Company: ZHIHF
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000729
Chunk: 104

Company: Zhihu Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 104
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 that we are in compliance with currently applicable PRC data privacy and cybersecurity laws and regulations that may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations in all material respects as of the date of this annual report.

Intellectual Property

We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark, domain name, and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. As of March 31, 2025, we had 89 registered patents, 4 pending patent registration applications, 1,255 registered trademarks, 44 pending trademark registration applications, registered copyrights to 63 pieces of software, and 26 domain names (including zhihu. com). As of the date of this annual report, we are not subject to any material claims or allegations relating to intellectual property that will have material adverse effect to our business operations.

Competition

Our competitors mainly include (i) comprehensive online content communities and (ii) other online content communities that specialize in certain content verticals, such as certain lifestyle sharing platforms, live streaming platforms, knowledge sharing platforms, and hobby communities.

China’s online content community industry is highly competitive and rapidly changing in response to the evolving market demand and user preferences. We compete to attract, engage, and retain users, content creators, and merchants and brands. Our competitors may compete with us in a variety of ways, including by providing better content, fulfilling evolving user needs, providing content creation utilities, and conducting brand promotions and other marketing activities. Our content creators are generally free to post their content on our competitors’ platforms, which may divert user traffic or attention from our platform.

We face competition for advertising and marketing spending of merchants and brands, and we compete against other online content communities that offer services similar to our marketing services. We also compete with internet companies that offer similar services, including online content market players who focus on professionally generated content, search service providers, e-commerce platforms, and social networking platforms. We also compete against traditional media outlets, such as television, radio, and print for advertising and marketing budget.

Our paid membership service offerings compete with platforms that provide similar services to paying users, including other online content communities and online content market players focusing on professionally generated content that offer subscription programs or on-demand access to content library.

Our vocational training business faces competition for consumer spending with online or offline training players that focus on professional qualification exams and other vocational education.

In addition to marketing services, paid membership, and vocational training, we also generate revenue through other services, including e-commerce