Huayu: When the director changed his major

Chapter 347 The Era of Paid Knowledge
Thinking of this, Cheng Xi said slowly:

“Mr. Zhou, I think your profit-making direction is feasible, but it is not a long-term solution.

Since Zhihu's core competitiveness is its professionalism, its profit direction should also be closely linked to this point.

I've been studying Zhihu, the platform you developed, recently, and I think there's only one path that best suits it, and that's paid learning."

When Zhou Yuan heard the words "knowledge payment", he was shocked.

Their team has been thinking about how to develop a profit model, but they always feel that something is missing and that it cannot reflect differentiated competition.

As soon as the words "knowledge payment" came out, he felt like he had been enlightened.

But after a brief moment of distraction, he quickly returned to reality and raised the question that concerned him most:
"Director Cheng, you are different from what I imagined. Paying for knowledge is indeed a great idea.

However, we Chinese are used to getting news and knowledge for free when surfing the Internet. A large number of Baidu, Tieba, forums, including Weibo, are filled with all kinds of information, all for free.

If you start charging, I'm afraid everyone will abandon Zhihu. You know, it's not easy for us to acquire users."

Zhou Yuan’s worries are not unfounded.

There is currently no habit of paying for this type of question-and-answer system in China.

If you charge money, I might as well ask on Weibo and Tieba.

Free, lots of information.

Not to mention Q&A payment, it now includes music membership, video membership, and novel subscription.
In fact, there are a lot of pirated products in China, and the payment of knowledge in China is even more of a desert.

“Of course, paid knowledge cannot be achieved overnight, but the complexity of information that Mr. Zhou just mentioned is precisely an opportunity for Zhihu to demonstrate its professional value.

Now a lot of information found on Baidu has advertisements embedded in it, even in the medical field. This has led to a large number of people who believe in Baidu being deceived because of the distortion of information.

As the Internet becomes more and more popular, the speed and amount of information generated are exponential. However, there is no professional website in China responsible for professionalizing and quality-enhancing this amount of information. I think this is an opportunity for Zhihu.

I know this may cause some difficulties in the early stages of development, but does Mr. Zhou want to become a small Baidu or forge a unique path for Zhihu? This is why I invited you here; I want to know the answer in person.

Zhihu encountered some bottlenecks and confusions in its early development, which led to a slow development speed.

Cheng Xi didn't mind marking out this path for him in advance.

Because he had indeed been troubled by someone for a long time.

It is not an exaggeration to say that he harms people for money.

When talking about this, Zhou Yuan also knew that his answer would determine whether Cheng Xi would invest.

But there was no way I could just be perfunctory, so I took the money and did whatever I wanted.

This is also not in line with his character and will also damage his business reputation.

After thinking for a long time, Zhou Yuan seemed to have made up his mind and said:
"Director Cheng, I can't answer you right away, but I want to take the second path, my own path."

"Don't worry about you laughing at me. If I had money, I would choose the second option without hesitation, but Zhihu is like my child, and I'm afraid it will die young."

Cheng Xi nodded in understanding.

Then Zhou Yuan asked again:

"Director Cheng, I see you seem very confident about the idea of ​​paid knowledge. If you were to do this, what measures would you take?"

Cheng Xi looked at Zhou Yuan, who looked a little embarrassed, and said with a smile:

"Boss Zhou wants to take my goods away in advance.

That's okay, I can tell you what I think directly.

The first to launch paid content is that there can be many answers under one question, but experts in the field can set fees for their answers. Zhihu can even launch membership viewing services like video websites.

The second is to launch consulting services, where professionals can answer public questions for free, but if you need targeted answers in the private sector, you can pay for consultation, and Zhihu provides the platform.

The third is the integrated publishing of professional content, including Zhihu novels, Zhihu creations, etc. Whether it is paper publishing, electronic publishing or even audio publishing, it can even dig deep into IP content.

I believe these three measures will help Zhihu get back on track as quickly as possible."

Cheng Xi said this so frankly because he had a clear understanding of Zhou Yuan.

If he says one thing in front of you and another behind your back, then you will just admit it directly according to your request.

Get the investment first.

But he did not make a direct decision, which shows that he is a man with his own ideals.

And to be honest, these measures are not a sure-fire solution. I believe they will be able to come up with some ideas later.

What is more critical is whether we can attract investment and how to implement it later.

And how to get through this most difficult plateau period simply requires money and resources.

As it happens, I can give both of them.

At the beginning, Zhou Yuan just wanted to give it a try and asked users with the mindset of a creator.

But I didn’t expect that the more I listened, the more surprised I was. Director Cheng Xi really understood.

It's not just a casual promise.

Not only did they plan a route for "knowledge payment", but they also generously provided a specific implementation plan.

This is exactly the "Longzhong Strategy" that Shu Kingdom needs!

Of course, I am not Liu Bei, Director Cheng is the boss.

"Director Cheng, I didn't expect you to be so knowledgeable about paid knowledge. Seriously, today I finally realized there are truly gifted people in this world!"

Cheng Xi waved his hand and said, "That's all we need to say. Let's talk about investment. You want to raise 5 million yuan and provide a 22% stake, which means Zhihu is valued at 23 billion yuan."

"Let me be frank. The valuation is definitely on the high side. I hope you can convince the shareholders not to prioritize equity so heavily. You can retain 51% of the voting rights, but you should still sell more equity. After all, we're in business."

"With more investment, Zhihu's paid knowledge platform will get on track faster, and you can become the first person to usher in the era of paid knowledge. I believe Mr. Zhou knows whether the small benefits in the short term will be a big benefit in the long run."

Zhou Yuan thought about it and understood what Cheng Xi meant.

If the company is not doing well, no matter how much equity it has, it will be worthless.

"Director Cheng, I understand what you mean. I'll go back and discuss it with my team and will definitely give you a reply as soon as possible."

"And I sincerely thank you for your guidance today."

Cheng Xi: "You're welcome. By the way, if Zuibai Entertainment invests, I will require all Zuibai-related actors to register on Zhihu with their real names."

"I will also answer questions myself, tentatively aiming to answer around 30 questions per month. I believe this will bring a huge wave of traffic to Zhihu."

Zhou Yuan was a little stunned at this time.

Give money, resources and ideas, but don’t deprive yourself of your voting rights and management rights!
Where can I find such a kind and generous sponsor?

At this time, Zhou Yuan had already begun to agree on behalf of his team.

I can't wait to convince them now.

He is well aware of the powerful marketing power of Zuibai. Take Weibo, the learning object he uses every day, for example.

The fact that Yang Zi signed with Zuibai Entertainment easily made it to the top of Weibo's trending searches.

If Zuibai fully cooperates with Zhihu's marketing, even if the payment ratio is low, it will not be able to withstand the large number of people joining.

And with a large amount of money to burn, I believe Zhihu can get through the plateau period.

Achieve profitability as quickly as possible.

As for becoming a leader in the era of knowledge payment, Zhou Yuan feels excited just thinking about it.

When starting a business, making money is one part, but realizing your own value is a bigger part.

Half a month later, Internet professionals were flooded with messages.

[Zuibai Entertainment and Penguin led the investment in Zhihu's C round of financing of 8000 million US dollars. This is the first time that Zuibai Entertainment has entered the Internet field. The reporter interviewed Li Wentao, general manager of Zuibai Entertainment, by phone.

Li Wentao stated that investing in Zhihu is a prudent and resolute decision. "Our company is optimistic about the development of Zhihu's professional Q&A platform and will spare no effort to help Zhihu lead the internet into a new era of paid knowledge."

All major manufacturers are discussing this.

"Hey, did you hear? Zhihu raised $8000 million in funding, led by Zuibai Entertainment!"

"What's going on? Isn't Zuibai Entertainment in the entertainment industry? Why are they investing in the internet industry?"

"Yeah, and with Penguin, are they planning to enter the internet market?"

"The internet is something an entertainment company can handle. There's no need to worry about taking too big a step and getting into trouble."

"But to be honest, I really like Mr. Zuibai's movies, and he has a good eye for women."

"That's true. Have you seen the recent movie 'The Mermaid'? One is pure and the other is hot."

"Tsk tsk, I really envy Director Cheng."

After Zhou Yuan got investment from Cheng Xi, he went to Penguin again.

The final result was that Zuibai Entertainment led the investment with 3 million yuan, Penguin invested 1.5 million yuan, and Sogou invested 7 million yuan.

Zhihu's total funding in its Series C round is RMB 5.2 million.

At the same time, Zhihu's equity was adjusted to:
Zhihu accounts for 40%, Zuibai Entertainment accounts for 24%, Penguin accounts for 12%, Innovation Works accounts for 10.5%, Qiming Venture Partners accounts for 7.5%, and Sogou accounts for 6%.

Zhihu holds 51% of the voting rights.

At this point, Zhihu's Series C financing is completed.

Cheng Xi also kept his promise and asked all the artists and executives of Zuibai Group to join Zhihu the next day.

He even contacted Fan Binbin, Wang Baoqiang, Yang Mi, Li Xiaoran and others to make himself familiar to the crowd.

Everyone answered hundreds of questions that day.

Cheng Xi also joined Zhihu with his real name and answered some questions that interested him.

Most of them are movie-related questions.

Moreover, many of them added the words "I answered it myself", which greatly improved the quality of the answers and gave Zhihu users a taste of the entertainment industry's gossip.

[Thank you for the invitation.]

People just left the set.

About my first film "Life Events".

In addition, many people on Weibo also supported Zhihu, and Zhihu became the talk of the town in an instant.

At this time, Zhihu also published an advertisement according to the copy provided by Cheng Xi:

Are you still troubled by the complicated information?

Are you still spending a lot of time wandering in false information?
Come to Zhihu and we will help you choose the most needed and professional answers. 】

At this point, Zhihu, with the strong support of Zuibai Entertainment, has ushered in a new era of knowledge payment!
(End of this chapter)