MUMBAI: China based mobile browser company UCWeb has launched its new version in India with a strategic partnership with Viacom18’s Hindi GEC Colors TV for exclusive content.

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 selected shows is a reinforcement of Alibaba Mobile Business Group strategy 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.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Colors TV CEO Raj Nayak said, “It’s combination of strategic and commercial partnership where UCWeb will use our platform to enlarge their user base in India and we will use their assets to popularize our content and drive audience to our channel. They are the gaming partner with us for 24 and trending partners on Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa, Bigg Boss and they are also the partners for comedy nights live. The browser will have video clips, behind the scenes, news and more on shows.”

The group company Alibaba claims that they are the biggest browser brand in the country with over 80 million monthly active users.

Also the Q1 FY 2016 - 2017 results of Alibaba Group mentioned that UCWeb has played a significant role by strengthening company's competitive positions in digital media and entertainment category. The digital media and entertainment segment of Alibaba Group operates businesses through multiple properties including UCWeb.

“Today, UC Browser is the number one independent browser in India with 50 per cent market share and is one of the world’s top three mobile browsers,” said Alibaba Mobile Business Group overseas business president Jack Huang. He also added that the new milestone of reaching 420 million MAUs has placed them at par with Twitter and Instagram. “Our vision in the coming years after success in India, is to serve half the population of the planet. Our strategy is to focus on "Glocalization" - which is going global by offering localized solutions in each market. We believe this strategy will lead us to a new digital era, which is GUF – Google, UCWeb and Facebook,” added Huang.

UCWeb has evolved from a mobile browser to a mobile media asset, offering mobile search and news feeds to over 420 million MAUs globally. UCWeb recently launched UC News in June this year.

UCWeb general manager India Robert Bu said, “Entertainment content is the number one content in Indian market. If you see the data, In India most searched keywords are of entertainment. Also 7 out of 10 news are related to entertainment market so we thought it's good area to explore. And Maharashtra is the biggest market share in Entertainment which 42 per cent. The reason behind choosing is Colors is because it's a number one channel in Entertainment space and have very good TV shows. Hence we have long term tie up with them. Right now we have tie up with Colors but we are open for other collaboration and opportunity.”

The content or information is shareable on the browser and can be customised. It's also available in two languages - English and Hindi, and will later be available in other regional languages as well starting with Tamil. The personalised channel settings allow users to choose their favourite news channels and make their own reading sequence, as per their individual preference. The user friendly browser also has a night mode feature that offers a convenient browsing experience during night.