Sogou releases fourth quarter and full year 2017 results

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.