A very large reason for the huge user base of UC browser is that it used to work on very low end phones, like Nokia S40 editions, similar to Opera Mini, and man

A very large reason for the huge user base of UC browser is that it used to work on very low end phones, like Nokia S40 editions, similar to Opera Mini, and many people who migrated from those kept using UC. Also, these browsers operated with very less data using server side comprssion. Not good for privacy maybe, but good for slow connections. Another thing I hear from people using UC is that it has really good download capabilities. Such functionality might be common in today's mobile browsers, but 4 years ago, it was difficult to find another browser which could pause and resume downloads, which is essential if you have a slow internet connection. A lot of people using UC were using Opera Mini. However, UC has a much larger bigger marketing budget and that I think made the difference.