Alibaba-owned UCWeb launches file sharing app 'UC Share' for Android users

Alibaba-controlled UCWeb has launched 'UC Share', a file sharing app for Android-powered devices. The app is available for free download via Google Play and is compatible with devices running Android 4.0 and above.

Following the launch, UCWeb has also updated UC Browser, India's leading mobile browser, and 9Apps, a popular third-party Android marketplace with the file sharing feature.

UC Share takes only 0.2 seconds to transfer an image, 1 second to transfer a song and up to 22 seconds to transfer a complete movie, claims the company in a press statement. Besides, it can also scale up to a speed of up to 21 MB per second, with an average file transfer speed of 5MB per second.

Similar to other apps, users can browse and search for their favorite music, video, and pictures based on their settings, avoiding the need for separate search. The app doesn't require a high-speed data connection to transfer files and includes a Bluetooth sharing option to provide file transfer support for a wide range of devices.

Importantly, UC Share also has an option to generate a QR code to offer an easy sharing between two devices.

The file sharing app space has been broadly dominated by Chinese apps including SHAREit, Xender, and Zapya in India.

SHAREit which is owned by Lenovo is the most widely used file-sharing app. Other players such as Xender and Zapya (which enables cross-platform sharing for Android, iOS devices, WP & PC) also have a decent presence in the country.

Besides, CShare, Fast File Transfer, and SuperBeam are other file sharing apps. With the entry of another Chinese file-sharing platform, the app sharing segment is going to be hot.

Earlier, in December, the Ministry of Defence in India had issued an order to the Indian army asking officers and all security personnel to remove, uninstall over 42 Chinese apps as these have been classified as ‘spyware’.

Mi Store, Weibo, WeChat, SHAREit, Truecaller, UC News, UC Browser, along with 36 other apps were included in the list.