UC Browser beats out Chrome and Safari in China, India, and Pakistan, ranked 4th worldwide

UC Browser, the third-party mobile browser made by China’s UCWeb now fully owned by Alibaba, announced it is the world’s most popular third-party mobile browser, according to StatCounter.

UC Browser now holds 11.1 percent of mobile browser pageview market share worldwide, overtaking Opera. UC Browser’s percent market share has actually slipped from 11.8 percent since a year ago, but Opera slipped even further, from 16.3 percent down to 9.1 percent.

UC Browser does not come pre-installed as the default browser on Android or iOS, so it still lags behind Chrome (29.8 percent), Android Browser (18.9 percent), and Safari (21.9 percent). Not just a one-off milestone, UC Browser has held the number four spot overall since October.

Its growth is led by China and India, where it holds the number one spots in both countries. It boasts 41.2 percent market share in India, up nine percent from a year earlier. That’s almost twice the market share of second-place Chrome.

In China, it’s in a heated race against the stock Android browser, now barely outstripping its pre-installed rival by less than one percent.

In addition to China and India, UC Browser also claims the number one spot in Pakistan (29.1 percent), and the number two spots in Indonesia (19.8 percent), Nigeria (13.1 percent), and Bangladesh (18.5 percent).

UCWeb also disclosed triple-digit percent growth in Russia and Brazil.