Alibaba falls short of targets in China mobile operating systems race
Rival Tencent is able to occupy the mobile arena due to WeChat, a universal app that melds different services
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Hong Kong
ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd's six-year 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 per cent 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 per cent while its share of 2016 shipments was 10 per cent, researchers Canalys and Counterpoint estimate, respectively. Alibaba disputes those numbers.
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