UCWeb

UCWeb Inc
IndustryInternet
Founded2004; 20 years ago (2004)
FounderHe Xiaopeng
Liang Jie
Headquarters
Guangzhou, Guangdong
,
China
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Yu Yongfu (President)
Productsmobile web browser,
mobile search engine, etc.
ParentAlibaba Group[1]
Websitewww.ucweb.com

UCWeb Inc. (also known as UC Mobile[1]) is a Chinese mobile Internet company that offers products and services that include mobile browser, UC News, and search engine services. Its flagship product, UC Browser, topped the Chinese, Indonesian and Indian markets in 2013.[2][3]

Description

UCWeb was founded in 2004 as a mobile browser maker. Over the past decade, it diversified to areas such as mobile search, mobile gaming, mobile reading, etc.[4][5] The company's UC Browser is the most popular of its kind in China with more than 66% market share, according to market researcher iResearch.[6] It's available in 11 languages (English, Hindi, Russian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, etc.) and on all major mobile OS platform (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Java ME, Blackberry, etc.). The browser has a fast pageload and economic data consumption made available by its data compression technology and a cloud system. UC Browser has over 500 million users around the globe, as of March 2014.[7]

In April 2014, UCWeb and Alibaba Group jointly announced the formation of a JV named Shenma Inc. (Chinese: 神马搜索; pinyin: Shénmǎ Sōusuǒ) that offers a mobile-only search engine in China.[8][9]

In June 2014, UCWeb was acquired by Alibaba Group in the largest Chinese Internet merger deal. This will see UCWeb form the Alibaba UC mobile business group by assimilating and consolidating part of mobile-related businesses within the Alibaba Group.[10][11] After the merger, under the leadership of Yu Yongfu, chief executive of UCWeb since 2006, the Alibaba UC mobile business group will oversee the browser, search, location-based service, app store, mobile gaming, and mobile reader operations.[12][13][14]

In 2015 it was revealed as part of the Snowden leaks that UCBrowser leaks sensitive IMSI, IMEI and MSISDN data, which was used by intelligence agencies to track users.[15][16]

References

  1. ^ a b "Alibaba Group Completes Full Acquisition and Integration of UCWeb". Alibaba Group. 2014-06-11.
  2. ^ company profile, BusinessWeek
  3. ^ UCWeb becomes first Chinese Internet company to hit No. 1 in India, adds Jack Ma to board Archived 2019-11-08 at the Wayback Machine, PandoDaily, Aug 21, 2013
  4. ^ Alibaba-Backed UCWeb Scouts for Mobile Acquisitions, Bloomberg, Jan 16, 2014
  5. ^ How UCWeb grew its dominant mobile browser position in China to create the UC 9Game platform, PocketGamer, Jun 12, 2014
  6. ^ 2013年中国手机浏览器行业分析报告, iResearch, Feb 14, 2014
  7. ^ Mobile browser-maker UCWeb, another global tech firm under the radar, crosses 500m users, TheNextWeb, Mar 21, 2014
  8. ^ Alibaba, UCWeb plan mobile-search joint venture, MarketWatch, Apr 28, 2014
  9. ^ Alibaba, UCWeb Team Up In Mobile Search, Forbes magazine, Apr 28. 2014
  10. ^ Alibaba to buy out UCWeb in China's biggest internet merger, Reuters, June 11, 2014
  11. ^ Alibaba Fully Buys Out UCWeb in China's Biggest Internet Deal Ever, Forbes magazine, June 11, 2014
  12. ^ Alibaba Buys Remaining Stake in UCWeb, Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2014
  13. ^ Alibaba to Acquire Rest of UCWeb to Boost Mobile Offering, Bloomberg, June 11, 2014
  14. ^ UCWeb to accelerate international expansion after Alibaba merger, PCWorld, June 12, 2014
  15. ^ Research group says UC Browser, owned by Alibaba, found to leak data - Reuters, 21 May 2015
  16. ^ Spy agencies target mobile phones, app stores to implant spyware - CBC, 22 May 2015