How Firefox Spreads the Word in China, on Social Media and on Campus [INTERVIEW]

Half of all the internet users in the world who are clinging grimly to the decade-old Internet Explorer 6 browser are in China. Mozilla China is doing its best to spread the word, and usage, of its own Firefox browser across China – on the web, on social media, and even on university campuses.

Firefox is known as “huo hu” in China, where it faces up against the behemoth IE as well as home-grown browsers such as those from 360 or Sogou.

In its early days, Firefox was held back by the need to use IE for almost any e-commerce or online banking tasks in China. But now that barrier has been breached, and most major banks and – most importantly – home shopping giant Taobao and its Alipay online payment service, fully support the use of Firefox. Despite that, some recent figures on web browser usage in China are not too encouraging, showing Firefox, along with Google Chrome, getting only about 2% share each.

And so it’s the work of Mozilla China – from its base in Beijing – to get the word out about Firefox on social media – now up to 31,000 followers on Sina Weibo, at weibo.com/firefox – and at events at university campuses across the country. To get a clearer picture of what Mozilla is up to in China, and to understand how the standard Firefox installation has been tailored for a Chinese audience, I talked to Jia Lu-fei, Communications Manager at Mozilla China.

What does the Mozilla team in Beijing do to the Firefox browser?

The main work of Mozilla Online is to promote Firefox in China, including the brand and the product. Meanwhile, the team focuses on localization and customization for Chinese users.

Speaking of customization, I see that Firefox in China (from firefox.com.cn) a new tab/’speed dial’ page, which is not available to worldwide users – and also some pre-installed add-ons such as Personas, and Tencent QZone, and more.

Firefox's China-only add-on shows your favourite sites in a convenient 'new tab' screen. Click to enlarge image.

We have decided to recommend and also create some add-ons for Chinese users in order to adapt to their patterns of use. That ‘new tab’ add-on is developed by Chinese engineers.

Did Mozilla China do any market research to learn what are Chinese users’ “patterns of use,” as you said, and what extra features they might like?