Shenma Inc. () is a "mobile-first"

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

for China that was launched in April 2014. It is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between Alibaba Group and UCWeb. In April 2017, according to China Internet Watch, Shenma had an 8.8% of the China search engine market share, which made it the second most used search engine after Baidu. Shenma comes with UC Browser, a mobile browser with an estimated 20% share of China's browser market and over 30% of China's mobile browser marketshare. Shenma search was co-founded as a mobile search engine by UCWeb and

Alibaba Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...

in 2013. In 2014, Alibaba acquired UCWeb.

Litigation

On April 13, 2020, Shenma filed a lawsuit against Sogou for traffic hijacking. In the filing, the mobile search company accused Sougou of misleading and reeling in potential Shenma users through Sogou Input Method, and for illegally trafficking data. Shenma told the court that the hijacked traffic data reached 1.897 billion. Shenma was seeking

RMB The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

102 million (around $16 million in American dollars) in compensation. On June 27, 2019, the

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Haidian Court ruled that the Sogou search company was guilty of hijacking UC browser and Shenma search traffic through candidate words, constituted unfair competition. They were sentenced to pay a fine of 20 million yuan.

References

Companies based in Beijing Internet search engines Online companies of China Internet properties established in 2014 Chinese brands 2014 establishments in China {{China-company-stub