The Chinese search engine Sogou is targeting a 5 billion US dollar IPO in the hope of closing in on its chief rival, Baidu. The company's CEO said in an interview that it plans to sell around 10% of its shares at some point in 2017. He added that the IPO would be used to assist in the improvement of its search engine, by investing in the introduction of AI. Sogou also said that it would be able to match Baidu in mobile search by 2020, whilst Marie Sun, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Service, said looking to improve its AI was the “correct strategy”. China's smaller search engines, like Sogou, have seen a recent rise in success following the tough year that Baidu had in 2016 which damaged it reputation. Recently, Sogou's parent company Sohu saw a 4.9% rise in shares – its biggest gain since March last year.
