The Open Web Is Dying — And This Login Screen Proves It

You’ve been here before. You click a link to a thoughtful answer on Zhihu. You’re ready to read. Then the wall appears. “Download the app.” “Log in with your phone number.” “Or better yet, open an institutional account.” Your finger hovers over the back button. You’re not a user anymore — you’re a data point.

That frustration is not a bug. It’s a feature. The login screen is not a door — it’s a toll booth. And the toll is your privacy, your attention, and your willingness to be locked into an ecosystem.

I spent a week staring at this single screen. The one that greets you when you try to read anything without the app. At first glance, it’s just a standard login form. But look closer. The options are arranged by priority, not by convenience. The first thing you see is a phone number field. Then a password. Then, right there in the middle, a bold button: “开通机构号” (Open Institutional Account). Not a personal account. An institutional one.

That button is the tell. Zhihu isn’t asking you to read. It’s asking you to sell. The platform’s brand promise — open knowledge sharing — collides head-on with its operational need for a closed, authenticated walled garden. The login screen is not a security measure. It’s a data extraction and retention mechanism, disguised as a user experience.

I have a friend who writes long-form answers on Zhihu. He told me, “I don’t even read my own drafts anymore. I have to log in every time, and by the time I’m in, I’ve forgotten what I wanted to say.” That’s not user error. That’s intentional friction designed to condition you to stay inside the app. The moment you log in, you’re no longer a visitor. You’re a captive.

Why does this matter? Because the open web is dying one mandatory login at a time. Every time you tolerate a phone number field for a single article, you’re voting for a future where information is gated behind identity. And the worst part? You’re not the customer. The institution is. The prominent placement of the institutional account button reveals that Zhihu’s true monetization strategy is B2B: selling verified user data and enterprise access, not serving individual readers.

Let me be clear: neutrality is death in content strategy, and it’s death in platform design too. Zhihu has chosen a side. It’s chosen the side of data brokers, not readers. The login screen is a confession of that priority. Every time you see “Log in with your phone number,” remember: that number is not for your security. It’s for their database.

So what can you do? First, stop normalizing this. When you hit a login wall, don’t sigh and comply. Second, support platforms that respect the open web. Third, share this article. Because the more people understand what that login screen really means, the harder it becomes for platforms to pretend they’re on your side.

The next time you see a login wall, don’t get annoyed. Get angry. Then ask yourself: what are they really selling? The answer is you.