On January 24, 2026, the well-known domestic knowledge management platform 360doc Personal Library issued a startling announcement: it would transfer its core technology, data, and operational team free of charge, with the sole requirement being that the receiving party must possess capital resources of no less than 5 million yuan.

After twenty full years of operation, this platform, which hosts the digital memories of 80 million users and 1.1 billion saved articles, stands at a critical crossroads in its destiny.

The two-decade journey from a benchmark in knowledge management to financial distress culminating in a free transfer began in 2005. Cai Zhi, on maternity leave at home, coded the first lines of 360doc while caring for her newborn child.

At that time, the internet was still in a content-scarce phase, and users urgently needed convenient tools to save and organize high-quality online content. 360doc offered free unlimited storage space, supported uploads of documents in various formats like Word, PDF, and PPT, and featured one-click web clipping and customizable categorization for a "personal library," rapidly accumulating a massive user base.

This model proved highly effective between 2005 and 2015. Leveraging traffic from search engines, with 60%-70% of its visits coming from platforms like Baidu, the platform monetized through page advertisements. At its peak, ad revenue accounted for up to 63.34% of its income. In 2016, its operating entity, Liuzhi Information, successfully listed on the New Third Board, becoming the "first stock in personal knowledge management." On the surface, 360doc, with tens of millions of users and stable advertising revenue, seemed to have a clear path forward.

However, fatal weaknesses were already embedded beneath the surface. The platform's core asset—1.1 billion pieces of content—was inherently mixed in quality from the very beginning. Its open operational model led to extremely complex content sources, where original, high-quality content was intermingled with reposts from across the web, and even included infringing or pirated material.

While the vast quantity of content brought user scale, it also trapped the platform in an inescapable commercial dilemma.

Recent financial reports from Liuzhi Information reveal the platform's survival crisis: revenues continuously declined from 2022 to 2024, recording 10.9372 million yuan, 10.0394 million yuan, and 8.088 million yuan respectively, with net losses for three consecutive years. In the first half of 2025, the situation worsened further: revenue was 2.5181 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 43.84%; the loss expanded to 4.1843 million yuan, a staggering 585.92% increase compared to the same period last year. Advertising revenue collapsed, and user conversion to paid membership was minimal.

A singular, overly reliant business model became the platform's fatal flaw. Founder Cai Zhi admitted frankly: "A small team like ours no longer has the capacity to provide the substantial resources needed to carry it into the next twenty years."

The inefficiency and fragility of advertising monetization was the first critical weakness. The inconsistent content quality prevented the platform from building accurate user profiles, leading brand advertisers to steer clear to avoid content compliance risks. 360doc could only integrate low-value ad network content, resulting in extremely low cost-per-click rates, meager and unstable income.

Excessive reliance on search engines was the second major defect. Any algorithm adjustment by search engines caused platform traffic to plummet, leading to volatile revenues. This "weather-dependent" model meant the platform lost主动权 (initiative) in monetization from the start.

A comprehensive lag in commercial exploration caused the platform to miss crucial transformation opportunities. While platforms like Zhihu and Dedao were riding the wave of knowledge付费 (paid knowledge) around 2016, 360doc did not launch a membership service based on licensed e-books until 2020.

By then, the market was already carved up by leading platforms. 360doc lacked exclusive premium content and struggled to gain users' trust for付费 (payment) due to its long-standing reputation for cluttered content. Its membership business remained lukewarm.

Furthermore, the massive volume of content brought an unsustainable operational burden. Storing 1.1 billion articles and maintaining servers required continuous technical investment; to mitigate copyright risks, a dedicated review team worked around the clock to identify infringing content, keeping人力成本 (personnel costs) high.

These investments far exceeded what the platform's modest ad revenue could cover. Years of consecutive losses completely drained the self-sustaining capability of the small-team-operated platform.

The timing of the announcement highlighted a turning point. Just one day before 360doc's transfer notice, Baidu announced the merger of its Wenku (Library) and Wangpan (Netdisk) divisions to fully advance into the AI field.

The juxtaposition of these two news items clearly marked an era's inflection point. The emergence of AI tools made content that previously required payment or cumbersome processes to obtain free and convenient, becoming the final straw that broke 360doc's back.

As large language model tools like Doubao, Qianwen, and DeepSeek entered ordinary users' lives, the core value proposition that 360doc relied on was completely overturned.

Before AI, 360doc's functions for knowledge storage, retrieval, and organization were vital pathways for users to acquire information. Finding a quality industry report required repeated searching and filtering on the platform; organizing study materials involved manual categorization and saving—a tedious and inefficient process.

The advent of AI tools fundamentally重构 (restructured) the knowledge acquisition path. Users simply input a question and receive precise, structured answers within seconds, even obtaining customized documents or knowledge frameworks tailored to their needs.

Tasks that previously took half an hour or even hours could be completed by AI instantly, entirely for free and without繁琐操作 (cumbersome operations). Internet analyst Ding Daoshi commented: "AI has made content that originally required payment or complex procedures to obtain free and convenient, directly severing the生存空间 (livelihood) of traditional knowledge platforms."

Previously, paid documents on Baidu Wenku or quality resources buried within 360doc's vast content were important channels for knowledge acquisition. Now, AI can generate similar or even better-suited content for free, making users unwilling to pay for content or spend time sifting through platform information.

360doc's "digital study" functionality became utterly uncompetitive against AI. User needs for knowledge have already evolved from "storage" to "interaction." Cai Zhi acknowledged: "User demand has leaped from 'storing documents' to 'conversing with knowledge.'"

This is precisely the shortcoming of static knowledge platforms like 360doc. They can only achieve the "collection and堆放 (stockpiling)" of knowledge, but cannot process, integrate, or enable deep interaction. AI, however, can not only answer questions but also deconstruct knowledge deeply, offer personalized recommendations, and even engage in real-time discussion with users, perfectly aligning with the core user need to "utilize knowledge."

Faced with such epochal change, 360doc was powerless to respond. As a platform operated by a small team, it lacked both the sufficient funds to invest in AI technology R&D and the capability to transform from a "static library" into an "intelligent knowledge partner."

Meanwhile, industry giants have fully embraced the AI transformation: Baidu merged its Wenku and Wangpan business units to create a "Personal Super Intelligent Business Group"; Zhihu launched an AI Q&A assistant enabling intelligent content generation and recommendation.

With giants rapidly adapting on one side and 360doc struggling on the other, it was inevitably left behind in the industry reshuffle of the AI era.

The impact of the AI era on traditional knowledge platforms is mainly reflected in the following aspects: * Shift in Knowledge Acquisition: From active searching to intelligent Q&A. * Re-evaluation of Content Value: The value of merely structured content decreases, while interactive capability becomes core. * Business Model Disruption: Paywall models are challenged by free AI-generated content. * Increased Technical Barriers: Requires AI R&D capability, not just content aggregation skills.

The three core conditions set by Cai Zhi for the transfer also reflect this helplessness: sufficient capital strength (≥5 million yuan) to ensure two years of stable operation; respect for content and users to protect complete user rights; and a clear, feasible operational plan.

This 5 million yuan is not a sale price but a threshold for selecting a suitable "guardian." She深知 (knows well) that if the receiving party lacks funds, the platform will ultimately face closure, which would inflict secondary harm on its 80 million users. She also promised users that if a reliable "new home" cannot be found, tools would be developed to help users back up their content before she personally shuts down the final server.