Road less traveled leads to success for UCWeb chief

By Meng Jing (China Daily) Updated: 2014-08-12 09:07

"The mobile Internet has a lot to do with lifestyle. For example, people in the US and Europe spend a lot of time driving to work, while the majority of Asian people use public transportation to commute. That means that Asian smartphone users on average spend more than two hours every day on the mobile Internet."

The strong reliance on the mobile Internet leads to innovation. What's more, the PC-based Internet is an industry with a unified world standard, while the mobile Internet industry varies among regions, he said.

Wang Jian, an analyst with the Beijing-based Internet consultancy Analysys International, said that as one of the earliest mobile browser companies in China, UCWeb has strong advantages in going abroad as China has the most complex market in the world.

"Chinese users are very demanding and they are not used to paying, even if your product is good. So for those companies that have already established themselves in China, it is safe to say that they are ready to conquer other markets," said Wang.

Yu agreed, saying that entering a new market is like doing subtraction. "Sometimes we simply remove some features from the Chinese version of our product and it can become a hit in other countries," he said, adding that the most important thing to do when going abroad is choosing the right market.

He has divided the global market into four areas: China, developing countries, Japan and South Korea, and Europe and the US.

The top priority for global expansion is developing countries, because Chinese mobile Internet technologies are usually two years ahead of what is available in those countries. He said UCWeb has no plans to move into Japan or South Korea at this stage because it is very difficult to break into their industrial chains.

"The US and Europe are not easy markets, either. But we will keep looking for opportunities in those markets," he said.

Neil Flynn, head equity analyst at Shanghai-based website Chineseinvestors, which provides financial analysis of US-listed Chinese companies, said the most important aspect of Chinese companies' development strategies should be to expand into emerging economies.

"Consumer trends are similar to those in China, and these firms will have the experience and knowledge to profit," said Flynn, who has followed Chinese Internet companies for years.

"In the Western developed economies, we see the likes of Google and Amazon being dominant players for the same reason. These countries have similar consumer trends, so it's relatively easy for them to adapt their business models."

It might seem that UCWeb has chosen the right path, but Jane Zhang, principal research analyst at technology research Gartner Inc, begged to differ, saying that a mobile browser cannot serve as a powerhouse that will ensure sustainable growth for Yu's company.

She argued UCWeb's core selling point in China is saving money through reduced data usage. That alone, she said, is not enough to attract users in other countries.

"Most importantly, a browser itself is not badly needed by users in the mobile Internet era. If they want search facilities, or social media or shopping, they can directly go to apps with the necessary functions without going through browsers like they used to do in the PC Internet era," Zhang said.

It seems that UCWeb is aware of the challenges. But Yu said that the odds of success are usually higher when most people don't recognize an opportunity.

UCWeb has already launched a mobile game distribution platform called 9game and a mobile search engine known as Shenma, aiming to use a multiproduct strategy to hook more users on its way to becoming an information service gateway.