Zhihu is a Chinese Q&A platform where users can post, answer, like and share questions. It was launched in 2011 and stands out from its competitors by providing high-quality questions and credible answers. Zhihu is primarily used for professional knowledge-sharing and completely edited by its users. It is one of China's largest question-and-answer forums and has been described as a leading online content community where people come to find solutions, make decisions, and gain insights.
Zhihu has grown to be a central hub for professional knowledge, allowing users to interact with experts and companies in a wide range of industries[2]. As of January 2019, Zhihu had accumulated 220 million users who had posted over 130 million answers[3]. According to official data from Zhihu, 98% of their users are older than 18 years, and around 80% of Zhihu users have a bachelor's degree or more.
Compared to other Q&A platforms in China, Zhihu has a more professional and credible image due to its personal profile feature. Users can build their personal profile by providing basic information such as location, education background, industry scope, and working experience. This allows readers to determine whether or not the answers are relevant to their professional fields[1]. Additionally, Zhihu's registered users have surpassed 200 million, with over 26 million daily visits on average. This makes it an ideal platform for promoting brands to a wide audience.
Zhihu is also an effective social media platform for B2B marketing because it has a higher-end base of users than other platforms such as Weibo and WeChat. The main reason for the users to stay on the platform is to research solutions and find answers to different problems. This suits well for specific industries[4]. Furthermore, since the platform gives insight into the specific problems and intimacies shoppers encounter during their customer journeys while also displaying customers’ core desires, it has the potential to become a marketing goldmine — especially for global beauty brands[3].
According to kathrynread.com, Zhihu users can post and answer questions as well as liking or sharing them[2]. As a platform, Zhihu is most similar to Quora and combines the best of a simple keyword search and access to friendly forums[3]. Zhihu is the biggest question-and-answer community and a growing social platform that B2B marketers should leverage for marketing in China[4]. Therefore, it can be concluded that Zhihu is better than WeChat for B2B marketing in China.
