UC Browser World's Largest Third-Party Mobile Browser: Statcounter

A market research firm has claimed that UCWeb's UC Browser is the "world's largest third party mobile browser" based on page view market share. It adds that the UC Browser has a market share of 41.23 percent in India.

The research firm Statcounter suggests that UC Browser's success has been driven by its adoption in developing countries.

According to data release, UC Browser reached a market share of 11.1 percent by end of 2014 and became the fourth most popular mobile browser after Chrome, Safari and Android Browser. The firm however pointed that unlike other browsers, UC Browser is not a default app on Android or iOS.

In India, apart from having a market share of 41.23 percent, UC Browser saw a growth of nearly 50 percent in the second half of 2014 in terms of daily active users (DAU). Notably, UC Browser's 41.23 percent page view market share in India in 2014 was reported as 9 percent in 2013.

The research firm even shared some data of UC Browser from other markets including Indonesia, where the mobile browser achieved a 20 percent (19.7 percent exactly) market share by the end of 2014, compared to 7 percent share a year ago.

"In respect to pageviews (PV), UC Browser has achieved more than triple growth, revealed by its internal data tracker. That is to say, more and more Indonesian mobile users are having access to UC Browser more frequently every day - UC Browser has recently become the No. 1 browser app at Google Play Indonesia," adds the research firm.

In Nigeria and Bangladesh, Statcounter found UC Browser to account for 13.14 percent and 18.48 percent respectively of the total mobile browser usage. UC Browser also saw a huge jump in monthly active users in Russia where the mobile browser saw the number of users tripling in 2014. Meanwhile, the mobile browser saw the monthly active users doubling in Brazil last year.

Last year, Opera Software's Opera Mini mobile browser claimed to reach the 50 million user milestone in India.