Sohu facts for kids
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| Type of business | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: SOHU |
| Founded | August 1996 (IPO July 2000) |
| Headquarters |
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| Founder(s) | Charles Zhang and Edward Roberts |
| Key people | Charles Zhang (President, Chairman, CEO) Carol Yu (CFO) |
| Industry | Internet |
| Products | Online services |
| Revenue | .86 billion USD (2017) |
| Employees | 7,098 (December 2012) |
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Sohu, Inc. (Chinese: 搜狐; pinyin: Sōuhú; literally "Search-fox") is a big internet company from China. Its main office is in Beijing. Sohu and its related companies offer many online services. These include advertising, a search engine called Sogou.com, and online games like ChangYou.com.
Contents
Sohu's Story
Sohu started in 1996 as a company called Internet Technologies China (ITC). It was founded by Charles Zhang. He had just finished his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He got money to start the company from friends he met there.
Changing the Name
In 1997, Charles Zhang met Jerry Yang, who helped start Yahoo!. After that meeting, Zhang changed ITC's name to Sohoo. This was a way to honor Yahoo!. But soon after, the name was changed again to Sohu. This new name helped make it clear that Sohu was different from the American company.
Becoming a Public Company
Since 2000, Sohu has been listed on NASDAQ. This means its shares can be bought and sold by the public. It does this through a special setup based in Delaware, USA.
Sogou.com Search Engine
Sohu owns a search engine called Sogou.com. In 2013, there were talks about selling Sogou.com to another company, Qihoo. But instead, Tencent invested $448 million to own a part of Sogou.com.
Fast-Growing Company
Sohu was recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. Fortune magazine ranked it third in 2009 and twelfth in 2010.
Sohu and Google
In 2007, Sohu asked Google to stop offering its Google Pinyin software. Sohu believed that parts of its own software, Sogou Pinyin, had been copied to create Google's version.
Finding the Copy
Sohu found a strange mistake that was in both programs. If you typed "pinggong," both programs would incorrectly suggest the actor Feng Gong. This mistake helped Sohu realize that their software might have been copied. Google later admitted that their software used "some non-Google database resources."
Official Olympic Website
In 2005, Sohu was chosen for a very important job. It became the Official Internet Content Service Sponsor for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. This meant Sohu was the only company allowed to build, run, and host the official website for the Beijing Olympics.
See also
In Spanish: Sohu para niños
