Google Chrome is undoubtedly the world’s most popular browser, by a frankly ridiculous margin. Latest stats from NetMarketShare hands Google Chrome a staggering 69.25 percent slice of the internet browser marketplace. Its nearest rival – Microsoft Edge – holds a 10.22 percent chunk of the market, with Firefox (7.22 percent) and Internet Explorer (5.57 percent) following.
But Google Chrome and the chasing pack need to keep a close eye on another rival browser which has recently registered a huge increase in user numbers.
The comparatively new Brave browser has hit a major milestone, seeing its userbase increase by over 135 percent in the space of one year.
As reported in a post on the Brave website, the browser has seen its monthly userbase rise from 8.7million this time last year to 20.5million.
This feat has been made all the more impressive as it’s only been a year since Brave officially launched version 1.0.
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Brave has also seen daily active users more than double from 3million this time last year to 7million.
While no browser can match the incredible user stats that Chrome is posting (with billions estimated to be using the browser), the latest update from Brave shows it is definitely on the up.
And the new kid on the browser block manages to set itself apart from its competitors by offering a number of unique features.
Brave has positioned their browser as the go-to choice for web surfers concerned about privacy, claiming “no hint of your browsing activity ever leaves your device”.
The Brave browser also offers a unique Brave Rewards scheme based on the Basic Attention Token (BAT).
With Brave Rewards, users are “in control of the ads” they see – able to choose when is right for them to view these promotions.
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Every time you view a Brave Ad you’ll earn 70 percent of the ad revenue Brave receives from advertisers, which can then be passed on to your favourite content creators via BATs.
Brave Ads campaigns are supported in almost 200 countries with over 2billion ad confirmation events to date.
While Brave users have rewarded their favourite publishers and creators by donating 26million BATs to them so far.
Speaking about the user growth, Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave, said: “Users are fed up with surveillance capitalism, and 20 million people have switched to Brave for an entirely new Web ecosystem with an opt-in ad economy that puts them back in control of their browsing experience.
“The global privacy movement is gaining traction, and this milestone is just one more step in our journey to make privacy-by-default a standard for all Web users.”
At the time of writing, the Brave browser has a higher average rating on the Google Play Store than rival browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Edge.