China's Sogou to focus on AI as it plans US IPO

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‍China's search engine Sogou, controlled by Sohu.com and 45 percent owned by Tencent Holdings, said it will focus on artificial intelligence (AI) as it aims to build a next-generation search engine.

Chinese Internet and gaming company Sohu on Monday announced the plan to float Sogou in the US "as early as market conditions permit," saying that the search unit would make a confidential registration filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sogou search engine. /sohu.com

Sogou is the second-largest mobile search engine in China, after Baidu. Tencent is the largest shareholder in Sogou, though its stake carries less voting power than Sohu's 39 percent stake.

Sohu on Monday reported a 10 percent revenue rise to 461 million US dollars in the second quarter of 2017, including 211 million US dollars from Sogou, which rose at a faster pace of 20 percent year-on-year.

Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan wrote in an internal email after the announcement on Monday that Sogou would use its strength in natural language processing, which he called the "crown jewel" of artificial intelligence, and move from search to question-answering.

Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou. /China Daily Photo

The aim was to become an "innovator and pioneer in artificial intelligence in China," he continued in the email, the content of which was confirmed by Sogou.

Wang also said Sogou would increase investment into the fields of AI, big data and Internet of things.

Sogou declined to comment on the possible size of the IPO. Wang told Bloomberg in an interview in January that Sogou was targeting a valuation of five billion US dollars.

(Source: Reuters)