Sohu is currently seeking strategic investment for its search business unit

Abstract: According to foreign media reports, Sohu is currently searching for its search business department to seek strategic investment in order to compete with Baidu for Internet users and advertising business. Sohu Chairman and CEO Charles Zhang in Friday in the Sohu Beijing headquarters Media interview, said Sohu Also

According to foreign media reports, Sohu is currently searching for its Sogou search business department to seek strategic investment to compete with Baidu for Internet users and advertising business.

Sohu Chairman and CEO Charles Zhang said in a media interview at Sohu's Beijing headquarters in Friday that Sohu is also looking to buy large video sites to provide richer content.

Sohu was founded in the late 90 by Charles Zhang, one of the first generation Internet start-ups in China. Sohu is now actively seeking mergers and acquisitions and cooperation, because it is not only in the search business behind Baidu, but also in the network video business growth is still lagging behind the Youku potatoes. Zhang's aim is to enhance the company's capabilities as an Internet media and entertainment service provider, targeting consumers who use smartphones and tablets to watch video and use apps.

Digau You, an analyst at Iresearch in Beijing, an Internet consulting firm, said: "All of Sohu's business units have not achieved big growth." Only when the search engine business reaches a certain scale, can they realize their commercial value. ”

According to Bloomberg data, the fourth quarter of last year, Sogou in the Chinese search engine market accounted for 5.4% of the share, ranked third, while Baidu's share of the top 82.3%, Qihoo 360 to 8.2% of the share ranked second, in addition, Sohu as a portal also lagged behind Tencent and Sina.

This year, Sohu's US depository receipts have risen by 29%.

Zhang, 48, a Ph. D. At MIT, has spent nearly a year on personal vacations last year, and has not returned to public view until January this year. "I missed something, but that's life," he says. I have changed my life goal, now work is very important. ”

Last year, Baidu and Alibaba achieved growth through mergers and acquisitions. This month, Baidu announced that it would buy PPS's network video business with 370 million dollars and integrate the business with Archie.

May 10, Alibaba announced 2.94 U.S. dollars to acquire the company's 28% stake in the software. Last month, Alibaba agreed to take a 586 million dollar stake in Sina Weibo, gaining about 18% per cent of Sina Weibo.

Sohu is looking for social media opportunities on mobile devices. "Sohu must produce the highest quality content, whether text-based, based on images, or based on video," says Zhang. At the same time, Sohu must also have channels. Sogou's business is very important, it is an entrance and a channel. ”

By the end of March, Sohu had a total of $951 million trillion in cash and short-term investments, according to data from Bloomberg. "Strategic growth requires money, not many 1 billion of dollars," Zhang said. ”

Last month, Sohu released its first-quarter earnings, benefiting from the growth of its online advertising business, with net profit growth of 14% to $23 million trillion, beyond analysts ' expectations. Sohu expects the company's revenue to be between 333 million and 342 million dollars in the second quarter of this year.

"Although the network video market is currently in a high growth stage, the competition is also unusually fierce," Zhang said. By the end of last year, the number of Chinese Internet users reached 564 million, an increase of 10% from a year earlier. Chinese netizens outnumber the population of any country except India.