Alibaba Stumbles in Bid to Wrest Mobile Control From Tencent
- Alibaba said to be disappointed with YunOS’s performance
- Tencent WeChat’s mini programs challenge mobile landscape
The YunOS booth at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2015, in Shanghai.
Photographer: Imaginechina via AP PhotoAlibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s six-year-old excursion into mobile operating systems is faltering in China, casting doubt over software that bears billionaire-founder Jack Ma’s name and was once touted as key to countering Tencent Holdings Ltd.
China’s largest e-commerce company debuted YunOS in 2011, a system that underpins search, shopping and browsing that its executives last year said could attain as much as 25 percent domestic market share by the end of 2016 -- surpassing Apple Inc.’s iOS. Six years on, YunOS’ slice of China software installations stands at just 2.2 percent while its share of 2016 shipments was 10 percent, researchers Canalys and Counterpoint estimate, respectively. Alibaba disputes those numbers.