The mobile business unit of e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group said on Thursday that it is going to reinvent its browser into a new media platform that can tailor to the information needs of individual users.

Yu Yongfu, who is in charge of Alibaba's mobile business unit, said that the UC Browser will be upgraded into to a media platform in the era of "information explosion".

"Internet products must evolve in the coming five years as we see a rising trend shifting from people seeking information to information seeking people," he said.

According to him, people no longer need to seek information anymore with the development of mobile internet due to the surging amount of information being generated every day. A good browser needs to send different information to different users based on their tastes.

The new direction puts UC Browser in direct competition with news apps, such as Toutiao, which can also provide tailor-made information to each of its readers.

But by leveraging the huge data pool of Alibaba Group, including shopping information on its online marketplaces, social data on Weibo and entertainment data on Youku Tudou, Yu is confident UC Browser can do much better.

According to the company, UC Browser has more than 400 million monthly active users around the world.