ByteDance’s Ocean Engine Search Service Sees 500 Million Daily Page Views

On September 23, Ocean Engine, a digital marketing platform owned by ByteDance, disclosed recent numbers of the usage of its search business.

As of August 2020, Ocean Engine’s search service had reached over 500 million daily page views. During the Tokyo Olympics, users searched for Olympic-related content on this engine over 2.7 billion times.

Since its establishment in 2017, ByteDance has taken the initiative to strengthen its search business. In September 2020, search bidding advertising business was launched on apps under the Toutiao. At the end of the same year, search advertisements of Ocean Engine were launched. In the future, Ocean Engine’s search business will focus on three key components: e-commerce live-streaming, trending topics, and life services.

According to Zhiyan Consulting, the number of search engine users in China reached 795.44 million in the first half of 2021, up 3.9% year-on-year. According to Aurora Mobile Limited, the advantages of an independent search platform (separate from those that are integrated in other Apps) still exist, ranking first with a utilization rate of 71.5%. Over two thirds of users will search through a short video platform, making it the second most popular search platform.

Zhou Sheng, head of commercial products for Ocean Engine, said that the company’s wide range of content brings users to its platform. The short- and medium-length video format have demonstrated greater information transmission efficiency by being able to communicate more in a shorter period of time.

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In addition, Zhou believes that “searching while watching” has become a new habit for users, meaning that most users will perform an online search while still watching their preferred content.

Ocean Engine is also demonstrating strength in its technology development. The company has launched a top search box, text chain, click-hold-and-search, keyword and encyclopedia hyperlink, trending topics, among others.