360 browser, QQ browser, 2345 browser, UC browser and Sogou browser comes to mind. All of them are based on Chromium with adware & bloatware added.
Most of their users are unfamilair with computers and ends up installing them by accident because they forgot to untick a check box while installing a PDF reader or something. Some of these would also automatically install more software with ads(media player, pc cleaner, file compressor etc.) and replace your default ones without notice.
The software scene in China is terrible, FOSS is near nonexistent. Nearly all software either aggressively push for payment or push ads. Famously, a company bought distribution rights of Flash Player in china from adobe and bundled it with adware(named "Flash Helper" to disguise itself). The only way to get Flash without an pop up ad every few days is to look for an offline installer from other countries. Even adobe's official online installer, once detecting a chinese IP, would download the version with ads.
One of my friends had adwares mysteriously show up and his home page redirected despite him installing the OS just a few days ago. I thought the windows iso he used had ads but nope. Turns out the software he used to make a windows installation USB drive would automatically inject adware into the system during installation. There's a reason most power users in china actively seek out software developed abroad instead of the commonly available ones in china. It's just hard to trust any of them.
Is chrome actually the most popular browser in China? I would think China would surely have its own browser, no?
360 browser, QQ browser, 2345 browser, UC browser and Sogou browser comes to mind. All of them are based on Chromium with adware & bloatware added.
Most of their users are unfamilair with computers and ends up installing them by accident because they forgot to untick a check box while installing a PDF reader or something. Some of these would also automatically install more software with ads(media player, pc cleaner, file compressor etc.) and replace your default ones without notice.
The software scene in China is terrible, FOSS is near nonexistent. Nearly all software either aggressively push for payment or push ads. Famously, a company bought distribution rights of Flash Player in china from adobe and bundled it with adware(named "Flash Helper" to disguise itself). The only way to get Flash without an pop up ad every few days is to look for an offline installer from other countries. Even adobe's official online installer, once detecting a chinese IP, would download the version with ads.
One of my friends had adwares mysteriously show up and his home page redirected despite him installing the OS just a few days ago. I thought the windows iso he used had ads but nope. Turns out the software he used to make a windows installation USB drive would automatically inject adware into the system during installation. There's a reason most power users in china actively seek out software developed abroad instead of the commonly available ones in china. It's just hard to trust any of them.
Probably means chromium although idk why Edge is separate in that case.