The top web browsers in China on PC are Chrome with close to half market share by traffic (45.19%), followed by IE 9, IE 11, IE 8, QQ, 2345, Sogou, Firefox, Safari, and other in Q1 2019, according to a Baidu’s study. Some of China’s top browsers are developed based on Google Chromium including QQ Browser.
| Rank | Browser | Traffic share |
| 1 | Chrome | 45.19% |
| 2 | IE 9.0 | 9.72% |
| 3 | IE 11.0 | 7.26% |
| 4 | IE 8.0 | 5.86% |
| 5 | 5.33% | |
| 6 | 2345 | 5.18% |
| 7 | Sogou | 4.45% |
| 8 | Firefox | 2.57% |
| 9 | Safari | 2.23% |
| 10 | Other | 12.23% |
Statcounter’s data shows the top web browsers in China across all platforms during the period Jun 2018 to Jun 2019 are Chrome, UC Browser, Safari, QQ Browser, etc. Chrome (63%), QQ Browser (8.26%), and IE (7.76%) also lead the browser market on desktop during the same period.
Top Mobile Internet Browser in China
The top 5 mobile web browsers according to Statcounter during the 12 months period ended in Jun 2019 are Chrome (43%), UC Browser (20.5%), Safari (15.6%), QQ Browser (13.56%), and Android (5.7%).
But based on data from QuestMobile’s June data this year, QQ Browser is the top mobile app in web browser category by the total number of monthly active users (303 million), followed by UC Browser (281 million) and 360 Browser (58.8 million), Sogou Browser (40.9 million).
Popular Web Browsers in China
Google’s Chrome browser, also called by some online users as Google Browser, is one of the popular choices among China’s online users.
A main competitor in China’s mobile web browser market.
Sogou Browser. Another popular product of China’s second largest search engine Sogou, who also owns an input software.
Tencent’s QQ Browser also provides both desktop and mobile clients versions for online browsing.
360 Browser. Created by 360, who also owns several other popular applications in China including security and anti-virus softwares.
Baidu Browser. Once among the top 10 web browsers in China, Baidu announced its plan not to continue the development of its PC web browser in May 2019.
X Browser. A lightweight browser of less than 1M in size with an “X” indicating extreme, including features like ad-blocking, security, and media sniffing.
Historical Chinese Browser Data
Related: China’s mobile browser usage overview 2016
In August 2014, top 6 Chinese web browsers by total reach were IE, Chrome, Sougou, Cheetah, QQ Browser and 2345. Among them, IE ranked the top with a market share of 47.62% according to data from Baidu.
According to another set of data from CNZZ, owned by Alibaba Group, IE, Qihoo 360 browser and Chrome are the top three internet browsers in China by total reach in August 2014. IE had a slight decrease of 1.21% and Chrome 1.01% from prior month.
Top Mobile Browser in China
China’s top three mobile web browsers by total reach in August 2014 were Android mobile browser, UC browser and QQ mobile browser. Android was in leading place and UC browser had an decrease of 0.8% from prior month. While On the iOS and Android platforms, UC browser’s monthly user’s coverage accounted for 65.9% of the total, ranking the top in the mobile browser market.
Also read: China to Overtake USA as No.1 4G Market
