Member Article

51Degrees launches innovative device detection solution to optimise for data-minimising mobile browsers

51Degrees, the device detection and data analytics specialist, today reveals a market first that enables brands to optimise mobile web experience for users of data-minimising browsers.

IsDataMinimising, part of the 51Degrees device detection solution, enables brands to serve users a suitably optimised version of their website based on the capabilities of the browser being used, rather than relying on information about the make and model of the devices or about the browser versions loaded by default.

Data-minimising browsers - such as Opera or the UC Browser owned by the Alibaba Group – include an option to provide a faster-loading mobile web experience, stripped of data-intensive elements (rich media, sophisticated designs, advertising, trackers, and even in some cases images). Data-minimising browsers have become particularly popular in emerging markets such as India, Asia, and Africa, where customers, who are accustomed to unreliable mobile network service and rely on data bundles still measured in MB rather than GB, want a simplified mobile web experience that is lighter on their wallets.

Device detection solutions have until now not easily been able to distinguish between traffic from a high-specification mobile device via the default browser and that from one with a data-minimising browser installed. This results in content being served that the browser is not equipped to handle, damaging the user experience and their relationship with the brand.

James Rosewell, CEO at 51Degrees, said: “Brands invest heavily in getting the design, build, and content of their websites spot-on, but let themselves - and, crucially, their customers - down by failing to take into account which browsers visitors are using, and what their expensively-assembled sites will actually look like on them.

“Our internal research shows that while classic feature phones make up the smaller proportion of the mobile device market across Asia, for instance, around 50 per cent of mobile device users in the region install and use data-minimising browsers. They might be using smartphones, but they may as well be feature phones when it comes to the mobile web experience the data minimising browser delivers. With mobile increasingly a consumer’s first point of contact with a brand, and with data showing that a third of consumers would never buy from a brand again following just one poor mobile experience, it’s clear that this is a trend brands can ill afford to ignore.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by 51Degrees .

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