There are more than 7-point-5 million Tibetan-speaking people, mainly living in the western parts of China. And since the invention of a Tibetan-language search engine in 2016, their lives have become much easier – and more fun. Earlier this week, the platform released two new products, marking a new phase in its development. CGTN's Yang Jinghao reports from northwestern Qinghai Province.

A big step forward for the world's first Tibetan-language search engine. Four years after its launch, Yongzin released its upgraded APP. Also launched this time around is an input method software supporting Tibetan, Chinese and English.

Lhakyi Dolma is a member of Yongzin's founding team. She says each innovation brings with it new challenges.

LHAKYI DOLMA Tibetan Language Information Technology Research Center "To meet the users' demand, we need to keep developing new functions and launching new products. But we're kind of lagging behind due to a shortage of technical talent."

This is understandable. The company is situated in Gonghe county on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, an area that's mostly relied on animal husbandry for its development.

But it hasn't hindered the developer's determination to connect the 7-point-5 million Tibetan people with the modern world via the Internet.

With the system, users can access the latest news, music, videos, images and an encyclopedia, as well as other functions.

YONGZIN USER "I often use this search engine in my daily life and work, as it's rich in content, including content about our culture and history. I can easily access information whenever I have problems."

Compared to its peers, Yongzin faces an obvious weakness – limited sources and hyperlinks. Despite this, the team is devoted to digitizing Tibetan language and literature. So far, they have manually uploaded more than 15-thousand books, including many ancient classics.

LHAKYI DOLMA Tibetan Language Information Technology Research Center "In the past, classics like the Tripitaka were not easily accessible by the general public, as there are very few places to sell them, or they're very expensive. After being digitized, they are now available for whoever needs to access them."

An ambitious project, but the team says it's all still a work in progress.

GOMCHOK DORJE Technician, Tibetan Language Information Technology Research Center "Next, we'll try to build a translation system between Chinese and Tibetan based on the large parallel corpus of the two languages we're working on. In the long run, I hope our search engine can play a part in promoting Tibetan culture."

Many also say there's still a long way to go for Yongzin to optimize user experience, not just in terms of the layout and design, but more importantly, the content it provides. YJH, CGTN, Gonghe County, Qinghai Province.