Google’s Chrome web browser has become a worldwide success, but it’s more popular in some parts of the world than in others. It became the top browser in South America back in October 2011, and as of March this year it’s also become the top browser in Asia.
Up until March, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the most widely used browser in Asia, but now it’s finally lost its crown after a reign that has lasted at least a decade. It took Chrome 3.5 years to trump IE in Asia (Chrome launched in September 2008). It now has 36.41% of the browser market in Asia, versus IE’s 34.57%.
Mozilla’s Firefox remains in third place with 23.96% of the Asian browser market, after having been overtaken by Chrome back in October 2011 (note that this was the same month Chrome became number one in South America, definitely a good month for Google).
Chrome’s rise has been rapid, and must rank as one of Google’s top achievements in later years. It overtook Firefox as the second most popular browser in Asia back in November 2011. In fact, Chrome is headed for worldwide dominance. If the current trend continues Chrome will become the most widely used browser in the world sometime around May this year.
Data source: StatCounter, based on visitor stats from more than three million websites.
