Interview of Alok Bhardwaj, creator of Epic Browser

Epic Browser is said to be the first-ever web browser for India. You must be very well aware and user of famous web browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Navigator, Opera and etc. But this browser comes with the Indian touch and style. One of reasons it can be called an Indian browser is its facility of typing in Indian languages. This browser is founded by a Bangalore based company called Hidden Reflex, headed by Alok Bhardwaj.

Alok Bhardwaj, formerly a mergers & acquisitions investment banker for technology and other companies, is the founder of Hidden Reflex. Mr. Bhardwaj earned a degree in philosophy from Princeton University in 1996. He is a founding member of PodVoters.org, and is also the proprietor of a New York City-based educational services firm. His interests outside of technology are world music, cinema, art, poetry, and science.

Enjoy the interview with the creator of this brilliant browser.

Interview

Q.: In the existing net of many browsers, some of them are highly popular such as Firefox and Internet Explorer, what really inspired you to create the ‘Epic Browser?’

The Web browser is increasingly the most important piece of software on your system and it usage is high and going higher. The user experience and interface of the browser, however, hasn’t changed in 15 years since the initial browsers Mosaic and Spyglass. We felt that your web browser should do more for you—that was our inspiration. One key inspiration for India was to develop a tool that could help Indian language conversation and discourse move online. At present, almost all Indian internet activity has been in English but with Epic, Hindi and regional language speakers can share their thoughts and ideas online in Indian languages as effortlessly as English speakers.

The big browsers like IE want to deliver a generic browsing experience. We want to deliver something really special.

Q.: Tell us in detail about the creation process of Epic Browser. How was the environment, hurdles that came across and that sort of interesting stories that happened during its development phase.

One of the key things that was important for us was moving from where we were trying to do things that were technically challenging and might impress geeks to doing things that ordinary internet users would actually care about and love. One example of this is the full-page wallpaper innovation in Epic—the idea of bringing wallpaper into the browser came from us realizing how important personalization was to users especially Indian users even though it’s not something that might impress geeks.

Q.: How was the initial response from users from INDIA?

So far we’re overwhelmed and very thankful to all of India for its support. Not just India, the world as Epic has been downloaded in 178 countries. In just its first month, Epic has cleared 450,000 downloads which we feel is a tremendous start. This is just the beginning for Epic–we’re working as hard as we can to keep improving Epic and launched an update just 2 weeks ago and will have another update coming up soon.

Q.: Epic Browser costs nothing. How does your company look at the earning potential from it?

We can earn revenues from driving searches, from driving e-commerce transactions, and also potentially from advertising. For example, if you want to support Epic and make your life easier, you can use the Travel sidebar in Epic to book your next flight and Epic will earn a commission.

Q.: How do you justify that this browser is “the first-ever web browser for India”?

We’re not aware of any other browser that really has content and language support which represents not all but a large, large part of India—news for every single state, language support for 12 Indian languages, 1500+ Indian themes and wallpapers.

Q.: Tell us about the good stuff, news that came to your company for the first time only because of ‘Epic Browser’.

SpeakBindas.com e-mailed us to interview us! Many other technology companies including some of the very biggest in both India and the world also reached out to us to partner with us and or congratulate us.

Q.: What’s next?

We intend to keep working to make Epic synonymous with “Security” “Productivity” “Privacy” and “India”…so we’ll keep improving Epic along those areas, making it more secure and private and improving our sidebar apps. We’ll also see how we can continue to make the product more catered to an Indian audience.

Q.: Through platform of SpeakBindas, what special message you would like to convey to users of Epic Browser?

Thanks all Epic users for your support—do keep sending us your feedback, we’re working as hard as we can to make Epic even better and to make it the most secure, most productive and most “Indian” browsing experience of any web browser.

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