Sogou Plans to Analyze Social Media Messages to Target Ads

The CEO of software firm Sogou Inc. has said that voice recognition technology will be key to its future, including listening in on social media voice messages to provide targeted advertising.

Sogou, which was founded in 2004 and is co-owned by Sohu.com Inc. and internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., will employ artificial intelligence to boost its business prospects, the company announced at a business event on Wednesday.

Voice recognition will be central to this AI strategy, according to CEO Wang Xiaochuan.

During the event, the company rolled out two new products, a translation device that can listen to spoken language and function without an internet connection, and a device that users can use to transcribe audio.

Wang explained that Sogou wants to do more to leverage its position as the country’s most popular provider of language input software — programs that convert words spoken or typed in the Roman alphabet into Chinese characters — to “better connect with advertisers.”

“For example, when a user inputs a message using the WeChat app mentioning a certain product a link will be produced and popped up in the interface of the input software, leading users to an e-commerce site related to that product,” he said.

Responding to concerns about user privacy, Wang said that his company will only analyze users’ data — such as their buying habits — locally, instead of uploading it to the cloud system, where it could be reached by a third party.

The New York-listed company reported revenue of $630 million for the last three quarters of 2017 — 88% of which came from online searches and related advertising business.

As of December, Sogou had 150 million daily active users, which makes it one of China’s most-used online services, according to data consultancy Jiguangda.

As China’s online landscape is increasingly shifting to mobile phones, future growth for the company, whose business heavily relies on PC users, could be difficult.

As a result, Sogou has also expanded into other areas, such as online consulting for legal and medical issues, the company said.

The company also announced at the recent event that it will soon begin offering services in Japanese and Korean, one month after rolling out its English-language service.

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)