Sridhar Vembu-led Zoho Makes Entry Into Browser Segment With ‘Ulaa’

SaaS company Zoho Corporation on Thursday made its entry into the browser segment with its privacy-centred ‘Ulaa’ browser. The latest offering from Chennai-headquartered Zoho will take on renowned privacy-centred browsers such as Brave, Tor and DuckDuckGo.

Zoho’s browser is equipped with features that allow for privacy customisation, built-in user profile modes and integrated productivity tools. Users can also sync browsing sessions between devices—either an entire browser window or a singular tab—allowing them to use multiple devices for the same browsing session seamlessly.  

Speaking to BW Businessworld, Praval Singh, Vice President - Marketing & Customer Experience, Zoho Corp said, “If we look at the current privacy browser spectrum, on one end there are 'paranoid browsers' that limit daily use and cannot be used as a default browser, while others only offer the most basic features. In fact, some of these prominent privacy browsers piggyback on services provided by businesses that rely on surveillance for revenue, which is a massive loophole in itself.”

Currently, Tor and Brave are considered to be the most preferred privacy-based browsers across the globe. These privacy browsers have very low number of users owing to the dominance of popular browsers such as Chrome and Safari, which take up 62.3 per cent and 24.29 per cent of the total browser market share (according to Similarweb data for March 2023). But they are seldom seen as the best options for privacy-focused users.

Singh explained that most privacy browsers do not focus on modern-day usability for the user. “These aspects are bound to come into the picture given that building a secure and privacy-focused browser requires a comprehensive ecosystem and infrastructural support that most standalone browser companies don't have,” he added.

Today, existing browsers use time trackers or idle monitors that feed data back to the software provider and the companies that pay them for user data. Zoho said Ulaa doesn't track or share user data with any third parties. DNS Prefetching is prohibited in Ulaa, which means that data cannot be cached, nor can motion sensors track mouse movement and clicks.

Singh also mentioned that Ulaa has a built-in feature that blocks Malicious Software/Badware. “We are also working on an even more advanced version of this feature,” he said.

On artificial intelligence (AI) integrations, Zoho told BW Businessworld that it plans to integrate the technology to enable efficiencies to enhance the user experience of the browser in a secure manner, including tasks like browser tab management and organisation. 

The privacy-based browser has been rolled out at no charge and its iOS and Android versions are currently in beta and available for download.

“With Ulaa, users do not have to compromise their privacy to browse the web, which unfortunately has become a surveillance minefield. Zoho's commitment to privacy and our privacy-centric business model allows us to offer a conflict-free, privacy-centric browser to those who value their own privacy and their kids' privacy,” said Sridhar Vembu, CEO, Zoho Corporation.