The market loved Sohu.com's (Nasdaq: SOHU) quarterly report yesterday, sending the stock 9% higher on the better than expected results.

Sohu's fastest-growing segment was paid search, as its Sogou.com engine delivered a 183% surge during the period. The showing easily upstaged the 45% spurt in online display advertising and the 32% uptick in its Changyou.com (Nasdaq: CYOU) fueled online gaming business. Unfortunately, we're only talking about a thin sliver of Sohu's overall revenue mix. Sohu scored $8 million in paid search revenue, less than 5% of its top-line pie.

In other words, paid search is unlikely to move the needle -- for now.

Over the years, Sohu has come in many different wrappers. It was one of the market's best performers in 2002 when it was seen as an early play on China's mobile content, until the Chinese government and wireless carriers cracked down on third-party value-added service providers.

Sohu went on to emphasize its website properties, culminating in being tapped China's official online portal of Beijing's Olympic Games in 2008.

Once the global games came and went, it was online gaming's turn to take the baton and run its leg of the relay race. It's a strategy that worked well for both NetEase and Sohu, leading to Sohu taking Changyou public.

Is it now paid search's turn to run?

It's a laughable notion today. Paid search's gross margins are actually clocking in lower than Sohu's three other businesses. If you think a 5% slice of the revenue mix is measly, you'll shake your head at paid search's gross profit clocking at 2.4% of the total gross profit.

Not so fast, though.

Sohu sees Sogou contributing $11 million in revenue during the current quarter, a healthy sequential pop that now finds it commanding nearly 6% of the second quarter's projected revenue.

Sogou's gross margins of 39% can also use some improvement, and not just because they were at a mere 3% a year ago and 32% just three months ago. Baidu's (Nasdaq: BIDU) gross margins checked in at 73% for all of last year.

During yesterday's analyst call, CEO Charles Zhang revealed that Sogou has just 4% of China's search engine traffic but just 1.6% of the revenue. It's also Zhang's goal to be at 20% of the market in a few years.

Cynics will argue that Zhang's dreaming. Baidu commands roughly two-thirds of China's market with no signs of letting up. Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) partial retreat out of the country last year should have been the mother of all opportunities. Sogou obviously gained ground over the past year, but Baidu's been the real winner.

However, Sohu commands less than 10% of Baidu's market cap. If Sogou is able to gain traffic share, advertisers will come along to help prop up its share of the revenue. Margins will improve, even if they don't reach Baidu-esque levels. It may be a lottery ticket at this point, but Sohu investors also have the thriving display and online gaming endeavors to fall back on if Sogou remains a bit player in paid search.

It's a good place to be, as Sohu hones its craft under Baidu's long shadow.

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