Chinese search engine Sogou has announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2017, the first time since its US IPO last November, reporting strong end-of-year results.
For the full year of 2017, total revenues were $908.4 million, a 38% increase from 2016. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2017 totaled $277.8 million, a 62% increase year-over-year.
The biggest chunk of the full year revenues still comes from search and search-related services, which totaled $801.6 million, a 34% increase from the previous year. The increase was primarily due to growth from Sogou’s auction-based pay-for-click services, which accounted for 83% of search revenues, the company said in the press release.
“We are really pleased to post a strong set of results in the fourth quarter,” said Xiaochuan Wang, CEO of Sogou. “In December, our search market share by mobile queries expanded to 18.2%, adding three percentage points since March 2017. This consolidated Sogou’s position as China’s second-largest search engine. The Sogou Mobile Keyboard similarly recorded strong growth, with daily active users reaching 330 million in December, up 46% year-over-year, solidifying its position as the No. 3 mobile app by DAU in China.”
The search giant has started to focus on developing AI technologies in recent years. Just last week, the company announced two new AI-powered translation products, the Sogou Travel Translator and the Sogou Smart Translation Recorder.