Can Chinese internet pioneer Sohu finally pull off a comeback after missing the mobile era?

Years after Sohu.com, once known as one of China’s leading internet portals, fell from grace by missing the mark in some of the hottest realms of the mobile internet age – social media, live broadcasting and short video – it has vowed to make a comeback with new initiatives in videos and more.

Sohu is at the stage of bottoming out and is set for a “comeback”, Sohu founder and CEO Charles Zhang Chaoyang said at a media briefing on Wednesday, detailing plans to launch new self-developed drama series on its streaming site and move into the short video space, according to a report on the Sohu News portal.

But can Sohu pull off a recovery?

Its latest attempt was Huyou, a social app that last month joined the attack on China’s dominant social and messaging app WeChat, but failed to impress users and the industry after it was pulled from app stores only two days after launch.

“Due to the need to improve some features, the Huyou app will be removed in half an hour from app stores for a week”, Zhang wrote in one of three posts announcing the decision last month on Weibo, China’s popular Twitter-like microblogging site run by a rival internet major Sina Corp.

He added that the app, which works like a hybrid of WeChat and Weibo as a social platform, remained accessible to existing users, but some users were quick to move on. “I’ve already uninstalled it,” read the most upvoted comment in response to Zhang’s post.