4 ms·

> In this report, we analyze Tencent’s Sogou Input Method, the most popular Chinese input method with over 455 million monthly active users and versions of the

> In this report, we analyze Tencent’s Sogou Input Method, the most popular Chinese input method with over 455 million monthly active users and versions of the app for multiple platforms, including Windows, Android, and iOS. Sogou Input Method accounts for 70% of Chinese input method users, with products by iFlytek and Baidu taking second and third place, respectively. This part is surprising to me. Are the Chinese input methods provided directly by the operating systems not enough? I'm surprised that Microsoft, Apple et al provide such a sub-par service in China that over 450 million people were bothered enough to install a third-party keyboard.

saurik 3y ago
It is a lot better now, but the Chinese keyboard used to be so not-as-good on iOS that Baidu's official help for people (and even for a while an advertisement on their home page!) suggested they jailbreak their phone to get a better keyboard.
dmoy 3y ago
phone native pinyin->character input seems fine now? Google keyboard and iphone's keyboard for pinyin->characters works fine. If you're using normal mandarin. Windows OS pinyin->character input.... I don't know if I've ever seen someone use something other than Sogou lol, so honestly I can't say how good or bad windows native is at this now. It's a hard problem, because of the 1:many fanout for any given pinyin input. "bao" can mean like 40 different things - bread thing, weak (?), hug, violence (?), treasured-one (think like "my precious", like a pet name for a baby?), etc etc. Sogou had a big leg up for a long time because it figured out the correct words from context much better than other alternatives, requiring fewer manual selections. (semi-related note, google's voice->text still fails pretty hard for regional mandarin. For example it really doesn't like the hard Rs at the end of words in far northeastern mandarin. It can't seem to figure out that "baoERRRR" is actually just "bao". That problem doesn't exist for pinyin->characters though)
djtango 3y ago
Haven't used sogou since like 2009 but back then it not only was ace at contextual prediction but also had colloquialisms built in
lmm 3y ago
> I'm surprised that Microsoft, Apple et al provide such a sub-par service in China that over 450 million people were bothered enough to install a third-party keyboard. American companies man. They really don't care. So much stuff just breaks or does the bare minimum if you're using any kind of IME, or if you're not using UTF8, or even if you're not using ASCII. There seems to just be a general cultural incomprehension that there's any other way of writing on computers. (It's not even limited to companies - there's a whole bunch of Linux stuff with the same problem, e.g. Snap/FlatPak just break everything and don't care)

saurik 3y ago

It is a lot better now, but the Chinese keyboard used to be so not-as-good on iOS that Baidu's official help for people (and even for a while an advertisement on their home page!) suggested they jailbreak their phone to get a better keyboard.

dmoy 3y ago

phone native pinyin->character input seems fine now? Google keyboard and iphone's keyboard for pinyin->characters works fine. If you're using normal mandarin. Windows OS pinyin->character input.... I don't know if I've ever seen someone use something other than Sogou lol, so honestly I can't say how good or bad windows native is at this now. It's a hard problem, because of the 1:many fanout for any given pinyin input. "bao" can mean like 40 different things - bread thing, weak (?), hug, violence (?), treasured-one (think like "my precious", like a pet name for a baby?), etc etc. Sogou had a big leg up for a long time because it figured out the correct words from context much better than other alternatives, requiring fewer manual selections. (semi-related note, google's voice->text still fails pretty hard for regional mandarin. For example it really doesn't like the hard Rs at the end of words in far northeastern mandarin. It can't seem to figure out that "baoERRRR" is actually just "bao". That problem doesn't exist for pinyin->characters though)

djtango 3y ago

Haven't used sogou since like 2009 but back then it not only was ace at contextual prediction but also had colloquialisms built in

lmm 3y ago

> I'm surprised that Microsoft, Apple et al provide such a sub-par service in China that over 450 million people were bothered enough to install a third-party keyboard. American companies man. They really don't care. So much stuff just breaks or does the bare minimum if you're using any kind of IME, or if you're not using UTF8, or even if you're not using ASCII. There seems to just be a general cultural incomprehension that there's any other way of writing on computers. (It's not even limited to companies - there's a whole bunch of Linux stuff with the same problem, e.g. Snap/FlatPak just break everything and don't care)