Ali Baba's UC Browser launches in Kenya - Capital Business
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Ali Baba’s UC Browser launches in Kenya

UC BROWSER

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 21  – China’s leading mobile browser UC Browser has launched in the market providing millions of Kenyans with the opportunity to experience fast browsing speeds.

The browser owned by Alibaba Mobile Business Group sees potential growth in Kenya with the rise of smartphone shipments in the country.

Kenya currently has a total of 37.8 million mobile subscribers with almost 40 per cent of them using smartphones.

The number of internet subscriptions is similarly growing at a rapid rate with 21.6 million subscribers recorded as at the second quarter of the 2015/2016 financial year.

“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,” says the Kenny Ye, General Manager of Global Market, Alibaba Mobile Business Group.

“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,” says Kenny Ye.

Instead of positioning itself as a mobile browsing tool, UC Browser turns itself into a content aggregator and is able to cater to users’ appetite for content through providing better content and faster access to local web content.

UC Browser is the second most used mobile browser and number one in Asia with 30 percent  market share surpassing its competitors like Opera, as per StatCounter.

“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,” added Kenny Ye.

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Opera has a huge lead in Africa, primarily due to the Opera Mini browser, which African users love.

Chrome comes in a distant second while UC Browser is slowly moving into third place.

By announcing its official launch in Africa, UC Browser offers a new option for African users in terms of mobile browsing and local content consumption.

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