Share count
240Mpeak FY2022
← All companies ← ZGN Manual ZIM → ← ZG Commercial Services & Supplies
ZH, Zhihu Inc.
We are a Cayman Islands exempted company and our affairs are governed by our memorandum and articles of association, as amended from time to time, the Companies Act of the Cayman Islands, which we refer to as the Companies Act below, and the common law of the Cayman Islands.
Registered Office and Objects Pursuant to Article 2 of our eleventh amended and restated memorandum of association, our registered office is at the offices of Maples Corporate Services Limited, P.O.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
CN¥2.7B
−23.6% YoY · 15% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue CN¥2.7B 5-yr avg CN¥3.4B
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- Situation
- Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand. Net current asset value. Current assets alone exceed every liability combined, and the surplus is most of the balance sheet: the shape Graham called a net-net.
- What moves the needle
- Operating margin has run around −44% through the cycle on a 55% gross margin, the operating line in the red even at its best — so the lever is whether the spending below the gross line can come down enough to clear a profit: revenue growth against the cost curve, and the cash runway until it does. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −92%, above 15% in 0 of 5 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2019–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMDec 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||
| CN¥671M | CN¥1.4B | CN¥3.0B | CN¥3.6B | CN¥4.2B | CN¥3.6B | CN¥2.7B | CN¥2.7B | RevenueRevenue |
| 47% | 56% | 53% | 50% | 55% | 61% | 60% | 60% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥603M) | (CN¥1.4B) | (CN¥1.6B) | (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥481M) | (CN¥507M) | (CN¥507M) | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −157.9% | −44.6% | −47.0% | −44.5% | −25.5% | −13.4% | −18.5% | −18.5% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| (CN¥1.0B) | (CN¥518M) | (CN¥1.3B) | (CN¥1.6B) | (CN¥840M) | (CN¥169M) | (CN¥195M) | (CN¥195M) | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||||||
| (CN¥716M) | (CN¥244M) | (CN¥440M) | (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥416M) | (CN¥280M) | (CN¥364M) | (CN¥364M) | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| CN¥20M | CN¥20M | CN¥21M | CN¥25M | CN¥25M | CN¥22M | CN¥19M | CN¥19M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| CN¥268M | CN¥254M | CN¥837M | CN¥438M | CN¥399M | (CN¥133M) | (CN¥187M) | (CN¥187M) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| CN¥5M | CN¥2M | CN¥7M | CN¥714K | CN¥8M | CN¥3M | CN¥1M | CN¥1M | CapexCapex |
| 0.7% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| (CN¥720M) | (CN¥246M) | (CN¥448M) | (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥424M) | (CN¥283M) | (CN¥365M) | (CN¥365M) | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −107.4% | −18.2% | −15.1% | −30.9% | −10.1% | −7.9% | −13.3% | −13.3% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| (CN¥720M) | (CN¥246M) | (CN¥448M) | (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥424M) | (CN¥283M) | (CN¥365M) | (CN¥365M) | Free cash flowFCF |
| −107.4% | −18.2% | −15.1% | −30.9% | −10.1% | −7.9% | −13.3% | −13.3% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| — | — | — | CN¥128M | CN¥370M | CN¥401M | CN¥167M | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| — | — | -24% | -112% | -34% | -277% | -92% | -92% | ROICROIC |
| — | — | -19% | -28% | -18% | -4% | -5% | -5% | Return on equityROE |
| — | — | −19% | −28% | −18% | −4% | −5% | −5% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | ||||||||
| — | CN¥2.0B | CN¥4.4B | CN¥5.3B | CN¥3.9B | CN¥4.5B | CN¥4.2B | CN¥4.2B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | CN¥486M | CN¥832M | CN¥834M | CN¥665M | CN¥421M | CN¥358M | CN¥358M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | — | CN¥5M | CN¥10M | CN¥22M | CN¥31M | CN¥26M | CN¥26M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | CN¥486M | CN¥836M | CN¥845M | CN¥687M | CN¥452M | CN¥384M | CN¥384M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | CN¥3.7B | CN¥8.3B | CN¥7.3B | CN¥6.4B | CN¥5.5B | CN¥4.7B | CN¥4.7B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | CN¥1.0B | CN¥1.9B | CN¥1.8B | CN¥1.9B | CN¥1.5B | CN¥1.3B | CN¥1.3B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 3.7× | 4.4× | 4.0× | 3.3× | 3.6× | 3.7× | 3.7× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | — | CN¥74M | CN¥126M | CN¥191M | CN¥126M | — | CN¥126M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| — | CN¥3.8B | CN¥8.8B | CN¥7.7B | CN¥6.8B | CN¥5.7B | CN¥5.2B | CN¥5.2B | Total assetsAssets |
| — | (CN¥2.0B) | (CN¥4.4B) | (CN¥5.3B) | (CN¥3.9B) | (CN¥4.5B) | (CN¥4.2B) | (CN¥4.2B) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| — | (CN¥5.1B) | CN¥6.7B | CN¥5.7B | CN¥4.6B | CN¥4.1B | CN¥3.8B | CN¥3.8B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | ||||||||
| 15.6M | 16.3M | 60.0M | 76.2M | 74.8M | 68.4M | 60.0M | 58.8M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| CN¥43.09 | CN¥82.86 | CN¥49.29 | CN¥47.30 | CN¥56.15 | CN¥52.62 | CN¥45.81 | CN¥46.75 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| CN¥-64.53 | CN¥-31.71 | CN¥-21.63 | CN¥-20.71 | CN¥-11.23 | CN¥-2.47 | CN¥-3.25 | CN¥-3.32 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| CN¥-46.27 | CN¥-15.10 | CN¥-7.46 | CN¥-14.64 | CN¥-5.67 | CN¥-4.14 | CN¥-6.08 | CN¥-6.21 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| CN¥-46.27 | CN¥-15.10 | CN¥-7.46 | CN¥-14.64 | CN¥-5.67 | CN¥-4.14 | CN¥-6.08 | CN¥-6.21 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| CN¥0.29 | CN¥0.12 | CN¥0.12 | CN¥0.01 | CN¥0.11 | CN¥0.04 | CN¥0.02 | CN¥0.02 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| — | CN¥-315.23 | CN¥112.10 | CN¥74.19 | CN¥61.51 | CN¥60.48 | CN¥63.39 | CN¥64.69 | Book value / shareBVPS |
The diluted share count moved ×3.68 into 2021 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
Share counts before TTM are restated ×1/4 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 6-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +1.0%/yr | −11.2%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −35.0%/yr | −28.7%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2019–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
−92%low FY2024
Gross margin
60%low FY2019
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
(CN¥365M)owner earningsvs.(CN¥195M)net incomelow FY2022
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2025 the business reported a CN¥195M loss but (CN¥365M) of owner earnings: CN¥170M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | (CN¥195M) | (CN¥169M) | (CN¥840M) | (CN¥1.6B) | (CN¥1.3B) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +CN¥19M | +CN¥22M | +CN¥25M | +CN¥25M | +CN¥21M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −CN¥187M | −CN¥133M | +CN¥399M | +CN¥438M | +CN¥837M |
| Cash from operations | (CN¥364M) | (CN¥280M) | (CN¥416M) | (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥440M) |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −CN¥1M | −CN¥3M | −CN¥8M | −CN¥714K | −CN¥7M |
| Owner earnings | (CN¥365M) | (CN¥283M) | (CN¥424M) | (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥448M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | -13% | -8% | -10% | -31% | -15% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →
Will it survive?
- No meaningful interest burdenLittle or no interest expense reported
What this means
Little or no interest expense reported, the business isn't leaning on lenders to operate.
- How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +CN¥4.2BNet cash, debt-freeCash CN¥3.4B + ST investments CN¥841M − debt CN¥0
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by CN¥4.2B, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Is it a good business?
- Not enough dataIndustry peers: median 21%
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Consumes cash through the cycle7-yr median margin, range -107%–-8%; latest (CN¥365M) = operating cash (CN¥364M) − maintenance capex CN¥1MIndustry peers: median 18%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's -13% of revenue this year, a -15% median across 7 years.
- Are earnings backed by cash? (CN¥364M)Loss, and burning cashNet income (CN¥195M) · cash from operations (CN¥364M)
What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.
How is the cash used?
- No surplus to allocate
What this means
The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.07×HarvestingCapex CN¥1M ÷ depreciation CN¥19M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 1 of 3 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size —Revenue ≥ $2B (a dollar floor) · CN¥2.7B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's floor is a dollar figure — about $2B of revenue as a conservative modern stand-in. This company reports in its home currency and we carry no exchange rate, so we show the figure and leave the size bar for you to apply rather than convert it with a number we don't have.
- Strong liquidity PassCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 3.73×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Earnings stability MissA profit every year (7-yr record) · 7 loss years
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record MissUninterrupted dividends · none paid
What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
- Earnings growth —Earnings +33% over the record · —
What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are CN¥-1.67/share (latest year CN¥-0.81), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is CN¥15.85/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2019–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 0 of 7
What this means
Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Operating margin −83% → −19% (3-yr avg ends)
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −83% early to −19% lately, median −44% — pricing power intact or improving.
- Worst year 2019 · −157.9% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2019, understand why before trusting the good years.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Elevated contestabilityThe product is software or information, the very thing capable AI now produces more cheaply, so the moat is more contestable than the record alone implies.
In its own filing Framed as a capability
Despite the structural exposure, the filing positions AI as something it uses, not a threat to its product.
“We will continue to develop and apply artificial intelligence technologies to keep pace with the growth of our business, scale our content offerings, and improve operating efficiency.”
AI has collapsed the cost of building a capable substitute for the very thing this business sells. When a credible alternative can be assembled for a fraction of the incumbent's price, it is pricing power that erodes first, not revenue tomorrow. The live question is whether the moat survives that, not whether it held in the past. Whether that question is answerable at all is yours to decide, against your own circle of competence.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assetsCN¥4.7B
- Cash & short-term investmentsCN¥4.2B
- ReceivablesCN¥358M
- InventoryCN¥26M
- Other current assetsCN¥138M
Current liabilitiesCN¥1.3B
- Other current liabilitiesCN¥1.3B
Current ratio3.73×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio3.71×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio3.32×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capitalCN¥3.5Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Cash runway11.5 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate
Deeper floors
Tangible book valueCN¥3.7Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset valueCN¥3.4BGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leasesCN¥21MCN¥21M of it operating leases
Deferred revenueCN¥186Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
Peers, Commercial Services & Supplies
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Gross margin | Op. margin | ROIC | Owner earn. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOURShift4 Payments | $4.2B | 23% | 1.9% | -1% | 9% |
| CARTMaplebear Inc. | $3.7B | 74% | 2.4% | 21% | 18% |
| MSCIMSCI Inc. | $3.1B | 80% | 52.3% | 38% | 46% |
| ETSYEtsy Inc. | $2.9B | 70% | 10.5% | 24% | 26% |
| ZHZhihu Inc. | CN¥2.7B | 55% | -44.5% | -92% | -15% |
| ZZillow Group Inc. Class C Capital Stock | $2.6B | 78% | -8.9% | -3% | 10% |
| EXLSExlService | $2.1B | 86% | 12.5% | 14% | 12% |
| FICOFair Isaac | $2.0B | 73% | 30.6% | 35% | 29% |
| Group median | — | 74% | 6.5% | 18% | 15% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American depositary shares (each representing three Class”; Zhihu Inc. reports in CNY, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS and translated at CNY 1 = $0.147 (2026-07-17, reference rate) so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed, in CNY.
Zhihu Inc. is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.
$
The assumptions
Revenue, delivered13%/yr’20→’25
Enter a price to run it.
Owner earnings it must reach—
Margin the price demands—
Owner-earnings margin today−13%
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Zhihu Inc. (ZH), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/ZH, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← ZGN its page in the Manual ZIM →
Industry order: ← ZG the Commercial Services & Supplies chapter