Dhaka: A Bangla interface has been added to UC Browser with the view to making it friendly to Bangla language users. UCWeb in Dhaka on Thursday announced the launch of its new product intended for smartphones.

UCWeb’s International Marketing Director Catherine Huang, International Business Development Managing Director Kenny Ye and Alibaba’s Mobile Marketing Manager Siying Dong were present at the launching ceremony at the Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has acquired UCWeb in 2014.

Catherine Huang formally launched the app in Bangladesh market. She said they had decided to launch the product after analysing the market. They found in a survey that in Bangladesh about 37 percent phone users feel comfort in browse in Bangla. In 2015 they experimentally used a Bangla interface in UC Browser’s 10.7.8 version. After two-month-experiment, the company launched its product, she added.

UC Browser is used in more than 150 countries around the world. It has interfaces based on 11 languages, including English, Russian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Bangla.

Kenny Ye said UC Browser is one of the most popular browsers in four emerging phone markets, namely China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. In 2015, UC Browser experienced 109.2 percent hike in its use. Bangladesh as a market is very significant in the South Asian perspective and UCWeb tries to grab the opportunity, Kenny added.