Popularity of Chrome
Chrome's share of the Korean web browser market is expected to exceed 30 percent this year. Hence, the industry is paying attention to whether or not it will cause a change in the dynamics of the market, which has been dominated by Internet Explorer for several years.
According to market research firm Statcounter on Jan. 21, the share of Chrome was 17 percent in early 2014, but surpassed 27 percent in November of last year. Google's web browser saw its market share increase around 1 percent each month after June 2014. If this trend continues, its share is projected to exceed 30 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Analysts in the software industry expect that Chrome's share will increase further, since the government is proceeding with numerous measures to get rid of Active X this year. On top of that, the ecosystem for the next-gen web standard Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5) will be expanded this year.
Chrome's share increased little after surpassing 10 percent in 2010. After that, it was in a stalled growth mode for several years. However, the use of Chrome is on the rise. The phenomenon is due to the fact that an increasing number of people are using the web browser to sync with their Google accounts using their smartphones or tablets.
Some in the industry point out it is also a great change that the trend of using IT browsers itself is moving toward to new web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
An industry source explained, “As Internet Explorer replaced Netscape 20 years ago, Chrome is taking the place of Internet Explorer.” The source added, “In general, the smartphone generation in their 20s to 30s prefers Chrome to Internet Explorer.”
On the other hand, some say that it is necessary to check Chrome's growth. The web browser plays a pivotal role in Google's services, including G-mail, contact information, and schedules, and thus it is possible that personal information is too centralized.
An industry source said, “The reason for Chrome's growth lies in the fact that smartphone or tablet users want to have the same environment on the PC.” The source added, “However, it is ideal for around three web browsers to divide the market to the extent that they can keep one another in check, rather than growing the influence of a specific web browser.”