Benzinga | May 17, 2021 04:09PM EDT

Zhihu Clocks 38% Growth In Q1 MAUs, Q2 Guidance Falls Short Of Consensus



* Zhihu Inc (NYSE: ZH) reported first-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 154.2% year-on-year to $73 million (RMB478.3 million), beating the analyst consensus of $70.88 million.

* Average monthly active users (MAUs) rose 37.7% Y/Y to 85 million, while average monthly paying members rose 137.8% Y/Y to 4 million.

* Advertising revenue rose 70.1% Y/Y to $32.6 million (RMB213.7 million). Paid membership revenue increased 127% Y/Y to $19.3 million (RMB126.6 million). Content-commerce solutions revenue rose 110 times to $18.4 million (RMB120.8 million), with Other revenues increasing 200% Y/Y to $2.6 million (RMB17.1 million).

* The gross margin expanded 1,540 basis points to 57%.

* Operational loss rose 62.4% Y/Y to $342.5 million, with the net loss increasing 61.3% Y/Y to $49.6 million (RMB324.7 million).

* Adjusted net loss rose 19.7% Y/Y to $29.5 million (RMB193.6 million), with EPS loss of $(0.53) missing the analyst consensus of $(0.07) loss.

* Zhihu held $1.2 billion (RMB7.96 billion) in cash and equivalents, and it had raised $737.1 million from its March IPO.

* Guidance: Zhihu expects Q2 revenue of $94.9 million (RMB622 million) -- $95.7 million (RMB627 million), falling short of the analyst consensus of $96.94 million.

* Price action: ZH shares traded higher by 7.38% at $8.58 in the premarket session on the last check Monday.



Related content: Benzinga's Full Guidance Calendar