UC Browser claims top spot in India, plans to launch more regional products

At present the browser is available in 15 different languages from India and southeast Asia, including Hindi and Tamil

Even as global tech giant Google again tries to gain a foothold in China, its biggest competitor in the country, Alibaba has been making a concerted effort to elbow its way into India, where the US firm has a massive user base. In the race to call dibs on the next 400 million internet users, UC Browser, Alibaba’s third-party mobile based browser is launching a host of products in local languages, to compete with Chrome, Google’s browser.

The Chinese firm also claimed top spot in India and said that users spend more time on its platform than chrome. “Right now there are over 400 million internet users in India and among these almost 80 per cent are using smartphones. They are our target audience and market. We have over 130 million monthly active users. According to App Annie, as far as the average user time spent is concerned, we are 50 per cent more than the time spent on Chrome. User loyalty and stickiness is also higher on UC Browser. Right now we have a leadership position in third-party mobile browser segment and maintaining that is our goal,” said Feng Yang, senior algorithm expert, head of UC News Feed content platform in overseas markets, UCWeb, Alibaba Digital and Media Entertainment Group.

The company is planning for a major vernacular push. At present its platform is available in 15 different languages from India and southeast Asia, including Hindi and Tamil. It plans to add more regional languages to the mix and provide the whole browsing experience in different Indian languages. It is also producing, commissioning as well as tying up with a host of content providers so that it can bring in more video and audio content in local languages.

It is also working on making machine learning and artificial intelligence better so that it can make the browser more receptive to user's web search habits. “UC Browser is at present in 15 languages including Hindi and Tamil. A user can choose the language they want to continue with when they download the app. After that we provide localised and curated content to the user. In terms of video content, we are also exploring content supply and content partnership, so that we can provide more content in local languages. We will offer customised and tailor-made services for each and every user,” said Dexter Wang, product head at UC Browser.

While the company has few advertisers, including e-commerce giant Flipkart, fintech player Paytm and smartphone manufacturer Oppo, the company is not in a hurry to monetise the platform. “At present, we want to improve our user experience. We want to develop digital media and content ecosystem. We want to work more with more Indian content creators,” added Wang.

On the issue of data privacy and Indian data, the company said that they are complying with all the laws of the land and all the data is stored onshore. “We have local servers in India and we store data here. In the past seven years, we have complied with all local rules and regulations and will continue to do so in the future,” said Liangwei Wu, product head of UC News Feed in overseas markets.