Tencent Kandian to Be Renamed to Tencent Information Platform and Service Line

Chinese media outlet Jiemian reported on Thursday that Tencent Kandian, a subsidiary of Tencent Platform and Content Group (PCG), will change its official name to Information Platform and Service Line this Friday. The reason for the change is to merge part of Sogou teams and carry out strategic transformation.

Under the new structure, some centers will be integrated with the Sogou team and upgraded to a business unit. Several executives from Sogou search, Sogou browser and Tencent Kandian told Jiemian that after the merger of the two parties, Tencent Kandian’s strategy in the future will focus on search engines, and the status of information flow will  weaken over time.

Tencent Kandian has over 185 million daily active users, covering all ages in all cities across the country, and its content covers finance, sports, entertainment, games among others.

Many people inside Tencent who are familiar with the change up told Jiemian that from Friday, the information of employees in Sogou will officially enter Tencent‘s system, and the personnel handover between the two parties will be completed.

Yin Yu, Vice President of Tencent and Head of Tencent Kandian, will become the Head of the company’s Information Platform and Service Line, reporting to Ren Yuxin, President of PCG. Another Vice President of Tencent, Qie Xiaohu, will be in charge of business line search and commercialized technology.

Under this business line, new business units will include those pertaining to the company’s platform, content, search, reading, and commercialization, in addition to the data and technology businesses.

Under the technology and content platform of PCG, Tencent also created two new departments that will focus on AI interaction and input methods. The teams will be mostly composed of former Sogou employees.

SEE ALSO: Sogou Announces Completion of Transaction to Go Private

On September 24th, Sogou announced its merger with Tencent. As a result of the move, the company ceased to be publicly traded and became a privately-held company wholly-owned indirectly by Tencent. On the same day, Sohu announced the completion of an equity transaction in Sogou. Sohu, which holds 33.8% of Sogou’s shares, will receive $1.18 billion after the transaction, and will no longer retain any rights and interests in the company.