Alibaba Mobile Services group company UCWeb has now claimed to having 100 million active users in India (MAU), with their flagship product, the UC Web Browser. The product has a 57% market share in India, and has experienced a change of 25% of MAUs in 2016 alone, which at one point in June 2016 crossed the 80 million MAU mark. This development supposedly made UC Web Browser the largest used browser in the country as per StatCounter details. Kenny Ye, the General Manager of Overseas Business at Alibaba Mobile Business Group spoke at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Bangalore.
He mentioned, “India has been an incredible market for UCWeb. In the 6 years that we have been here, UC Browser has transformed from being the largest mobile browser to a leading content distribution platform in India. By crossing 100 million MAUs, UCWeb envisions itself as powerful as Google and Facebook and bring the global mobile internet to an era of ‘GUF’ (Google, UCWeb, and Facebook).”
With over 462 million internet users and 371 million mobile internet users in India, according to IAMAI reports, a 100 million MAUs makes UC Browser an ideal platform for accessing different kinds of content and the first choice option for mobile browsing. With the changing mobile internet landscape, UCWeb has adopted a strategy of becoming a content distribution platform from being a browsing tool by engaging and aggregating entertainment based content on its platforms , the UC Browser and UC News.
With the latest achievements of the company in India, there are some interesting and customer friendly initiatives, which could also open up opportunities for content service providers, in the upcoming near future.
Increased Focus on Integrating Entertainment related Content
After the successful tie-up with Colors TV and Fox Star Studios’ Ae Dil Hai Mushkil movie, UCWeb will continue to drive the growth of the newly announced Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group by partnering with more entertainment content providers and entertainment companies (production houses and television shows).
Detailing the company’s India strategy, Kenny said, “We see entertainment as being the most consumed content genre in India right now and we want to give our users exactly what they want. Our recent partnerships with Colors TV and latest Bollywood movie, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, keep us in sync with our users’ interests and integrates entertainment in different formats on our mobile platform in India. We aim to create UC Browser & UC News as the ideal destination for entertainment based content providers to leverage it for the launch of their new movie, book, music or television show.”
UCWeb has been the Trending Partner for popular shows on Colors TV, Jhalak Dikhla Ja and Bigg Boss with the former page receiving over 7 million views on UC Browser. The exclusive launch of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’s popular song ‘The Breakup Song’ on UC Browser also received 6 million views.
The growth story continues
UCWeb has also been setting new trends under its We Media program where people get an opportunity to create, to write, share thoughts and engage with their followers on UC News and UC Browser. UCWeb had a successful partnership with Chetan Bhagat for the launch of his latest bestseller ‘One Indian Girl’.
As a part of the We-Media program, Chetan Bhagat wrote exclusive blog posts on UC News and had a successful Live chat on UC Browser. The event was viewed by over 1,500,000 users, and attracted over 18 million users to the campaign page in 3 days alone (between September 28-30, 2016). UC News attracted a readership of 500,000 for Chetan’s bonus chapter of the book and helped add over 58,000 fans to his account.
Talking about UC News’ future in India, Kenny said: “UC News has become the most downloaded news app in the Google Play app store within the 5 months of its launch. To further consolidate our role as a content distribution platform, we will be making a significant move by inviting more and more key opinion leaders, celebrities and self-publishers to join the We-Media program to offer unique content on UC News. This will also help the contributors to gain traffic, revenue and followers from our platform.”
