User demand drives Zhihu to launch short story platform 'Yan Yan Story'

"Yan Yan Story" is a new story brand launched by Zhihu, which was officially released on May 19. This new brand is Zhihu’s platform for providing users with original short stories.

According to ITBEAR Technology Information, Yan Yan Story was developed on the basis of Zhihu’s original story business and aims to meet users’ needs for short content. The platform's short stories typically only take 10 to 20 minutes to read, making it a leader in the industry.

Why is there a need for short stories?

As a Q&A community, Zhihu has had many wonderful answers. For example, Ma Boyong's "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" originated from a short answer on Zhihu.

At that time, some netizens asked, what would be the storyline if the movie "Assassin's Creed" took place in the Tang Dynasty in China? Ma Boyong wrote a short answer below, which received a good response, So it was developed into a novel, and the length of this novel is still very short compared to online novels.

ITBEAR Technology Information learned that the Salt Story business has been operating for about four years. Initially, Zhihu launched this project based on user needs.

First of all, users are increasingly interested in shorter content. And this is not just the transfer of users who originally liked long-form online novels. On the contrary, short stories have attracted a group of users who have never been exposed to online novels before. In the video era, users’ consumption habits have changed.

Additionally, there is always a need for short content. It’s just that in the era of online novels, people generally believe that short stories are difficult to monetize, so few people make money through short stories. Most people just use short stories to attract readers.

It is precisely because we understand the real needs of users that we decided to develop short stories as an independent brand. "Zhang Rongle said. "In the past three or four years, this business has grown very rapidly. "

Zhang Rongle feels that short stories are better at creating imaginative space and leaving a deep impression on users than short videos that focus on instant experience. Enhance."

Evolution. "

According to data, so far, Yan Yan Story has accumulated a large amount of high-quality content, covering dozens of themes, attracting hundreds of millions of young users in first- and second-tier cities. The platform has established a complete The author training system has supported many outstanding creators, and has further established connections with publishing, film and television and other related industries, stably outputs original content, and created many popular works, such as "Zhihu Three Wonders", the Black House Pentalogy series, Forensic story series, etc.

In order to allow users to better experience Yanyan’s special stories, according to ITBEAR Technology Information, Zhihu also planned an offline event called "600 Seconds Long Street" in Beijing , show the advantages of Salt Story to the public through creative interactive devices. For example, visitors can learn "Three Knowledges of Knowledge" and other related knowledge in front of the "stage" equipment.

"Salt Story" App Interoperability with Zhihu accounts It is reported that the "Salt Story" App has been interoperable with Zhihu accounts, sharing the creator service system and providing users with professional story content reading services.

According to Zhang Rongle, Salt Stories originate from the salt stories among Zhihu members. In addition to providing salt stories, the platform also provides salt knowledge, including various courses, content rights such as Zhihu live that users are familiar with, as well as Zhihu books, papers, etc. . You can enjoy these rights by purchasing Zhihu membership.

Compared with Zhihu App, "Yanyan Story" App focuses more on providing users with a professional and immersive reading experience. In terms of functions, "Yanyan Story" In addition to providing rich content distribution and recommendations, the "Story" App has also enhanced a number of core features, such as upgrading the text reader's underlined comments to comments, a listening function that is infinitely close to real human voices, and the application of AI to generate pictures, etc. .

According to the latest financial report, as of the fourth quarter of 2022, Zhihu’s average monthly number of paid members has reached 13 million, a year-on-year increase of 112.5%, and the average number of monthly active users in 2022 has reached 101 million.

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