Google: 2 Billion Active Chrome Installs

[engine]

There's an interesting stat that came out of the Chrome Dev Summit: Google says there are 2 billion active Chrome browser installs across mobile and desktop.

For me it's a slightly confusing message because, is it active users, or active installs? There's a difference as far as i'm concerned because the installation of Chrome was all too easy, and it automatically updates. Does that mean it's in use! For example, I have it on my phone, as it came with it, but i don't use it on there.

[techcrunch.com...]

[robzilla]

The article, at least, says "2 billion Chrome installs in active use", not "2 billion active Chrome installs". I'm not sure what an "active install" would be, anyway, if there even is such a thing or difference. Chrome undoubtedly phones home when it's actively used, so they can probably tell the difference between in-use and dormant installations.

StatCounter reports an overall 50% market share, which aligns with the 52% I see on my own sites. Given the estimate that there are 3.5 billion internet users globally, and many of those having multiple devices, 2 billion active Chrome installations doesn't sound unreasonable.

[engine]

Your figures add up, thanks.
Doesn't Chrome update itself automatically? That happens whether you use the software or not. Is that measured as an active user?

[robzilla]

Literally, Fisher said [youtube.com] (around 15:50): "we have 2 billion active Chrome browsers". He did not explain how that's measured, but given the aforementioned statistics it seems reasonable to say that they are actively used installations of Chrome.

[engine]

And in April this year they had 1 billion. That's pretty good growth!

[robzilla]

That was mobile-only, whereas the 2 billion figure is across all devices :-) I don't know what the desktop statistic was in April. Interestingly, though, the infographic [storage.googleapis.com] they released in April mentions "1 billion users on mobile each month", so that might give us a clue (or answer, even) in regards to how they measure these things.

But from 0 to 2 billion in 8 years time is still pretty impressive. And well-deserved, if you ask me.