Sogou basically crushed to nourish 360 of the Thrive

"If the Sogou sold to 360, that is to basically knead the Sogou to nourish 360 of the thriving." Now Sogou Independent development, Sogou is the future. "When it comes to Sogou's choice of partners," said Zhang Charles, chairman and chief executive of Sohu's board of directors, and frankly, the main reason to choose Tencent is to keep the independence of Sogou development, and to ensure that Sogou's entrepreneurial nature and creative spirit.

Since Zhang released to hand Sogou to the news, the industry has been rumored that a number of internet giants Rob bid, Sogou a time became the darling of the Internet capital, the most specific when rumors 360, Baidu, Tencent three companies and Sogou frequent contact, which the most specific is 360, said, 360 internal also had on the acquisition Sogou did a specific implementation of the plan and price. However, hearsay is hearsay after all, the fact is, September 16, the day of the close of Hong Kong stocks, Tencent to 448 million U.S. dollars Cash + Search +qq Input method + Mobile and PC traffic for Sogou 36.5% shares, to reach the strategic investment Sogou.

The deal is not smooth sailing, all the way rumors may reach a deal of the hero can also be seen, the transaction behind, is the major internet power of mutual checks and balances and competition, is the major Internet companies alliances strategy. "Talk for a long time, there are many twists and turns." At the beginning of 2013 we talked about some time when there might be some disagreement and we talked with other parties for quite some time. Recently, the cause of some of our differences has quickly melted away, so we have reached such an agreement relatively quickly. Charles Zhang so summed up the process of cooperation with Tencent.

In this strategic investment, a single Tencent cash injection of 448 million U.S. dollars to buy 36.5% of the shares calculated, Sogou's valuation of about 1.23 billion U.S. dollars, if the search, QQ input method, and so on valuation, then, converted to the value of the dog's conservative estimates have to break through 2 billion dollars, It's a valuation that makes it hard for another giant Alibaba to balance its heart. July 2012, Sogou was estimated at the time of about 237 million U.S. dollars, Sohu to 25.8 million U.S. dollars to buy the price of the repo Ali held 10.88% of the stake, will be Alibaba, now just a year, Sogou's valuation has turned nearly 10 times times.

This year is the internet giants of the alliances years, it seems that more and more Internet companies realize that the portentous has become increasingly inconsistent with the development of the internet situation, only more open, multi-party strategic thinking, to achieve the purpose of evergreen. For traditional giants, they are increasingly feeling the brunt of new forces, the impact of newer product forms and newer profit patterns; and the new forces here, they are very clear that it is not an easy thing to break up the traditional giants, but to unite to be eligible to grab food in the traditional giants ' turf.

Looking back at the joint action of the Giants this year, Ali made a series of strategic investment, which and Sina Weibo reached a strategic cooperation is particularly important, in May, Alibaba Group to 586 million U.S. dollars to acquire 18% of Sina Weibo shares, or will be overweight, further strengthen the electric business SNS strategy.

August, NetEase Youdao Search and 360 to reach strategic cooperation, equivalent to completely abandon their search in the pursuit of full access to 360 search. This may be the last Sohu and 360 to reach one of the reasons for cooperation, 360 selected NetEase, may be from the intention to give up the opportunity to seek Sogou, or is 360 because the search dog hopeless back and seek second.

This time, Sohu and Tencent Alliance, it is a clear win. In search of the alliance between Sohu and Tencent, make them have and eldest brother Baidu contend with the strength, of course, more importantly, this alliance can finally have the strength to go and 360 Rob search the second position, at present, Sogou + search market share of about 14%, slightly less than 360 of 15%, that is to say, If 360 does not have good enough method to deal with, the new Sogou + search is likely to surpass 360.

According to the details of the two sides announced, Tencent Investment, Sohu and its associated party is still Sogou's controlling shareholder, Sogou will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Sohu Independent. At the business level, the search map will be renamed Tencent Map, directly to Tencent, and search of the general searching, ask and encyclopedia-related team and QQ Input method team will be combined with the original Sogou team, together to form a new team of dogs. The new company will and Tencent's core product depth integration, the two sides will be in the technology, products, flow and data and other aspects of in-depth cooperation.

The most direct and important result of this cooperation will be that the Chinese search market will formally form a three-point situation. In fact, 360, and Sogou today's flow from a large number of sources to come from the channel, most from the navigation and browser front-end products, so, in the current Baidu as the Chinese search giant can not shake the case, the new Sogou and 360 who can grab the name of this search penis, One important consideration will also be the market share of two browsers.

Will such a situation lead to a new round of 3Q wars? Will trigger a change in the search market? How will the dominance of Baidu be shaken? This is exactly the alliances that we will continue to observe and think about.