The Web in India: Anecdote 2 – UC Browser is getting in front of users

This content originally appeared on Modern Web Development with Chrome and was authored by Paul Kinlan

<p>I had the good fortune to work from India for a week to do a presentation about Performance and run two codelabs with leading developers in Bangalore and across Inida. I also met up with many companies who are doing interesting things on the web and on native. I learnt a lot about the state of the web from some of the companies in this market and I intend this to be a little series of anecdotes that I heard from developers.</p> <p>As with all anecdotes, these were taken from a relatively small number of developers but who had data to back it up. These will need more research to see if they are pervasive (I think they are) and I am looking for feedback.</p> <p>An interesting observation. UC Browser is very active in getting in front of users. For example, I captured the image below when I landed at the airport.</p> <p><img src="https://paul.kinlan.me/images/uc-browser-login.png" style="max-width: 80%;">></p> <p>UC Browser has an Android Intent filter in their app that intercepts many of the known captive portals for WiFi access. As soon as one is detected, the UC Browser UI is there ready to log the user in. This in your face UI keeps UC Browser front of mind for users.</p> <p>When I got to my hotel, you guessed it:</p> <img src="https://paul.kinlan.me/images/uc-browser-login-2.png" style="max-width: 80%;"> <p>I didn't see a Hotel Wifi or anyother captive portal that UC browser wasn't prompting to sign-in.</p> <p>Have you seen any other interactions that UC Browser or others intercept and streamline for the user?</p>

This content originally appeared on Modern Web Development with Chrome and was authored by Paul Kinlan