Company: ZHIHF
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000729
Chunk: 240

Company: Zhihu Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 240
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Item 4.INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY
A.History and Development of the Company
In late 2010, our founder, Mr. Yuan Zhou, founded Zhihu. Between 2010 and 2012, Zhihu was a by-invitation-only Q&A community. Zhihu opened up registration to the general public in 2013 and has since grown into one of the largest comprehensive online content communities in China. We started to offer online advertising in 2016, introduced paid content in 2018, started our paid Yan Selection membership program in the first half of 2019, and we formally launched our content-commerce solutions in early 2020. We have continued to expand our content-centric monetization channels since 2020, including offering vocational training. At the beginning of 2023, we optimized our organizational structure by combining our advertising and content commerce solutions services into a “marketing services” business, offering our merchants and brands more effective and comprehensive marketing solutions. 
We established Zhihu Technology Limited under the laws of the Cayman Islands as our offshore holding company in May 2011, and later changed its name to Zhihu Inc. in October 2020.
In June 2011, we established Zhihu Technology (HK) Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of our Cayman Islands holding company, in Hong Kong as our intermediary holding company. In the same month, we established Zhizhe Tianxia in China. In January 2012, Zhihu Technology (HK) Limited established Zhizhe Sihai, a wholly-owned subsidiary in China. In January 2018, we established Beijing Zhihu Network Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhihu Technology (HK) Limited, in China.
In July 2018, we gained control over Zhizhe Tianxia through Zhizhe Sihai by entering into a series of contractual arrangements with Zhizhe Tianxia and its shareholders. We replaced such contractual arrangements with the contractual arrangements currently in effect in December 2021.
In September 2021, we gained control over Shanghai Pinzhi by entering into a series of contractual arrangements through Shanghai Zhishi with Shanghai Pinzhi and its shareholders. In November 2021, we gained control over Shanghai Biban Network Technology Co., Ltd., or Shanghai Biban, and its subsidiaries by entering into a series of contractual arrangements through Shanghai Paya Information Technology Co., Ltd. with Shanghai Biban and its shareholders; in June 202