Sohu.com Inc., China's second-largest internet portal announced Monday to introduce Alibaba Group, China's biggest e-commerce firm, as its strategic investor on restructuring its search engine Sogou.

According to the agreement, Alibaba and Yunfeng will hold 16 percent stakes in Sogou, and Sohu's chairman Zhao Chaoyang will hold 16 percent shares. The remaining 68 percent will be retained by Sogou.

An estimated two months will be needed for closing the deal and Sogou will use the money obtained to develop its business.

Zhang explained that Sogou has long been eyeing to be the country's second-largest search engine, and that the company, through this cooperation, expects to achieve a respectable market share.

Industry analysts believe that although Sogou has had a satisfactory performance in recent years, attracting a large number of users, it is still in investment phase.