。

Yes. This is CFO of the company, Sun Wei. I'll try to answer the second question from Alex, regarding the gross profit margin. I'll speak in Chinese and [Grace] will help on translation. (foreign language)

是的。這是公司的CFO，孫偉。我將嘗試回答亞歷克斯的第二個問題，關於毛利率。我會用中文發言，[Grace] 會幫忙翻譯。 （外語）

[Interpreted] Thank you. [This is from CFO Sun Wei of Zhihu], and the answer to the gross margin is by 2021, our Q1 gross margin stood at 57%, which represented a very significant increase over the same period last year. The first reason for that is the economy of scale that we are enjoying as a result of increased revenue that we are seeing from our business. Both of our Zhi+ and paid membership business represented over 100% increase, whereas our advertisement grew by over 70%.

[已翻譯] 謝謝。 【知乎CFO孫偉】毛利率的答案是，到2021年，我們第一季的毛利率是57%，比去年同期有非常顯著的成長。第一個原因是我們因業務收入增加而享受到規模經濟。我們的Zhi+和付費會員業務成長超過100%，而我們的廣告成長超過70%。

Second reason is the significant mix change that you're seeing in our revenue. For instance, for our Zhi+ business in 2020 first quarter accounted for only 1% of our total revenue, whereas by the Q1 2021, it's accounting for 25%. And our revenue contribution from paid membership and advertisement stood at 67% and 30%, respectively, in the first quarter of 2020; whereas, the percentage has now dropped to 45% and 26%, respectively. So therefore, you see that our higher-margin business that is Zhi+ is contributing more to our gross margin as a whole.

第二個原因是您在我們的收入中看到的重大組合變化。例如，我們的Zhi+業務在2020年第一季僅占我們總收入的1%，而到2021年第一季度，它佔了25%。 2020年第一季度，我們來自付費會員和廣告的營收貢獻分別為67%和30%；而現在這一比例已分別下降至 45% 和 26%。因此，你會看到我們的利潤率較高的業務「Zhi+」對我們整體毛利率的貢獻更大。

And the third reason is that we keep very good control on our fixed cost items. For instance, the cost for brand -- bandwidth as well as for our servers are not increasing at the same place as we are increasing our user base and our business. Therefore, due to the economy of scale that we're getting from the fixed items of costs, we are also registering a higher gross margin. So the above-mentioned 3 reasons are contributing to a higher gross margin this quarter.

第三個原因是我們對固定成本項目保持了良好的控制。例如，品牌——頻寬以及伺服器的成本並沒有隨著我們用戶群和業務的增加而增加。因此，由於我們從固定成本項目中獲得的規模經濟，我們也獲得了更高的毛利率。因此，上述三個原因導致本季毛利率較高。

Going forward, I think in the next couple of quarters, we might see some slight changes in our gross margin level as we are seeing very nice perspectives in terms of the video content that we have. Therefore, we will invest a little bit more in encouraging the video creation and content creators by compensating them more on their content creation and video format. Thank you.

展望未來，我認為在接下來的幾個季度中，我們的毛利率水準可能會出現一些細微的變化，因為我們在影片內容方面看到了非常好的前景。因此，我們將在鼓勵影片創作和內容創作者方面投入更多的資金，透過在內容創作和影片格式方面給予他們更多的補償。謝謝。

The next question is from Binbin Ding from JPMorgan.

下一個問題是來自摩根大通的丁彬彬。

(foreign language) I'll translate myself. So my question -- I have 2 questions. My first question is about the content-commerce solution. So can management share some colors in terms of the drivers behind the strong growth in the first quarter? For example, what are the key industries or notable business customers who have contributed to the growth? And how does operating metrics, such as click-through rate, the CPM look like in the first quarter? And how should we look at the trend in the rest of 2021?

（外語）我自己翻譯。所以我的問題是──我有兩個問題。我的第一個問題是關於內容商務解決方案的。那麼管理層能否分享一些第一季強勁成長背後的驅動因素呢？例如，對成長做出貢獻的關鍵產業或著名企業客戶是什麼？第一季的點擊率、每千次曝光費用等營運指標如何？我們該如何看待2021年剩餘時間的趨勢？

And my second question is about your sales and marketing expenses, which nearly tripled in the first quarter of '21 compared to the same period last year. Can management elaborate on the key investment areas of the investment of the sales and marketing investment? And how should we look at the trend in the following quarters?

我的第二個問題是關於你們的銷售和行銷費用，與去年同期相比，21 年第一季幾乎增加了兩倍。管理階層能否詳細說明銷售和行銷投資的重點投資領域？又該如何看待接下來幾季的走勢？

[Interpreted] Thank you. Let me address the first question on content-commerce solution first. Well, actually, in Q1, content-commerce solution beat our expectations for that, which registered a revenue of CNY 121 million accounting for about 89% of the number that we got from the last year entirely, increasing by over 100% and even on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

[已翻譯] 謝謝。首先讓我解決關於內容商務解決方案的第一個問題。嗯，實際上，第一季度，內容商務解決方案超出了我們的預期，收入為 1.21 億元人民幣，占我們去年整體收入的 89% 左右，增長超過 100%，甚至比去年同期還要高。按季度計算。

As for the drivers behind the content-commerce solution, I would say that we are very happy to see that both the number of the brands and merchants on our platform are on the rise as well, increased by about 10x if you compare the number in Q1 2020. And because they are larger volumes of merchants working on our community platform, we are seeing very nice price out of the bidding from the merchants. Therefore, we have very nice CPC numbers as well. So in conclusion, I think I would say that both the volume as well as the price are the drivers behind our CCS growth, content-commerce solutions. Thank you.

至於內容商務解決方案背後的驅動因素，我想說，我們很高興看到我們平台上的品牌和商家數量也在增加，如果您比較一下數字，增加了約 10 倍。2020 年第一季。由於在我們的社群平台上工作的商家數量較多，我們看到商家的出價非常優惠。因此，我們的每次點擊費用也非常好。所以總而言之，我認為數量和價格都是我們 CCS 成長和內容商務解決方案背後的驅動力。謝謝。

In terms of industry concentration, we see very nice popularities from the sectors, such as FMCG, education, beauty, progress, 3Cs and automobiles, whereas we're seeing very nice conversion rate from the CCS that we're having. And I would say for FMCG, education and beauty, they have been the biggest contributors to our merchant base and brand base.

從產業集中度來看，我們看到快速消費品、教育、美容、進步、3C和汽車等產業的受歡迎程度非常高，而我們所擁有的CCS的轉換率非常高。我想說，對於快速消費品、教育和美容來說，它們是我們商業基礎和品牌基礎的最大貢獻者。

As to your second question, the increase of sales and marketing expenses in our Q1 -- well, I should say that in January, we were celebrating the tenth anniversary of Zhihu as a community. Therefore, we launched a number of brand campaigns heavily in the country, such as my party adventure as well as the award ceremony for new generation of knowing, which is very welcomed by the community as a whole. And this helped us a lot in building our brand recognition, and that is why we see a jump in terms of our sales and marketing expenses, especially in this Q1.

至於你的第二個問題，第一季銷售和行銷費用的增加——嗯，我應該說，一月份，我們正在慶祝知乎作為一個社群的十週年。因此，我們在國內大力開展了多項品牌活動，例如《我的派對歷險記》、《知新一代頒獎典禮》等，受到了社會各界的熱烈歡迎。這對我們建立品牌認知度有很大幫助，這就是為什麼我們看到銷售和行銷費用大幅成長，特別是在第一季。

That said, I should say that we're still very certain in terms of our sales and marketing expenses and looking at the efficiency of our marketing dollars spend. The CAC of our MAU stood -- still stood at RMB 37 per MAU and, therefore, are still keeping at a very low level. Thank you.

也就是說，我應該說，我們對銷售和行銷費用以及行銷資金支出的效率仍然非常確定。我們的每月活躍用戶的 CAC 仍為每月活躍用戶 37 元人民幣，因此仍保持在非常低的水平。謝謝。

The next question is from [Fei Qi] from CICC.

下一個問題是來自中金公司的[Fei Qi]。

(foreign language) I'll briefly translate myself. Congrats on your strong financial performance. My question is regarding the drivers of the advertising business. Since it is said that brand ads have strong performance, how do you view and project the growth of performance at low ratio and in CPM, and maybe in terms of advertisers? Is it because that you have gained more share in their accounts or there are more KA or SME clients?

（外語）我自己簡單翻譯一下。恭喜您強勁的財務業績。我的問題是關於廣告業務的驅動因素。既然說品牌廣告效果強勁，那麼您如何看待和預測低倍率、CPM、以及廣告主方面的效果成長？是因為你在他們的帳戶中獲得了更多的份額還是有更多的KA或SME客戶？

[Interpreted] Thank you for the question. Well, our advertisement business revenue increased by 70% compared with the previous year. That was mainly contributed by our brand advertisement. It used to account for the majority part of our advertisement income. That is because we have launched a new product as well as helping our brand advertisers building more values on our community by giving them better, high-quality content that would accumulate in our communities, and our advertisement income mainly comes from the KAs.

[解釋]謝謝你的提問。那麼我們的廣告業務收入比上年增長了70%。這主要是由我們的品牌廣告所貢獻的。它曾經占我們廣告收入的大部分。因為我們推出了新產品，同時也幫助我們的品牌廣告主為我們的社群創造更多的價值，為他們提供更好的、高品質的內容，這些內容會在我們的社群中累積起來，而我們的廣告收入主要來自於KA。

Our performance as -- is accounting for less of a percentage versus the brands ads, which is pretty much in line with our development strategy. And we hope to work even harder for the brand advertisement and trying to gain more of their budget on advertisement.

與品牌廣告相比，我們的表現所佔的比例較小，這與我們的發展策略非常一致。我們希望在品牌廣告上更努力，爭取更多的廣告預算。

As for the ad load, going forward, we will keep our ad load unchanged. Instead, we will rely on the increase on our user base, the better and higher recognition of our Zhihu as a community and also diversifying our format so that there will be more forms for consumption on our -- of advertisement on our community. Thank you.

至於廣告負載，未來我們將維持廣告負載不變。相反，我們將依靠我們的用戶基礎的增加，我們的知乎作為一個社區的更好和更高的認可，以及我們的形式的多樣化，以便我們社區上的廣告消費形式會更加豐富。謝謝。

Due to time constraints, that concludes today's question and answer session. At this time, I will turn the conference back to Jingjing for any additional or closing remarks.

由於時間關係，今天的問答環節到此結束。此時，我將把會議轉回晶晶進行補充或結束演講。

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please contact our IR team directly or TPG investment relationship. Thank you.

再次感謝您今天加入我們。如果您還有任何疑問，請直接聯絡我們的IR團隊或TPG投資關係。謝謝。

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please contact our IR team directly or TPG Investor Relations. Thank you.

再次感謝您今天加入我們。如果您還有任何疑問，請直接聯絡我們的投資者關係團隊或 TPG 投資者關係部。謝謝。

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

[本文字記錄中標記為[已翻譯]的部分是由現場通話中的口譯員朗讀的。]