Panguso () is a Chinese company offering the

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

Panguso.com, which is used mostly in Chinese. Compared to its private competitors, the Chinese

Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of o ...

and the US-based

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, which are used more frequently in China, the two shareholders of this joint venture are the state-owned Chinese news agency

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: ),J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English or New China News Agency, is the official State media, state news agency of the China, People's Republic ...

and the in 2011 worldwide largest mobile telecommunication provider

China Mobile China Mobile is the trade name of both China Mobile Limited and its ultimate controlling shareholder, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd., a Chinese State-owned enterprises of China, state-owned telecommunicationsStrait deals ''The Econ ...

. On March 1, 2014, Panguso merged with Jike and became ChinaSo.

Founding

The founding of the search engine Panguso has been announced in August 2010. In December 2010 the beta version went online and in late February 2011 it was officially launched. The homepage redirects to the 'news' section, where the user is provided with the first headlines beneath the search windows. News are also building the focal point of the search engine. The company brings together as partners the state monopolistic largest Chinese content provider

and the largest Chinese mobile communication provider with 550 million customers in 2010. The search engine is planned to be pre-installed on cell phones and therefore is a response to Google, which started their google phone.

Evaluation

The major competitive disadvantage of the search engine is its official nature. Following an Internet study of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Internet user especially are interested in pluralistic viewpoints and information not originating from the state-owned information channel. Following Qian Xiaoqian, a member of the Chinese State Council, the search engine will "offer useful and healthy features as well as strive for the restriction of dissemination of illegal contents like pornography and glorification of violence".Gole
Werner Pluta, 'Panguso - Official Chinese search engine started (Offizielle chinesische Suchmaschine startet)', in: Golem (2/23, 2011)
/ref> The results shown by Panguso are more restricted than by the Hong Kong-based daughter of US-based

and even more restricted as by

baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of o ...

Sources

"State starts own search engine (Staat startet eigene Internet-Suchmaschine)"
in: RP Online (3/1/2011) * Christoph Ricking: "Panguso, Interview with Martin Woesler"
radio broadcasting (Chinese)
, in: Voice of Germany, Chinese Program (3/1/2011) * Christoph Ricking: "Baidu Beat, Interview with Martin Woesler"
radio broadcasting (Chinese)
, in: Voice of Germany, Chinese Program (1/12/2011)

External links

Website of Panguso
(Cached on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

)
Website of ChinaSo
Online companies of China