When it comes to mobile space browsing, there is no doubt that currently, Opera Software with its Opera Mini browser is the dominant player, especially in the African market.
Nonetheless, Alibaba Mobile Business Group wants to challenge Opera Mini’s dominance in Africa by pitting it against its own UC Browser. Alibaba has launched a campaign in Kenya to get more internet users browsing the net on their mobile phone using the UC Browser.
Kenya is seen as a lucrative market based on these stats: the country has a total of 37.8 million subscribers, 40% of whom are browsing on smartphones. The number of internet users is growing at an impressive rate, with about 21.6 million users recorded as per the Q2 of the 2015-2016 financial year.
Kenny Ye, the General Manager of Global Market Alibaba Mobile Business Group, told Capital FM: “The past few years have seen fast-lane growth in smartphone shipments to Kenya. Riding on the smartphone shift, UC Browser crafted a flurry of handy features, such as its Smart Downloader, Video Player, and Gesture Support, to fully exploit the versatility of the smartphone, making mobile browsing easier and smarter for its users,
Like their Asian counterparts, African growing population of young mobile users is a mobile-first population and users adopt their smartphones as their primary, and most of the time, only internet-enabled device.
UC Browser does not want just to be your favorite mobile browser; it also wants to become your one-stop shop especially for users with an appetite for content. The browser wants to deliver content faster and to give you quick access to local content on the web.
In most emerging markets in Asia, UC Browser is the leading mobile browser according to StatCounter.
Kenny Ye adds, “We already beat Chrome and Opera in the most important emerging markets such as India and Indonesia, and we believe that Africa is the next destination for the miracle to happen.”
In Africa, the browser has to oust Opera Mini as the continent’s favorite and popularly used mobile browser; although UC Browser comes in as the second best and Chrome third best albeit at a far distance from the second place. With the announcement of the official launch of UC Browser in Africa, users should expect new options for the users in Africa in regards to mobile browsing and local content feature.