UC News brings #MasalaCommentary with Celebrities for the ongoing Cricket League

In a clear success of its strategy for digitizing entertainment, UC News, a content and news distribution platform that is part of Alibaba Mobile Business Group, garnered an average daily views of 6.6 million on the UC News app for its innovative IPL campaign “Match ki Kahaani, Celebs ki Zubaani” with #MasalaCommentary. 

UC News ran a first-of-its-kind campaign, bringing together Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Sunny Leone, Virender Sehwag, Sunil Grover, Rakhi Sawant and Kamal R Khan to give commentary in their witty and inimitable style on the ongoing IPL matches. UC News also got the celebrity commentators to take interesting cricket-based challenges. The chat and activities were live streamed on the UC News app. The videos have clocked another 75 million views on the UC News’ YouTube channel, UC Talks.

“Total time spent consuming content on the mobile has seen a sharp rise among Indian audiences with sports, especially cricket, being one of the most popular content category for UC News readers. Not just that, multiple new-age digital media platforms are challenging the traditional mediums. The success of our app-only videos with celebrities is a clear testament to that”, said Young Li, Head of UC News.

On April 5, Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta revived their popular on-screen pairing after 12 years to live comment on the opening ceremony of IPL followed by the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Hyderabad Sunrisers.

Comedian Sunil Grover donned his famous on-screen persona of Dr. Mashoor Gulati and partnered with actress Sunny Leone to comment on the match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), causing a laugh riot. After losing the challenge, Sunny Leone also danced to the tunes of a Punjabi number with Sunil on the occasion of Baisakhi.

Former cricketer Virendra Sehwag and Bollywood actress Sunny Leone teamed up for a fun-filled session during the Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad match, causing a major buzz on social media.

UCWeb’s ‘Super 1000’ Records High Traction with over 1,300 Applications

UCWeb, part of Alibaba Mobile Business Group, has outlined detailed guidelines for writers and content creators to join the ‘Super 1000’ Program launched in March 2017. The integrated evaluation will be done under 4 key indicators including page views, content customization, content category and publishing frequency. The UC News Content team will review quality and the overall influence of the candidate while keeping in mind content originality and legitimacy before giving the final confirmation. ‘Super 1000’ is a strategic initiative for user-generated content in India and part of We-Media Reward Plan 2.0. Under this program, UCWeb plans to recruit 1000 We-Media writers in India and Indonesia who will be able to earn at least INR 50,000 per month, generating varied content across diverse categories.

The program has received more than 1,300 applications since its launch in March 2017. One of the first writers to qualify for the program is CricketTrolls, a blog offering latest cricket news, offbeat news, memes and more with an aim to make cricket more fun. The blog enjoys over 3.62 million page views and is earning more than 900 USD per month. Besides an upgrade in Ad revenue sharing model, the We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 program will open the door of opportunity to the most talented writers in the country. The Program saw an increase of 200% and 350% (MoM) in its page views of English and Hindi We-Media content respectively in the past quarter. Other than cricket, contributors can also opt to write on Entertainment, Politics, Tech, Health, and Lifestyle categories.                     

“Users are embracing diverse digital content and their appetite for such content is being met by UC News. According to our data, there are at least 400,000 self-publishers in India, creating a huge scope to grow the market, especially in niche categories. UC News and We-Media program aim to meet the increasing demand of varied content by users and build a well-established ecosystem. With our strengths in Big Data AI, the UC We- Media Program is opening a gateway to more opportunities in India’s content industry”, said Bruce Zuo, Head-UC News We-Media.

Alibaba Group’s UC News Registers A Whopping 100 Million Active Users In India And Indonesia

UCWeb has announced that its latest product, UC News has crossed a record 100 Million Monthly Active Users in India and Indonesia. With 100 million daily article views, UC News has rapidly grown in India & Indonesia market since its launch in June 2016. UCWeb is augmenting its focus on digital content aggregation and distribution in the world’s second largest internet market, India.

Jack Huang, President-Overseas Business, Alibaba Mobile Business Group, said “We are experiencing a fast rise in the average time spent on UC News. As of this quarter, an average user spends over 23 minutes on UC News. Going forward, we are also targeting more diversified and localised content on our platform by end of 2017 to make the local content ecosystem stronger.”

UC News had recently announced The We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 for self-publishers, bloggers & independent writers with an initial investment of 50 Million INR. UCWeb is investing 2 Billion INR for driving content distribution in India over the next 2 years. With the changing mobile internet landscape, UCWeb has adopted a strategy of becoming a content distribution platform from being a browsing tool by engaging and aggregating diverse form of content on its platforms – UC Browser and UC News.

Indians are amongst the world leaders in terms of internet usage on mobile phones. According to StatCounter, internet usage in India by desktop and tablet fell from 33.2% in January 2016 to 21% this year. Mobile internet usage jumped from 66.8% to 79% over the same time period.

Alibaba’s UCWeb Enhances Focus On Content With The Launch Of We-Media Reward Plan 2.0

Leading the user-generated content ecosystem in India, Alibaba Group’s UCWeb Inc has announced the launch of We-Media Reward Plan 2.0, a self-creating content platform in India with an initial investment of 50 Million INR. The internet major is investing 2 Billion INR for driving content distribution in India over the next 2 years. UCWeb’s content distribution platform UC News, launched in June 2016, has registered a new milestone by becoming one of the fastest growing apps in the country with a Monthly Active Users (MAUs) of over 80 Million in India (as of February 2017).

 UCWeb is also upgrading its content and services portfolio by adding more short video-related content. Short Videos are fast becoming the most popular form of content consumed in China today and UCWeb sees huge potential for this concept here in India as well. UC News aims to provide upgraded content and services to its users and, going forward, will make significant investment in this category. According to the company’s latest Content Consumption Trends Report, video content has risen 30% in the last quarter alone. The company is in the process of setting up a separate team to handle the Short Videos section and is scouting for relevant partners to support this for UC News India. 

Besides an upgrade in Ad revenue sharing model, We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 will open the door of opportunity to the most talented writers in the country. 1000 We-media writers will be recruited in India and Indonesia who will be able to earn at least INR 50,000 per month through the UC News platform. UCWeb has been setting new trends under the UC We-Media program where people get an opportunity to create, to write, share thoughts and engage with their followers on UC News. The Program saw an increase of 200% and 350% (MoM) in its page views of English and Hindi We-Media content respectively in the past quarter.

UC News is a big-data powered content distributor, serving as a one-stop source of trending and curated news content covering all popular categories that Indian users can consume on the go, with featured channels including news, cricket, technology, entertainment, movies, lifestyle, health, humor, etc. UCWeb’s strength in technology is helping UC News process millions of data request and content of massive origins everyday with the help of its 3 big data clusters set-up in India. The cluster combines over 5000 machines handling millions of data-request with a response time of less than 10 milliseconds for each, thereby boosting the content generation and distribution on UC News to meet the demands of 80 Million MAUs.

UCWeb partners with Fox Star Studios and Dharma Productions to promote ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’

UCWeb India, part of Alibaba Mobile Business Group, has charted a new success story through its tie-up with Fox Star Studios, India, Dharma Productions and Sony Music India to promote the highly anticipated Diwali release, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

In a fortnight-long campaign – UCWeb got first rights to ‘The Breakup Song’, and launched special section of unseen and exclusive footage from the movie, video bytes from the stars, movie trivia and special posters as pop up screen and banners on its platform, UC Browser & UC News.

‘The Breakup Song’, hosted and promoted by UCWeb 24 hours ahead of its world-wide launch, reached out to over 6 million viewers via UC Browser. Exclusive film footage, trivia, video bytes of Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma along with film’s posters reached out to over 2 million UC Browser users through a splash screen.

UCWeb Sets New Trend With Audience Engagement Tool We-Media

UCWeb’s We-Media Program has seen immense success since its launch in August 2016 through its partnership with some of the biggest television shows including JhalakDikhhlaJaa & Bigg Boss 10 and bestselling author Chetan Bhagat. 

UC News is a key component of UCWeb Inc, an Alibaba Mobile Business Group Company. The We-Media Program, which aims to provide the users with a mix of both regular and niche content, has seen major success in other countries and aims to bring viewpoints from celebrities, bloggers, key influencers or a common man to a single platform.

UCWeb worked with Chetan Bhagat again for the lunch of his latest Bestseller ‘One Indian Girl’ by hosting special contest for UC Browser users and by writing exclusive blog posts on UC News. Live chat with Chetan Bhagat on UC Browser promoting his new book was a major hit. The event was viewed by over 15 lakh users, and attracted over 1.8 crore users to the campaign page in 3 days alone (Sept 28-30, 2016). The LIVE CHAT session on UC Browser has also emerged as a powerful tool to connect with masses for celebrities and self-publishers.

UCWeb Launches New UC Browser, Announces Partnership With Colors TV

UCWeb Inc., an Alibaba Mobile Business Group Company today launched a New UC Browser and announced its strategic partnership with Colors TV. Driven by big-data technology, the New UC Browser includes news feeds from UC News making it an integral part of UC Browser now, with more customisation options for the users.

The partnership with Colors TV for some of its shows is a reinforcement of the strategy of Alibaba Mobile Business Group, to digitize entertainment content on mobile while transforming itself from tool to content and further offer more comprehensive content options to users who access internet on the go.

UCWeb has evolved from a mobile browser to a mobile media asset, offering mobile search and news feeds to over 420 Million Monthly Active users (MAUs) globally. Today UC Browser is the No. 1 independent browser in India and Indonesia, and is one of the world’s top 3 mobile browsers, according to StatCounter.

As pioneers in the mobile Internet revolution of India, UCWeb aims to be at the centre of this emerging trend and has collaborated with Colors TV – India’s leading Entertainment TV Channel. The vision is 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.

9Apps Announces InDev Program For Indian Independent And Startup Developers

9Apps, a part of UCWeb, one of the most popular Android app marketplaces with more than 160 million monthly active users worldwide has announced its InDev Program (worth $ 20 million) to help Indian independent and startup developers with specially designed solutions, especially in user acquisition and monetization. 

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 etc. InDev Program also sets up a Diamond Awards for qualified game and apps.

Announcing the program, Mr. Robert Bu, General Manager, UCWeb India said, “According to our research, there are lots of challenges faced by independent and startup developers. It is not easy for them to get as much brand exposure for their apps as the big players can. UCWeb and 9Apps are committed to building a healthy ecosystem where local users can download quality app and games they like, and developers are able to enjoy fruitful financial return for providing excellent apps and games.”

UCWeb, Flipkart join hands to launch mobile-site on UC Browser

UCWeb, India’s No. 1 mobile browser with over 55% market share has partnered with ecommerce major Flipkart in an effort to offer its users shopping on the go. Flipkart site, now available on the home screen of UC Browser, will offer a seamless and enhanced shopping experience to users on web.

The newly launched mobile-site aims to provide a top-notch experience to shoppers with core features such as search, offers and cart. Flipkart will gradually integrate advanced features in the subsequent releases. The mobile site is an endeavour to provide the users with a smoother, faster and more interactive flow than other mobile sites.

UCWeb partners with Hungama Music

UCWeb Inc., part of Alibaba mobile business group, has tied up with India’s leading digital entertainment service Hungama Music. Starting today,for the next 6 days, users of UCWeb get to download from Hungama’s exhaustive music library of over 2 million tracks. Hungama Music is India’s largest streaming service, catering to the needs of not just Bollywood music lovers but followers of other streams of music such as regional, devotional, western, pop and EDM music. 

UC Browser, as a mobile gateway for millions of users, has been at the forefront of driving mobile Internet penetration in the country, proving newer ways for content providers, publishers and production houses to reach out to masses. The tie-up with Hungama.com, could be the dawn of a new era in the entertainment industry.

UC Browser Is World’s No. 2 Mobile Browser, Grabs Market Share of over 17%

UC Browser, the flagship mobile browser of UCWeb, touched a new milestone when it became the world's second most popular mobile browser with 17.42% market share, according to StatCounter.

UC Browser celebrates world's #2 milestone at Times Square, New York.

The recent achievement coincides with the browser's consistent rise in its overseas markets, as it clocked in more than half of mobile browsing market share (54.42%, per StatCounter) in October 2015 in India and attained a share of 49.05% (per StatCounter) in October 2015 in Indonesia, the second and third populous country in Asia. Both India and Indonesia have become the new frontier for mobile Internet, driven mostly by the rapid growth of their connected population. The popularity of UC Browser attributes to its fast speed and easy access to local content and services.

UCWeb has been seeing exciting success in emerging markets, long dominating mobile browser market in China, India and Indonesia, the three most populous emerging markets globally. All these three countries have a total population of 2.8 billion, accounting for over one third of the world’s population. 

UC Browser’s strength is its signature cloud-enabled browsing technology that can compress data by up to 60%, ability to compress page to provide faster page loading & data cost saving along with localized content. Last December, UC Browser surpassed 100 million daily active users (DAUs), propelling it into the elite group of apps that includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on.

What Indians Wished For This Diwali: A UCWeb Analysis

UC Browser has received a great response to its Diwali Wishes campaign on browser and social media channels. There has been almost 1.5 million wishes which have been made on UC Browser by users across the country under the #WishWithUC campaign. UC Browser worked with Yuvraj Singh and launched rounds of wish collection as part of the "#HarGharUCDiwali" campaign across Facebook, Twitter and UC Browser to reward creative wish makers and lucky users. 

Among those wishes, the wish for a new iPhone 6s topped the list, followed by the wishes for wealth and happiness to the family. As Yuvraj was appointed to interact with users and collect their wishes within the game, some wishes on the list relate closely to him. 

It ended up with nearly 30% of the total wishes involving Yuvraj, indicating that many UC Browser users are fans of Yuvraj and they would rather meet their favourite cricket star to make their Diwali special this year. Even though Yuvraj is not in the current cricket squad, he is still a very popular person all over India.

UCWeb Inc. (UCWeb) is a leading provider of mobile internet software and services. The flagship product of UCWeb, UC Browser, is available on more than 3,000 different models of mobile devices from over 200 manufacturers, and is compatible with all mainstream operating systems. 

9Apps Hits 140 Million Monthly Active Users

9Apps and 9Game, one of the world’s leading third-party app stores for Android apps and games has announced that it has crossed 140 million Monthly Active Users. The two stores altogether have also reached 8.5 million Daily Active Users (DAUs) with over 18 million daily aggregate downloads of apps and games. 9Apps and 9Game, launched in 2012 is part of UCWeb, a business within Alibaba Group’s mobile business division.

Talking on the new milestone, Simon SHI, Head of 9Apps and 9Game, said, "We have an active user community across China, India and other emerging markets which have helped us achieve this mark. 9Apps & 9Game give Android users an ideal alternative to download apps and games with no need for account registration. We have not just an abundant and varied app repository but also a huge collection of region-specific apps for each market – that’s one of the factors contributed to our uptrend. While the popularity we're enjoying also speaks to the opportunity for our app developer partners as they stand a better chance to reach out to more users."

Recently, UCWeb also announced the launch of UC Open Platform 2.0 - an ecosystem to help Indian mobile internet players to acquire users and monetize traffic through UC Browser, 9Apps, 9Game and UC Union. 9Apps marked its entry into India with an office opened in Mumbai in the year June 2014. The business has shown deep commitment to Indian market with its ‘Fundraiser Program’ launched earlier this year. 9Apps has committed Rs 10 lakh to not-for-profit organization Prayas for education of the girl child in India.