Opera Mini – a money making machine

Opera Mini generates nearly $1.25 billion per year for mobile operators in just the top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage, 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 optimisation 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 February 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.

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 1.25 billion dollars per year in the top 10 countries.

– 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).

North America trends

– In Part 3 of this month’s report, we looked at countries in North America and the Caribbean. The top 11 countries using Opera Mini in that region are the United States, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama and Puerto Rico.

– From February 2009 to February 2010, page views in the top 11 countries of North America and the Caribbean increased by 153%, unique users increased by 109% and data transferred increased by 84%.

-Since our last spotlight on North America and the Caribbean, Honduras jumped from #7 to #5, Guadeloupe jumped from #9 to #8, and several new countries are on the list (Trinidad & Tobago, Panama, and Puerto Rico).

-Growth rates in North America and the Caribbean: Guadeloupe and Panama lead the top 11 countries of the region in terms of page-view growth (2,555.3% and 897.5%, respectively). Guadeloupe and Dominican Republic lead the top 11 countries of the region in growth of unique users (5,725.3% and 384.2%, respectively). Costa Rica leads the top 11 countries of the region in page views per user, with each user browsing 359 pages on average each month.

-In North America and the Caribbean, among mobile Web users, Google is at the top of the rankings in 10 out of the top 11 countries. In Puerto Rico, Google is number 2 (behind Facebook).

-In North America and the Caribbean, Facebook is also very popular, taking the #1 spot in Puerto Rico, the #2 spot in six of the top 11 countries and the #3 spot in two of the top 11 countries.

-Opera Mini users in North America and the Caribbean use several different handset brands, including BlackBerry, LG, Nokia. Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. In the United States and Canada, BlackBerry handsets occupy the number 1 spot. In five out of the 11 countries, Sony Ericsson handsets are number 1. In four out of the 11 countries, Nokia handsets take the number 1 spot.

Opera Turbo statistics

Opera Turbo is a feature in both Opera desktop and Opera Mobile that uses our servers to optimize and compress Web pages. In February 2010, Opera Turbo on Opera Mobile was used by 645,000 unique users to view over 73 million pages, resulting in 4.1 terabytes of data transferred (post-compression).

Opera desktop statistics may be found in our Opera Turbo report, also published monthly: http://www.opera.com/otr/.

What we say

“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.””

State of the Mobile Report archive: http://www.opera.com/smw/archive/.

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