Sogou, the Chinese software developer under Sohu, turned ten earlier this month. Sogou was a search engine when it launched ten years ago, but would become a household name as a Chinese language input application, Sogou Pinyin which was launched in 2006. The company now is venture-backed by Tencent. Both Sogou CEO and Sohu CEO mentioned they wanted to bring Sogou public in the U.S..
The company rolled out a web browser in late 2008, channeling Sogou Pinyin users to it, and monetize users and traffic through advertising on the start-up page of the browser, search marketing (Browser users are more likely to use the default search service on it.) and gaming (revenue shares from third-party games listed on its browser).
In the second quarter of 2014, Sogou made US$91 million in total revenue, an 82% year-over-year increase. The company has turned profitable since the first quarter this year.
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