Y&R Guangzhou to power creative strategy for Tencent’s Soso.com

Y&R Guangzhou will lead the development of all communication and creative strategies for Soso.com using channels like viral videos, print, and OOH.

Constituting one of Tencent’s major business units, Soso.com provides Chinese netizens with more than 16 verticals, including website, image, music, blogs, news, people and video searches. As of today, Soso.com is ranked as the 43rd most visited website globally, and the 11th most visited website in China, according to traffic scores from global web metrics site Alexa.

Jeff Xiong, chief technology officer of Tencent, has revealed that the company plans to invest US$157 million (one billion yuan) in the research and development of Soso.com in 2012. Xiong says Tencent's goal is for Soso.com to be profitable within the next three years.

Tencent began a promotional roadshow for Soso.com in Shanghai last week - the first of such since its launch in 2006. The roadshow will also be held in nine other cities in China including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

Separately, in August this year, Optimedia Beijing was assigned the media account of Soso.com.