Crypto-Funded Brave Browser Hits 10 Million Downloads in Google Play Store

Brave Software has announced that its eponymous web browser has been downloaded from the Google Play Store 10 million times, doubling its user base in just four months. This was revealed in a post on its official Twitter handle last Friday.

Brave Ambitions

In May, CCN reported that the browser hit 5 million downloads in the Google Play Store, barely six months after hitting the 1 million download mark. The ad-blocking browser, which rewards readers and content publishers with its Basic Attention Token (BAT) aims to revolutionize the internet’s present content monetization model, which is dependent on advertising revenue, tracking of user behaviour, and sale of user data.

https://twitter.com/brave/status/1033098086627721216

From the start, Brave has had great ambitions, initially raising $36 million in just 30 seconds during its ICO, eventually setting what was then a record for the most amount of money ever raised in an ICO. The browser has achieved phenomenal growth since going live, boosted by a number of high profile partnerships and features, including a media partnership with the Dow Jones Media Group that permits users to access premium content from the company’s large catalogue of publications.

Brave offers content producers like YouTube creators and Twitch streamers the ability to earn a substantially larger share of revenues than they would under conventional ad-based models. One such creator is YouTuber Philip DeFranco, who recently signed with Brave as the company attempts to grow its adoption within the youth demographic and with popular creators.

DeFranco, who currently has more than 6 million YouTube subscribers, said back in April:

“I’m so excited to work with Brave and spread the word because, in addition to being such a fantastic product that creates a cleaner, faster, and secure browsing experience, they are thinking about creators, their audiences, and how to support both first. This is a fantastic opportunity for the creators looking to diversify and get the platform that makes it easier to go from creating as a hobby, to creating and supporting yourself, to building your very own business.”

With Brave, viewers can reward content creators using BAT micropayments, and eventually the plan is for regular users to also be rewarded for using the platform.

Under this framework, users will be able to opt in to be served with non-intrusive advertisements native to the Brave platform. In return, they will receive a portion of the advertising revenue in form of BAT payments that will be automatically converted into their local fiat currency.

In July, Brave stated that it had 3 million monthly active users (MAUs) and expected to hit 5 million by the end of 2018.

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