Content is now king for Alibaba’s UCWeb in India

Photo credit: Esther Vargas.

UCWeb, an Alibaba Mobile Business Group (AMBG) company, has tied up with television channel Colours TV to stream popular Indian TV shows on its platform. It will also feature exclusive footage, mobile games, and blogs to its users.

“More and more users consume content on mobile,” UCWeb India’s general manager Robert Bu told Tech in Asia, adding: “India is a country rich of content, so it’s easy for users to be lost in the ocean of content.” And in a country of TV loving audiences, the progression to mobiles is only logical.

The vital question here, however is that why a browser, which was earlier focused on catering to slow internet speeds, is now looking at content to drive its popularity?

UC Browser claims to have about 50 percent share in the mobile web browser market, a majority of which is on the Android operating system.

Smartphones have become consumers’ medium of choice. Players such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone are battling to attract customers with attractive 4G speed offers.

Fast growing market

Photo credit: Pabak Sarkar.

The number of mobile internet users in India is likely to cross 300 million by 2017.

Add to that the deepening internet adoption across India and availability of 4G enabled smartphones at prices as low as $74.68. So the company figured it would be best to shift its focus toward content.

Colours TV CEO Raj Nayak calls this a good opportunity for the channel to reach out to more viewers from among the 420 million monthly active users (MAUs) of the mobile browser. Along with it come opportunities for promotions and marketing.

Besides the partnership, it is interesting to note that Colours runs its own web channel Voot to cater to its existing and new online audience.

UCWeb says it uses big data to provide viewers only the content they will be interested in. They gauge browsing patterns and reading habits to provide curated content.

The company took its initial steps toward content with the launch of UC News, a news aggregator app, in June. Jack Huang, president of overseas business at AMBG, told reporters last week that the app has registered 10 million MAUs so far.