Opera Mini generates more than $1.2 billion per year for mobile operators around the world, according to Opera’s State of the Mobile Web Report. The United States leads the way, with Opera Mini generating more than $146 per user, per year.
Opera’s State of the Mobile Web Report, published monthly, provides information on the top global trends affecting the mobile Web. The full report is available from http://www.opera.com/smw/ (English only). In addition to exploring the mobile data revenues for operators in the top 10 countries, the report highlights global statistics, profiles the mobile browsing habits in North America and includes a brief look at the uptake for the Opera Turbo optimization and compression feature in Opera Mobile.
Global Trends
In February 2010, Opera Mini had over 50.5 million users, a 1.7% increase from January 2010 and more than 145% compared to February 2009.
Those 50.5 million people viewed more than 22 billion pages in February 2010. Since January, page views went down 5.6%, partly because February only has 28 days compared to January’s 31. Since February 2009, page views have increased 200%.
In February 2010, Opera Mini users generated over 330 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since January, the data consumed went down by 1.9%, also due to the fewer number of days in February. Data in Opera Mini is compressed by up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 3 petabytes of data in February. Since February 2009, data traffic is up over 164%.
The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage in January 2010 were: Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, Nigeria, the United States, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Nigeria continues its ascent up the top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage — overtaking the United States in February. Also in February, China passed Ukraine to take the number 4 spot.
Nigeria continues its ascent up the top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage – overtaking the United States in February. Also in February, China passed Ukraine to take the number 4 spot.
Operator revenue trends:
- In February 2010, people browsing with Opera Mini (in the top 10 countries according to unique users) spent approximately 103.8 million dollars. That figure translates to approximately 1.2 billion dollars per year.
- Using $1 per megabyte as a global average, Opera Mini users generate nearly $4 billion for operators worldwide each year.
- From a per-user perspective, Opera Mini users spent approximately $4 on average in the month of February, which comes out to $48 per year. The heaviest spending occurs in the United States ($146.40 user/year) and the United Kingdom ($102/user/year), whereas the least spending occurs in India ($8.76/user/year) and South Africa ($11.52/user/year).
“We like to think of Opera Mini as a win-win solution,” said Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder, Opera. “Consumers who would otherwise not pay for the mobile Web can do so without fear of ‘sticker shock’ when they see their bill. People paying for a flat-rate data plan can enjoy quick and hassle-free browsing over EDGE or 3G connections. Operators attract new customers for their data packages, and their strained networks can catch their breath while our servers do the heavy lifting.”
