Shares of Qihoo 360 Technology (QIHU) were up 7.5%, at an all-time high, in afternoon trading Monday on a report that the search ad network the company is developing could start generating “material” revenue soon. Qihoo shares peaked at 37.60 midmorning in the stock market (2013-05-06). That topped the all-time high of 36.21 that the U.S.-traded shares of the Beijing-based company set in April 2011, in its first week of trading after its IPO. In afternoon trading, shares were near 37.
In March on a conference call with analysts, CEO Hongyi Zhou said Qihoo is busy building the ad sales network for the search engine it launched in August 2012. “We believe we can gain a meaningful share in the multibillion-dollar search advertising market as we work toward our long-term goal of becoming a major player in China’s lucrative search market,” Zhou said.
Qihoo’s search engine is a competitor to the dominance of Baidu (BIDU) in China, though Baidu still holds the lion’s share of the market. Baidu at the end of March had 75% of the PC search market, while Qihoo held 12.5%, according to research firm Experian Hitwise.
Source: Investor Business Daily
