Zhihu Inc. (NYSE:ZH) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 22, 2024 8:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Yolanda Liu - Director, IR

Wang Han - CFO

Zhou Yuan - Founder, Chairman and CEO

Conference Call Participants

Vicky Wei - Citi
Xueqing Zhang - CICC
Thomas Chong - Jefferies
Daisy Chen - Haitong International

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Zhihu Inc., Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. Today's conference is being recorded.

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Yolanda Liu, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Yolanda Liu

Thank you, Operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Zhihu's second quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Senior management joining me today are Mr. Zhou Yuan, our Founder, Chairman, and the Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Wang Han, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before we get started, I would like to remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may be materially different from the views expressed today.

Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in other public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.

Additionally, the matter we will discuss today will include both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purposes only. For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please see the earnings release issued earlier today. In addition, a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on our website at ir.zhihu.com.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Wang Han, our CFO. Please go ahead.

Wang Han

Thank you, Yolanda. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining Zhihu's second quarter 2024 earnings call. I'm pleased to deliver today's opening remarks on behalf of Mr. Zhou Yuan, Founder, and Chairman, and CEO of Zhihu.

We're pleased to report another strong quarter. In the second quarter, we achieved robust improvements in operating efficiency, with our gross margin raised by 5.8 percentage points year-over-year to 59.6%. Our total operating expenses decreased by more RMB 140 million compared to the same period last year, including a reduction of RMB 120 million in marketing expenses. Our adjusted net loss declined by 79.9% year-over-year to RMB 44.6 million, marking our lowest quarterly loss since our U.S. IPO.