Tencent to Invest RMB 1 Bln in Soso Next Year
Oriental Morning Post, 11/11/11
Jeff Xiong, CTO of internet giant Tencent (0700.HK), revealed during a roadshow for the company's Soso search engine today that Tencent has invested RMB 1.2 bln in R&D for Soso over the past 5 years, adding that nearly RMB 1 bln has been budgeted in additional funding for 2012.
Tencent's 2011 Soso roadshow began in Shanghai yesterday, the first promotion the company has done of Soso since its launch in 2006. The 9 cities the roadshow will ultimately travel to include Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.
"We haven't yet selected performance indicators for Soso," Xiong said, "but we hope to see the product become profitable within the next 2-3 years, and grow to become one of the top two search engines in the market."
While Tencent's business model has targeted individual consumers for the past ten years, the company is now expanding its focus to include corporate users. Xiong added that e-commerce search will be a key new focus as well.
Keywords: profit Jeff Xiong e-commerce Internet Soso Tencent business model R&D 0700.HK corporate user online search
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