UC Betting BIG For India, will soon accomplish 100 Million Active monthly users milestone
We got a chance to interact with Robert Bu, General Manager, UCWeb, India. He oversees the overall growth and business development for the company in India. Robert holds an International MBA and Engineering Masters from Sun Yat-Sen University, China. He has been in the ICT industry for over 9 years, having worked for top telecom companies including Ericsson and Nortel.During the interaction , we got to know about the current developments and how much important India is to UcWeb Global plans.
Here are some of the questions we asked during our interaction -
Robert told us " UCWeb is committed to India and our focus will continue to be of a content aggregator. We will work to offer content providers a platform to connect with users while users will be able to receive their favourite content when there is an abundance of information available online.
We see a lot of potential and possibilities in the country. Our vision is to be the gateway to the world of Internet for millions of people who are accessing the internet for the first time on their mobile phones. We will be happy to work with partners from the entertainment industry and help them distribute their content to masses via our huge user base".
2. What Is The Progress Of The Collaboration With Colors Entertainment?
We have a successful strategic partnership with Colors TV towards digitizing entertainment on mobile. The partnership with Colors TV offers bigger and better comprehensive content options to users who access internet on the go. Our vision with the partnership has been to offer Digitized Entertainment and utilise strengths of volume and power of the browser in content aggregation and to provide quality content to as many users as possible.
The strategic partnership has built around 4 marquee shows of Colors; Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, 24, Big Boss and Comedy Nights Live. As part of the collaboration, UCWeb has been creating multiple engagement platforms around these shows for the users of UC Browser, 9Apps and UC News.
After being onboarded as the “Trending Partner” for Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, the fans have had access to an exclusive fan zone on the homepage of UC Browser offering behind the scenes content. The special section created for Jhalak Dikhla Jaa witnessed over 7 million page views on UC Browser.
The host of the show, Manish Paul also offered his whacky take on the show in the form of an exclusive blog. While the viewers of 24 can have the entire experience replicated for them on a game available on 9Apps.
The prime attraction is however Big Boss season 10, where the users of UC Browser will have exclusive access to behind the scenes.
3. Is UC Having Any Plans To Tie Up With Mobile Manufacture OEM For The Application Distribution?
UC have tied up with some handset makers in the past. UCWeb is open to tie ups with handset manufacturers in future.
4. What Is The Success Rate You Have Achieved For 9Apps In India?
9Apps is one of the most popular Android apps store with over 250 million monthly active users worldwide, which generates over 800 million app distributions every month, and 26 million app downloads every single day.
As the world’s leading third-party app stores for Android apps and games, we see ourselves as a local app store in each of the countries we are present in. 9Apps is committed to help local developers and bolster a healthy app ecosystem.
Our $20 million InDev Program aims at helping over 100 Indian independent and start-level developers with specially designed solutions, especially in user acquisition and monetization over the next 2 years. Some of the highlights of the InDev Program include zero cost promotion support for developers, 100% revenue sharing with qualified developers for a certain period of time, professional support and consultancy in testing, localization and many others. Our aim is not just to acquire more users but to engage with them deeply and there is no other local mobile platform in Indian market that can match with the services provided by 9Apps, in terms of user base and app distribution.
UC currently do not have a R&D Center in India. Our Indian headquarter is in Gurgaon with over 30 employees and is our second headquarter and we are deeply attached with the country, committed to bridge the digital divide and offering people an opportunity to access the wonderful world of internet. Our main R&D centre is in China where we have over 1500 employees working on the same.
Robert Replied"We have a team of editors for creating India specific content who work out of the Gurgaon office but otherwise no specific data center."
7.How UCWeb Is Working To Attract More Users To Its Search Browser?
At last Robert Explained us how much important is India to UC as a global market. UC will soon have 100 million monthly active users In India very soon.
UCWeb does not have a search engine but the flagship product UC Browser is one of the most popular mobile browsers in India with 50% market share and 80 million monthly active users.
About UCWeb
UCWeb Inc. (UCWeb) is a business within Alibaba Mobile Business Group and a leading provider of mobile internet software and services. Since its inception in 2004, UCWeb's mission has been to provide better mobile internet experience to people around the world. UC Browser, the flagship product of UCWeb, is compatible with all mainstream operating systems and available in 11 languages including English, Russian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. As of June 2016, UC Browser had reached 420 million Monthly Active Users worldwide. Additional information about UCWeb and UC Browser can be found at www.ucweb.com
About Alibaba Mobile Business Group
Alibaba Mobile Business Group is a leading provider of mobile services and content. Its product portfolio includes mobile browser, mobile search, location-based services, mobile gaming, app store and mobile reader operations. With its technologies and big data, Alibaba Mobile Business Group is committed to bringing about mobile internet innovation and reliability.
