How Jack Ma beat Sundar Pichai on his home turf

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Alibaba’s Jack Ma was rejected from Harvard University ten times. Google’s Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai is an alumnus of Stanford University and Wharton School. But when it comes to capturing the Indian market, the Chinese business magnate has a few more tricks up his sleeve than Google’s new helmsman, it seems.

According to a report released yesterday by mobile analytics firm Quettra, UC Browser’s share among mobile browsers is almost double that of Google Chrome in the Indian market. Across all mobile operating systems, Indians spend a collective 11.3 million hours a month on UC Browser and just 6.1 million hours on Chrome.

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba bought UC Web, maker of UC Browser last year for US$1.9 billion. UC Browser is already the most popular browser in China with more than 50 percent market share.

According to StatCounter, an independent web traffic analysis firm, UC Browser has a dominant 54.42 percent page view market share in India. The market share of UC Browser in Indonesia, where it is the leading mobile browser, is over 49 percent.

Still, Google’s Chrome dominates globally. The total market share of UC Browser internationally is just 17.42 percent. Chrome tops the list with close to 35 percent.

Google did not comment on this story.

Google’s new global head Sundar Pichai was formerly the head of Google Chrome before moving on to lead Google’s Android division.

Think global, act local

A spokesperson for UC Web tells Tech in Asia that UC Browser is the first mobile browser to incorporate cloud technology which can compress data and accelerate the loading speed.

“UC Browser’s cloud technology is well adapted [for] India, where network infrastructure is not perfect – especially in India’s suburbs,” the spokesperson says. “UC Browser not only saves data consumption and makes mobile internet more affordable for many people, but also significantly speeds up web page loading under various networks.”

Facebook is the most popular social network in India, and UC Browser lets users do more on Facebook with faster Facebook page load time by using dedicated servers and cloud acceleration technology. For instance, Indian users love downloading content from the web, but the underdeveloped network is always a problem that may interrupt the downloading process.

Kenny Ye, managing director for UC Web India says:

In the past 12-18 months, UC Browser, India’s No.1 mobile browser with over 54 percent market share has seen strong traction coming in from second- and third-tier cities like Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Jaipur, and even Allahabad.