A Comparison between the Web Browser Preferences of Internet Users in the US and China

• In Event: 3166 - Section on the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 1: Space and Place: Virtual and Physical

Abstract

Similar to the controversial technologies (e.g., search engines and social media platforms) that people use to efficiently find content on the web, web browsers have the power to dictate what people see online and how they see it. This paper captures why internet users in the US and China prefer the web browsers they use, and consequently show why most internet users in the US and China prefer to use Google Chrome on their desktops today. Similar to the US, Google's Chrome browser is currently the most popular web browser on people’s personal computers in China, even though Google's search engine and other popular web services have been inaccessible in the country since 2010. Through a series of interviews and a planned online survey, this paper identifies the mechanisms driving the web browser preferences of internet users in two countries with very different internet makeups.

Author

• Kevin Shih, University of California, Los Angeles