Search engine Sogou posts 43% rise in revenue

Chinese search engine Sogou Inc reported its total revenue reached $301.4 million in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 43 percent year-on-year, driven by its artificial intelligence-focused strategy.

Net income attributable to Sogou was $33.2 million, a 41 percent increase year-on-year. The company's core search business maintained solid growth with revenues rising by 45 percent year-on-year.

"We continued to develop our twin growth engines – search and mobile keyboard – in the second quarter," said Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou.

"In search, we bolstered our differentiated services in key verticals, such as healthcare, where we added more authoritative content, leading to a solid increase in related search queries and click-through rate. We also deepened our partnership with WeChat by providing more search services such as our encyclopedia and interactive Q&A platform."

"Going forward, we remain committed to developing language-centered AI technologies in voice, translation and Q&A, which are well positioned to empower our search, mobile keyboard and smart hardware products," Wang added.

Wang said they have also applied their AI capabilities to greatly enhance the competitiveness of the recently launched hardware products, such as Sogou Travel Translator and Sogou Smart Recording Translator.

"We are confident that our twin growth engines and AI-focused strategy will lead to sustainable growth over the long term," said Joe Zhou, CFO of Sogou.

Zhou expects that the third quarter revenues will be lower than anticipated due to the one-time impact of a regulatory investigation and steps taken to ensure the advertising practices are compliant with relevant regulations, and the adjustment of their smart hardware strategy.

Beijing-based Sogou is the fourth-largest internet company in China, based on its monthly active users in September, according to market consultancy iResearch.