How Zhihu’s Big Data Strategy Cuts Costs and Boosts Efficiency

Background

First, a brief introduction of Zhihu. Zhihu is a high‑quality online Q&A community where users can ask, answer, like, and comment to obtain distinctive content.

FinOps‑Driven Cost Reduction

Since 2022, Zhihu has built an economic billing system called FinOps to drive internal cost‑reduction practices. FinOps emphasizes that cost‑saving and efficiency improvements are not only a development issue but also an organizational one, requiring cross‑team collaboration.

Technical Cost Reduction

Zhihu’s architecture uses a hybrid‑cloud model with services from multiple cloud providers, including IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS, which increases the difficulty of cost reduction. The challenges include numerous vendors, evolving organizational structures, and sustainability of cost‑saving measures. Gartner reports that only 11% of enterprises achieve continuous cost reduction over three years.

Summary and Outlook

While short‑term cost‑cutting initiatives can yield quick gains, long‑term sustainability requires continuous optimization and alignment with organizational changes. Zhihu aims to combine FinOps with technical improvements to achieve lasting efficiency.