Jike

About Jike

Jike, operated by Shanghai Ruoyou Network Technology Co., Ltd., is an interest-based social media platform that initially launched in 2015. The company was co-founded by Ye Xidong and Luo Zheng, who were high school classmates. Ye previously worked at Google on the Google+ team, an experience that influenced Jike's design, while Luo is an alumnus of Zhejiang University and studied in the UK.

The platform originated as an information aggregation tool designed to push personalized, relevant content to users based on their subscribed topics. This allowed individuals to track specific interests, such as new movie releases with a high rating on Douban or updates on particular news events, without the noise of traditional feeds. Over time, Jike evolved from a content subscription service into a user-generated content (UGC) community. A significant transition occurred around 2017 when the app introduced social functions, enabling users to post their own content and interact within interest-based groups called "circles." This shift proved successful, tripling the user base to 30 million within five months of launching version 3.5.

Jike's target audience primarily consists of young, urban users, including students and professionals, who appreciate the platform's focus on niche communities and high-quality discussions. The app fosters a strong sense of community, with users often referred to as "Jiyou" (即友) and participating in both online discussions and offline meetups. The business model currently centers on a membership subscription, which unlocks premium features like the ability to edit published posts. While the app has historically been noted for its minimal advertising, this freemium approach represents its path toward monetization.

The company has secured multiple rounds of funding from notable investors, including an angel round from ZhenFund and Ping An Ventures in June 2015, followed by investments from BAI Capital, Vertex Ventures, and Tencent. A significant milestone was its C+ round in July 2018, led by Sequoia China. The company faced a major challenge in July 2019 when its app was temporarily removed from app stores for a "technical upgrade," reappearing in June 2020. The Jike team also developed and launched 'Xiaoyuzhou' (小宇宙), a separate podcast app.