In a report by independent market research institute CNZZ, Sogou, the search engine curated by Chinese portal Sohu.com outran Google China in terms of user adoption.
According to the report, Sogou.com claims 7.09% of China’s search market share while Google China’s share down to 6.51%. Baidu is still far ahead of its rivals with 78.98% of market share.
However, whether the increase is just a short-term breakout or not still needs to be seen.
Sogou has its eye on Google China’s market share a long time ago even before Google decided to retreat from mainland China as well as looks to overtake Google in China search arena.
Sogou said officially that overall the Beijing-based company is still the No.3 search service behind Google China and of course Baidu whereas the No.2 spot should be in its grab soon. Sogou has great respect for its rivals but will not dissemble its dream.
Sogou’s search traffic has doubled over the past year, largely due to the company’s ongoing efforts in browser and input methods. These handy tools used by large amount of Chinese netizens contribute a whole lot to Sogou’s traffic.
However, Sogou still trails Google China by large margins in terms of revenue. According to Wang Xiaochuan, the search company is aiming to make profit next year. He once said in an interview that “”our search volumes doubled in the past year, which led to very fast growth in our revenue, and I don’t see what’s so difficult about reporting a profit next year”.
The company is currently on hiring spree that looks to increase its headcount by more than 30 percent to 800 by year-end.
Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou. Photo Credit: Tencent Tech