The domestic search engine market has been very lively in the past two years, mainly because of the entry of new heavyweight players.
At this time in 2019, ByteDance, the company behind Toutiao, accelerated its entry into the search field, and before that, Wu Kai, the former head of 360 search products, joined ByteDance as the head of the search business. In response to the ** interview, ByteDance said: The search has been launched, which is an extension of Toutiao's concept of "information creates value".
The new player who will arrive in 2020 is Huawei, which continues to explore the "combination of software and hardware". Also at the end of February this year, ByteDance's independent search app "Toutiao Search" was opened in the app stores of Android phones such as Xiaomi, Meizu, and OPPO**, and the Huawei Search app also appeared in the form of "internal testing".
What the outside world wants to see is the challenge of new players, but in the view of Nail Technology, there are some low-key opponents who are also worthy of attention, such as Sohu.
On March 9, Beijing time, Sohu announced its unaudited financial reports for the fourth quarter and full year of 2019. Sohu's revenue in the fourth quarter was 4$9.0 billion, up 5% year-over-year (excluding the pre-screening advertising business), and total revenue for the year was 18$500 million, up 2% year-on-year.
Specifically, the biggest highlight of the growth is in ** games, with a revenue of 4US$4.1 billion, up 13% from 2018; However, the biggest highlight of the contribution is still in the search and search-related advertising business, with revenue of 10US$700 million, an increase of 5% from 2018.
In 2017, it was the best contributor to Sohu's revenue, and in November of that year, Sogou went public and has maintained a good momentum since then. In the second quarter report of 2019, Sogou has achieved a turnaround, and the search business represented by the medical search business is the key.
It is worth noting that although Sohu's name itself carries the word "search", the search business has not developed well for a time. In 2004, Sogou Search was officially launched. In the following six or seven years, its market share once exceeded 1%.
The turning point in the reversal of the situation is likely to be in 2010, when Google withdrew from the Chinese market, leaving a "vacancy" in the search engine market. Although Robin Li said in an interview that Google's exit from China was due to pressure from the market share it had given, "in 2010, it accounted for 75 percent of the Chinese search market," in Sohu's eyes, the opportunity remains.
According to public information, Zhang Chaoyang once said: "In 2010, Sogou will start again and fully participate in the search engine market." ”
Later facts proved that although the impact was not realized, Sohu's search and related businesses still gained a certain market through their own characteristics.
Back to the present, Zhang Chaoyang had this sentence when evaluating the performance in 2019: "In terms of Sogou, the growth rate of search revenue continues to be faster than the industry level. At the same time, the revenue related to recommendation services based on Sogou input method has grown rapidly. ”
Looking specifically at the relevant information of the financial report, Sogou Search is considered to have achieved a continuous industry-leading growth rate through differentiated content service ecology and AI intelligent service innovation.
In terms of content service ecological construction, "Sogou continues to deepen cooperation with WeChat, improve the content of Sogou, supplement content through cooperation with officials, experts, and academics, and explore opportunities for intelligent triage with medical treatment as the entry point, and on this basis, the coverage and accuracy of the first direct answer of intelligent Q&A lead the industry level"; In terms of AI intelligent services, "Sogou continues to improve the user experience with AI technology to help users better obtain relevant information".
Such actions are the key to supporting the continued rise of Sohu's search and related businesses.
At the same time, the content service ecology that can be connected with search under the Sohu system is also constantly enriched, in Zhang Chaoyang's description: "In terms of Sohu**, Sohu continues to enhance its position as a mainstream ** platform, produces high-quality original content, and holds a variety of activities. In terms of Sohu**, we continue to produce unique high-quality dramas and other programs, and actively explore diversified commercialization models. With the improvement of commercialization capabilities and strict cost control, Sohu**'s losses were further reduced in 2019. ”
Looking back on the path of search engine business development, the layout of content and services around search is the key to continuously achieve results in the search field, after all, search needs to have relevant content as a result, and content products must be an integral part of the search ecology. ByteDance's continuous promotion of the search business in recent years is also due to the gradual formation of a content pool with rich capacity and wide coverage. In the same dimension, Sohu and Sogou actually have the ability to compete with ByteDance.
The follow-up battle of search engines should be much more exciting than imagined. (Nail Technology original, **be sure to indicate "**Nail Technology").