On August 9, Alibaba and Yunfeng Fund became Sogou’s strategic joint ventures and established Sogou’s new investment company. This is undoubtedly explosive news. Zhang Chaoyang said: "Sohu has been too late to develop its search efforts. With the rapid development of Sogou Input Method and Sogou Browser, we believe that the introduction of large strategic investors will make Sohu become second only to Sogou. Baidu, the second-ranked search engine company. "The combination of Sogou and Alibaba is undoubtedly explosive news. Not only does Jack Ma intend to support Sogou search engine and fight Baidu in terms of Taobao entrance resources, but Zhang Chaoyang leverages Alibaba to use e-commerce. It is as simple as increasing the market share of Sogou engine. Making a fuss about the special "entry" of the input method may have special significance.
On August 13, Taobao and Sogou took the first step in their cooperation: Sogou input method quietly embedded Taobao product search information. As long as you download the latest version of Sogou input method or upgrade the original old version of Sogou input method to the corresponding version or thesaurus, when you enter a product or brand name, the words "Taobao's best selling product or brand" will appear in the upper right corner of the input box. Click to view and you will be redirected to the corresponding search page of Taobao Hot Deals. From this move, we can see that Alibaba is eager to import traffic from Sogou products, especially input methods, to Taobao. Sogou input method has always occupied the first place in the domestic input method market with its good user experience, powerful font library and timely updates, and has a huge user base. Taobao has always been relatively weak in entrance resources, and its plan to build its own search engine has not been successful. Although Baidu's e-commerce is weaker than Alibaba's, and Youa has always been tepid, it has always curbed the development of Taobao by virtue of its search entrance advantage, which is a worry for Ma Yun. Baidu and Taobao block each other, Youah competes with Baidu, Tao Japan and Lekutian compete for the Japanese market, Baidu product search blocks Taobao's entrance resources, Baidu and Taobao have exchanged fire in many places. By bypassing Baidu through Sogou's series of products, we may be able to open up the entrance to Alibaba's big Taobao plan.
On September 2, Baidu World 2010 Conference kicked off at the China World Hotel in Beijing. Baidu officially announced the launch of a new application open platform, with a view to promoting more high-quality Internet application resources to directly connect with the needs of netizens, making it easier for netizens to "search and use". The biggest highlight of the launch of Baidu's open platform is that it meets the needs of users. However, the concept of instant search and use under its "box calculation" has caused concerns in the industry whether it will endanger the survival of other websites. The open platform is like an upgraded version of bidding ranking. Baidu relies on its strong user base under the search portal, especially the dependence of junior netizen groups on Baidu. It may "frame" all the traffic in some industries under the Baidu open platform. It not only meets the user needs of junior netizens, but also takes advantage of the open platform to vigorously develop Baidu's own products and services. And when netizens search for a certain keyword, such as "mini-games," on the open platform that ranks first, whoever is closer to Baidu may be at the forefront. From Baidu's own business considerations, this is understandable and will become another powerful tool for attracting traffic.
The scary thing about Baidu is the huge number of junior netizens under the search portal. About two-thirds of the country's 420 million Internet users are junior Internet users, and they are extremely dependent on Baidu. Today, sources revealed that Baidu PC input method has started internal testing at the end of August. The PC version of the input method will have built-in search and application open platforms, relying on massive Chinese search data and cloud computing to make input more consistent, taking into account professionalism and Fun. Regardless of what the Baidu input method is like, its intention is very obvious. To compete with Sogou and QQ Pinyin, the deeper purpose behind it is still to compete for traffic. Currently, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are all competing for personal webmaster resources for the huge traffic behind them, with clear goals. Alibaba and Sogou are also aiming to compete with Baidu. The number of users of Tencent's QQ Pinyin is also growing very rapidly. The input method is a special entrance. Every netizen will use the Chinese input method for text input. Today's input method functions are no longer as simple as before. With built-in search and other functions, it has become a powerful tool for gaining traffic.
We can imagine whether the Baidu input method with built-in search will also have embedded product search like Sogou input method. Even if you enter the keyword "input method" on the Baidu search page, the first one taken is the Baidu input method download link under the Baidu open platform. There are a large number of junior netizens, and the probability of directly searching for input method-related keywords is also high. If Baidu really integrates the PC input method it develops with the open platform. The number of new users of Sogou input method will be greatly reduced. Perhaps the competition for old users of Sogou and QQ Pinyin depends on the improvement and improvement of Baidu input method's own functions. For the competition for new users, Baidu input method combined with Baidu open platform will have a great advantage. There may be another secret battle between three companies competing for traffic.
Editor in charge: Yang