Qihoo 360 (QIHU, Financial) delivered a quarter of robust growth and stable operational metrics with continued solid performance in both mobile game and search monetization. Qihoo witnessed an accelerated momentum in PC search monetization with the improvement in its monetization system, expansion of customer base and greater advertising verticals.
Why the future looks bright
In the latter half of the third quarter, Qihoo closed the integration of MediaV's platform and began popularizing several commercial tools to meet the expanding customer requirements. Qihoo introduced a key commercial tool 360 Juxiao which is believed to utilize its 360's smart screen modern dimension big data analysis capacity to accelerate the targeted delivery of mobile apps and PC. These innovative and unique monetization tools are estimated to drive further healthy growth in advertising through the PC traffic monetization and a rapid considerable strategic shift to mobile Internet.
Its Android app store, 360 Mobile Assistant, captured users rapidly and became an unrivaled leader in this market regardless of the rising competition. The number of smartphone users of the 360 Mobile Assistant crossed 600 million users mark by September and overall every day Android apps download were recorded more than 160 million. 360 Mobile Assistant is believed to be the go-to-platform for the intermediary mobile game distribution in China.
During the third quarter, Qihoo made significant progress in monetizing its mobile app store by leveraging both mobile games and advertising platforms. By the end of third quarter, more than 50% of the entire search traffic was for the mobile search with approximately 25% of its complete annual search traffic comprised of search on mobile devices.
Again for the third quarter, Qihoo exceeded its own expectations and generated solid operational and financial results. Entire active user base of Qihoo 360’s PC based services and products for the quarter added to 495 million as compared to 465 million last year. However, the User penetration of its PC based products slightly declined to 93.6% as compared to 94.2% last year. The overall smartphone users of its major mobile security product 360 Mobile Safe recorded 673 million as compared to just 408 million last year.
A strong base
By the end of the third quarter, Qihoo had nearly 2,200 games running on its gaming platform commercially. The net playing gaming accounts increased to approximately 1.1 million.
Going forward, mobile monetization and search are believed to be two key drivers of Qihoo’s complete growth in the successive years. Considering the key priorities and the resource limit, Qihoo targets on continuously following its open platform strategy for mobile Internet coupled with leveraging superior technology and products to enhance the user engagement with the platform. Qihoo is also open to further solidifying its ecosystem by major M&A activities, investing widely and partnering strategically. These strategic efforts are estimated to further enable Qihoo to develop into a leading mobile Internet and PC platform in China.
Qihoo is believed to be at the top position leading the competition in the rapidly expanding Chinese smartphone security market. 360 PC browsers recorded 357 million monthly active users for this year as compared to 342 million last year. 360 PC browsers' user penetration rate for this year illustrated nearly 67.5% as compared to 69.3% last year.
Qihoo’s 360 Personal Start-up Page and its sub-pages attracted daily unique visitors of 128 million on an average, slightly above 126 million last year. Average daily clicks on its 360 Personal Start-up Page and its sub-pages totalled 723 million during the third quarter. Net smartphone users of its android app store and its 360 Mobile Assistant added to more than 600 million. Average daily app downloads also increased to over 160 million by September end.
Conclusion
Hence, Qihoo is improving its business in several areas, and this makes it a smart investment.
