This browser you’ve never heard of is beating Google in Asia

UC Browser is a free mobile browser for android devices that you’ve probably never heard of. The browser is common in places like Indonesia, India and other emerging markets. The browser was  developed by the Chinese mobile Internet company UCWeb and is owned by Alibaba Group of China. Originally launched in April 2004 as a J2ME-only application, it is available on a number of platforms including Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Java ME, Symbian, Windows Phone and Microsoft Windows.

UC Browser is one of the most popular web browsers in India with over 500 million downloads. To put in perspective how big UC Browser is in India – it has a larger user base than Google Chrome in the country. “The mobile browser rarely used in the West has outflanked Google’s Chrome in some of Asia’s fastest-growing markets, giving owner Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. an advantage in the race among technology giants to capture the next generation of internet users,” Wall Street journal reported on Monday. Google Chrome is still the king when it comes to worldwide market share, with Chrome taking 55 percent of the total.

The browser comes with Fast Download, Data Saving, Ad-Block functionality, and helps you access music, video, cricket information with smooth experience. Customized cricket feature is available on UC Browser. You can visit many cricket sites to support your team, and watch cricket live stream, and check out match scores on UC Browser.

The browser uses cloud acceleration and data compression technology. UC Browser’s servers act as a proxy which compresses and renders the data of web pages before sending it to users. This process helps to load web content faster. The browser can adapt to some network environments and support multi-file format downloading. In addition, UC Browser has HTML5 web app and cloud syncing features.It has the feature of “fast download” which increases the downloading speed using multiple thread connection download technique.

However, UC browser is not without controversies. In 2017, UC Browser came under Chinese government’s scanner for alleged leak of mobile data of its Indian users and may be banned in the country if found guilty, a senior IT ministry official said today. There have been complaints against UC Browser that it sends mobile data of its users in India to server in China. There are complaints that even if a user has uninstalled it or cleaned browsing data, the browser retains control of DNS, of the user’s device,” the officer, who did not wish to be named.  In addition, the browser disappeared from Google Play Store in November 2017 allegedly due to malicious promotions.