Because of the increasing synergy between sogou and Tencent, as early as 20 13, Tencent became the largest shareholder in sogou with 39.2% shares and 52.3% voting rights. However, as Tencent entrusts some voting rights to Sohu, the latter has the right to appoint most board members in sogou.
One year after Tencent became a shareholder, sogou officially accessed the official account data of WeChat, becoming the only search engine in China that can retrieve the official account content of WeChat. Since then, the cooperation between the two sides has continued to deepen. Sogou also said in March last year that in the coming year, when WeChat provides third-party search services for external Internet content, it will give priority to sogou search.
Accurately speaking, if sogou is regarded as a "search engine" company, sogou should not be worth the $3.5 billion; Sogou's most important asset is not sogou search, but sogou input method. Accurately speaking, if sogou is regarded as a "search engine" company, sogou should not be worth the $3.5 billion; Sogou's most important asset is not sogou search, but sogou input method.
Tencent needs sogou input method from "package organization" to "empire control". Specifically, Tencent needs to establish a complete set of user data. That's why we are eager to buy sogou.