Maxthon Creates Largest Browser R&D Center in China
The Center will share Maxthon's innovative technology with other Chinese companies
BEIJING, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Maxthon International Ltd.
( http://www.maxthon.com ) has announced the establishment of the largest
browser research and development center in China. CEO Jeff Chen, accompanied
by dozens of business partners and user representatives, announced the
creation of the Maxthon R&D Center at a press conference in Beijing, the
location of the center.
The center has an initial capital investment of more than RMB2 million
(approximately US$300,000). Maxthon's goal is to develop an R&D center
capable of competing internationally within two years, Chen said. The center
will provide support to Chinese-made browsers in addition to those developed
by Maxthon itself. It will also expedite the development of a variety of
Internet technologies in China, including Web page display and security.
The center currently has a professional team of more than 30 researchers
and developers, who have obtained two patents and who have several other new
technologies in the patent process. The technologies will be applied in the
near future to provide internet users a higher quality browsing experience.
Plans call for the recruitment of other technical experts to form a staff of
100.
According to Net Applications' latest research, the global market share of
Maxthon is 1.55%, which exceeds that of Firefox 2 and comes close to the
market share held by the Opera browser. In China Maxthon has 22% of the
browser market, making it the 2nd most popular browser behind Microsoft's
Internet Explorer. The China Internet Network Information Center reports
Chinese Internet users exceeded 338 million in the first half of 2009. These
numbers translate to about 9 million Maxthon users in China alone.
"The strategic importance of the browser as the gateway to the Internet,"
Chen said, "is obvious in view of the substantial resources invested by
Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Firefox in the last 2 years."
All of those companies have either introduced a new browser during the
period or have upgraded established browsers.
"In the view of many people," Chen added, "Maxthon could be very ordinary
as a business focused solely on browser development. That's why we will
assist Chinese Webware developers to join us as part of the 'Innovation Base'
of Chinese-made Internet software.
"The unbundling of Internet Explorer from the European Windows editions in
2010 will break the Monopoly of IE and bring new opportunities to the
worldwide browser market," Chen said. "And the establishment of the Maxthon
R&D Center will inevitably lead to a new wave of competition in the local
browser market."
