Chinese Internet company Tencent has invested USD448 million in Sogou.com, a subsidiary of Sohu.com.
Tencent will provide its own-built resources such as its Soso.com search engine, QQ input method and other related assets for Sogou.com's development.
Tencent will reportedly gain 36.5% of Sogou.com's shares with this deal. In addition, Tencent plans to soon increase its stake to about 40%.
In the newly established Sogou company, Sohu.com CEO Charles Zhang will continue to hold the chairman position. At the same time, Liu Chiping, president of Tencent, and Ren Yuxin, chief operating officer of Tencent, will be directors. Wang Xiaochuan will continue to be director and chief executive officer of Sogou.
By July 2013, Sogou's mobile input method application reportedly had over 150 million monthly active users; meanwhile, its mobile map navigation application has over 50 million users. In addition, Sogou plans to launch future mainstream mobile products like a voice-activated search assistant.
For Tencent, the greatest value of Sogou lies in the mobile sector. At present, Sogou has basically completed its mobile business strategic layout and holds a leading position in many areas, including information input, geography-based lifestyle information service, and voice search.