I recently learnt that the UC Browser, owned by Alibaba Group, has achieved 400 million active monthly users worldwide. That's no small feat for a mobile browser, is it? And this success has made it the most widely used mobile Browser in Asia and 2nd most popular mobile browser in the world. As per the web traffic analytics service StatCounter, UC Browser has recorded over 30% monthly PV market share in the 1st quarter of 2016 in Asia. That is even more than the share of Chrome.
There are 3 main reasons for this success of the UC Browser.
- It makes browsing faster.
- It saves data. As per its website, it can compresses data usage by about 60%.
- It offers a lot of content and removes the need of many other apps like Facebook, Twitter.
Important Features: When you start using the UC Browser, you'll be surprised by how many features it offers without being bulky and overweight. It has a night mode, it can play even the videos and music stored on phone, it carries entertainment content like jokes, videos, songs and news items. All this can be accessed without leaving the browser. It removes the need of downloading extra apps for popular services like Facebook, Twitter, Hungama, HotStar, Flipkart, Amazon etc. The shortcuts of the mobile sites of many of these services are pre-added in the browser. You can remove whichever app or shortcut you don't want and search for an add the apps of your choice by tapping at the Plus button in the shortcut or bookmark screen of the browser. This reduces the need of downloading all the related apps separately from Google Play store which would occupy a lot of internal storage of the phone. For example, in my phone, the Twitter app alone weighs twice as much as the UC Browser that has Twitter, Facebook, some shopping apps, some news apps, a cricket app and much more. So for those smartphones that have less internal storage, UC Browser can prove to be a great space saver. It can give the users of such smartphones the joy of using various apps and services, even if their phones don't have the storage needed for full apps of these services. And this is one of the biggest reasons why UC Browser is so successful.
Mini Version: For those devices that have very little internal storage, there's also a lighter version of UC Broweser available. Even this UC Browser Mini offers lots of features. And it too allows the users to add shortcuts to their favourite services on the top of the browser's home screen and access Facebook, Twitter and other services without their apps.
Hindi Browser: There's also a UC Browser Mini Hindi. It has less features and very simple user interface. All the tool tips and directions in it are in Hindi.
Content Cards: In the UC Browser and UC Browser Mini (not in UC Browser Mini Hindi), we also have Cards displayed on the home screen of the browser. Users can choose what kinds of the cards they want displayed. The categories include latest songs, videos, jokes, news, cricket scores etc. These cards can be accessed by just scrolling the browser home page downwards.
Notification Panel Shortcuts: UC Browser also adds tools in notification. These tools include Quick Search, Facebook, Cricket Live Score and Smart Clipboard. Users can activate or deactivate these tools.
Other features of the UC Browser (full version) include delivering news and messages on the Lock Screen, customizable Font and Layout, Text Only browsing for saving of data, Language choice, Ad Block and UC Express etc. All these features can be turned on or off from the settings of the browser.
In short, UC Browser offers a lot of features, conveniences and customizations in one single pack. It's not just a browser, it's also like a website serving lot of entertainment content. And it allows users to easily access services like Facebook, Twitter, Hotstar, Amazon etc. without needing to download their apps. No wonder it is getting so popular. If you want to check it out too, here are the links:
