Sogou achieved solid results in Q2 2018 with revenue increasing 43% year-on-year to US$301.4 million and non-GAAP net income up by 58% to US$38.2 million, according to its financial results. That was greatly driven by the twin growth engines – search and mobile keyboard – and AI-focused strategy.
Search and search-related revenues were $270.6 million, a 45% increase year-on-year. The increase was primarily due to the strong growth in auction-based pay-for-click services, driven by improved monetization and continued traffic growth in mobile search.
Auction-based pay-for-click services accounted for 84.7% of search and search-related revenues, compared to 83.0% in the corresponding period in 2017.
In search, Sogou differentiated services from Baidu in key verticals, such as healthcare. It also deepened its partnership with WeChat by providing more search services such as the encyclopedia and interactive Q&A platform.
Its AI-powered innovations drove broader adoption of the Sogou Mobile Keyboard, with DAU increasing by 36% year-on-year to 380 million in Q2 2018. Especially in June, Sogou Mobile Keyboard handled approximately 300 million voice inputs on average per day, up 54% year-on-year, and remained China’s largest voice mobile application.
Meanwhile, Sogou also applied its AI capabilities to enhance the competitiveness of the recently launched hardware products, such as Sogou Travel Translator and Sogou Smart Recording Translator.
Baidu also had a good quarter in Q2 2018. Check out China mobile internet market forecast 2018-2020 here.