Asian Tech Press (Feb 11) -- It is rumored that Zhihu Inc., the Chinese Quora-like question-and-answer website, is laying off staff in a low-key way, with almost half of the video-related departments being cut.

At the end of December last year, Zhihu's operating entity underwent a corporate change, with Tencent, Sogou and Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation Works exiting as its shareholders.

If the recent rumors of layoffs are true, it may mean that the development of the Chinese Quora-like company's video business is not going well.

The person in charge of the relevant business in Zhihu on Friday denied the rumor and said, "We have no layoff plans in the video business, but also welcome the best talents in the field to join the company, especially for positions involving product and operation, so please pay attention to the major recruitment websites."

"Video is an integral part of Zhihu's content ecology. In 2021, we drove Zhihu's media upgrade through video answers, joint creation and multi-scene video content recommendations. And in 2022, we will continue to make efforts and improvements in the video field," said the person.

As a graphic Q&A community, video business is something new to Zhihu, and in December last year, the homepage of Zhihu app added the features of "Video" and "Members". However, the new features has been criticized by many of the platform's regular users for its poor user experience.

With the booming of the short video industry during COVID-19, it seems that Zhihu is already many steps behind its Chinese counterparts such as ByteDance, Tencent in the video sector.

Last month, it was said that Zhihu was planning a secondary listing in Hong Kong to raise about $300 million in early 2022, but the company denied it.