As Zhou Yujie predicted, as early as July this year, after Alibaba and Sogou parted ways, Zhang Chaoyang planned to sell Sogou. It was not that he was not optimistic about Sogou, but that Sohu had already fallen into the Internet industry and could not even maintain the second echelon. Sogou in his hands could not be able to exert its strongest ability in his own hands.

Instead of doing this, it is better to sell it. After losing the ambition to compete, this former Internet tycoon is now just trying to maximize the value of the business in his hands.

At present, Baidu and 360 have already contacted him, and these two companies have become a big deal for the search market, but because of the competition between Toutiao and Tengxun, the 3B battle has not been paid attention to by many people.

Just when Zhang Chaoyang was about to sell the business in his hands for a better price, Lin Youde's visit surprised him, and when he learned that Toutiao was also interested in acquiring Sogou, Zhang Chaoyang was even happier.

After Lin Youde left, Zhang Chaoyang called Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan and informed him of Lin Youde's intentions.

After thinking for a moment, Wang Xiaochuan said, "The ambition of this headline is really great. Now he is confronting Tengxun in the social field, and joins Baidu to fight Alibaba in the payment field. Now he wants Sogou and Sogou. Does Zhou Yujie still want to focus on search engines?"

"I can't understand Zhou Yujie's intentions either. Logically speaking, Toutiao has a very good relationship with Baidu now. If Toutiao acquires Sogou, aren't it going to turn against each other quickly? Without Baidu's support, how can you play Today's Youxuan?" Zhang Chaoyang said in discomfort.

Wang Xiaochuan continued: "Can we guessed wrongly? Zhou Yujie's real purpose is Sogou input method?"

Zhang Chaoyang nodded and said, "This is possible. Toutiao is best at data. The large amount of data information contained in the input method is very valuable if Toutiao uses it well."

Sogou input method actually has some data in the database over the years. For example, when a user is on a Taobao page, he needs to enter the product, and this information is recorded by Sogou's background. Although he does not know the final result of the user's purchase, he also has the user's approximate demand for online shopping.

Not very accurate, but much better than none.

Similarly, any inputs made by users on other websites and other software will have this record.

However, Sogou has these records, but it cannot play their role. It can only drive traffic from search engines and browsers in the most vulgar way. In this way, it successfully occupied a certain share of the market.

At present, the Internet industry is best at using data. If these data are in the hands of Toutiao, and if most users use Toutiao's input method in the future, Toutiao can form the most perfect method of using these data.

Wang Xiaochuan said: "That Mr. Zhang, now that Toutiao is joining in, what should we do?"

Zhang Chaoyang thought for a while and smiled: "Originally, I just wanted to sell Sogou at a high price, but now that Toutiao wants it, it's not impossible. However, I don't want to just sell Toutiao's money."

Wang Xiaochuan immediately understood and said, "Mr. Zhang, do you want shares of Toutiao's industry?"

Zhang Chaoyang chuckled and said, "Although companies like Baidu and 360 are large in scale and may have room for growth in the future, it is difficult to double it a few times. But the headlines are different. Zhou Yujie's industries have just exploded now, and their future potential is definitely incredible. Compared with these high-quality stocks, what does money count as a result?"

Wang Xiaochuan frowned and said, "But Zhou Yujie is very careful about Toutiao's shares."

Zhang Chaoyang waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I'm not that greedy. Just have a little bit of it. Just take a boat by the way. It's enough to have a bigger room."

Wang Xiaochuan said: "It should not be difficult if this happens. What should we do next?"

"Of course I secretly revealed the news to Baidu." Zhang Chaoyang shrugged and said with a smile.

"......, Mr. Zhang, I understand." Wang Xiaochuan smiled and said.

......

Three days later, Baidu Company Headquarters:

Li Yanhong looked at the news he just received and frowned and said, "What the hell is Zhou Yujie doing this? Why did he reach out to Sogou again?"

Xiang Hailong smiled and said: "Toutiao's traffic is getting bigger and bigger now, and the demand for the expansion of various businesses is definitely getting higher and higher. Sogou's business is relatively high-quality, and it is normal for Zhou Yujie to acquire it."

"But if this happens, Toutiao will become our Baidu's strong rival in the search field." Li Yanhong said with a frown.

Although the Internet industry knows that the current headlines cannot be separated from Baidu. If Baidu no longer costs money for Today's Preferred, then Today's Preferred will inevitably suffer a huge blow in the takeaway field.

Professionals who have analyzed the business model of Toutiao also know that the importance of Toutiao in the entire Toutiao industry is second to Quxin and Toutiao, which is the strongest guarantee for Toutiao offline.

But as the head of Baidu, Li Yanhong also understands that Baidu is also inseparable from today's preferred products. Mobile Internet is very inconvenient for search engine business. With the explosive shipment of smartphones, Baidu is eager to find another way out. At present, Baidu's strategy is to invest in the payment market.

With the payment market, you can do O2O business, shopping, or finance in the future. Although it may not be successful, the probability will be much greater.

Now, the development of Baifubao depends entirely on today's preferred choice. Once both parties really turn against each other and do not cultivate a large number of user habits, it is very likely that it will fail. Losing some money is a trivial matter, but Baidu's strategic plan will also fail completely.

This is also why when Quxin used Toutiao to develop its own payment business, Li Yanhong did not turn against him immediately. Even though he knew that Toutiao and Baidu would definitely go further and further because of payment in the future, it is not the time now.

As long as the other aspects of business are not involved in the core, it doesn’t matter if the two sides have some competition. But if Toutiao directly enters the search engine field, it will directly declare war with Baidu, and Li Yanhong can’t even turn against each other.

Xiang Hailong thought for a while and said, "I remember Zhou Yujie once said that he would not be a mature industry for other giants. Except for Quxin, he was the first to seize the opportunity because of the rise of mobile Internet. In the future, every business of his business was something that the giant had never done before.

Baidu has long been deploying in mobile search engines, with up to hundreds of millions of users. Moreover, with the current relationship between Baidu and Toutiao, Zhou Yujie should not be a search engine. He acquired Sogou, perhaps for the purpose of input methods."

"It's possible." Li Yanhong nodded and said, "But it's impossible for me to put the future of the company in such a possibility. Zhou Yujie is too creative. If he makes a comeback, I, Baidu, will be in trouble."

Xiang Hailong said: "But in the current situation, we can't really turn against Zhou Yujie. This is not of any benefit to us."

Li Yanhong had a little hesitation and asked after a moment, "What do you think you should do?"
Chapter completed!