UC Browser 12.0 version can save 50 per cent data,Alibaba Group,UC Browser has over 130 mn monthly active users in India , II UC Browser v12.0 announced: Watch videos while downloading and more

UC Browser v12.0 is now available to download from Google Play store

 

UCWeb, which is backed by Chinese giant Alibaba, on Wednesday took the wraps off the new version of the popular UC Browser that will reduce the lags and data consumption on online-streamed videos at an event held in New Delhi. The UC Browser v12.0 now comes with a new tagline – “Content for everyone, Every Content for One” – and brings improved features such as multitasking, low RAM consumption, watching video while downloading, and video previews among others. Alongside, UCWeb also announced that UC Browser has now crossed 130 million active monthly users in India, while the total number of users in India is estimated around 450 million in India. The UC Browser v12.0 is now available to download from Google Play store.
The latest UC Browser v12.0 primarily focuses on the video consumption as the company believes that video is the most popular category among all the contents offered in the browser ecosystem. As part of the new update, the videos will now stream with ‘zero lag’, simultaneously saving up to 50 percent data while utilising the VP9 codec. Additionally, the videos can be watched while downloading along with video previews to figure out if a viewer wants to continue watching a particular video beforehand. The interface of the browser has also been tweaked to bring a widget on top of the browser that can be customised to add ‘Smart Weather’ or Smart Zodiac Signs’ feature.
In addition, the UC Browser v12.0 now supports multitasking where a video can be minimised inside the browser to create room for other activities such as news reading, accessing websites. The video being played essentially goes into the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode without exerting much pressure on the smartphone’s processor, says the company. The UC Browser is upgraded to run on the U4 Kernel core that allows faster page loads, even on the smartphones with as low as 1GB of RAM size. Apart from this, the new version addresses the Spectre vulnerability and comes with preloaded mitigations.
Commenting on the launch of UC Browser v12, Shallia Li, Head of UC Browser (International Business Department) at Alibaba Mobile Business Group said, “UCWeb has always been dedicated in making content easily accessible for users, even when they are in limited bandwidth area. With evolving user demands, we are also upgrading our technology. Our data compression technology now provides a ‘No buffering’ video watching experience.”

UC Browser, a product of Alibaba-owned UCWeb, has crossed 130 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) in India as of January 2018, the company announced on Wednesday while launching the 12.0 version of the popular platform.

UC Browser.

The new version of the browser has been upgraded to support faster video content consumption on mobile. It consumes 50 percent less data and buffers with zero time lag, the company claimed.
"With evolving user demands, we are also upgrading our technology. Our data compression technology now provides a 'No buffering' video watching experience," said Shallia Li, head of UC Browser (International Business Department) at Alibaba Mobile Business Group.
"Our vision of 'Content for everyone, Every Content for One' is making content accessible for users regardless of network infrastructure and mobile hardware type while also personalising and customising the content as per user's preference," Li added.
The browser witnessed 50 percent growth in page views on UC Browser's news feed from the second quarter to fourth quarter in 2017 in both the Indian and Indonesian markets.
According to US-based market data and insights company App Annie's report, the total data usage in top video streaming apps in India saw a big surge of 165 percent from the first half of 2016 to the first half of 2017, surpassing other markets like Thailand, South Korea and Japan.
UC Browser also registered 60 percent growth in video views from the second quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2017 in the Indian and Indonesian markets, making it the most popular user activity on the platform in 2017.
UC Browser, with a leading market share of over 43 percent as per web traffic analysis tool StatCounter, is the sixth-most downloaded app in India and the only one in the top 10 that is not a social media or entertainment App, according to reports from US venture capitalists Mary Meeker and Kleiner Perkins.