Could it be that Opera Mini users vacation in Aruba and Australia? How about Turkmenistan or Antarctica? Opera’s State of the Mobile Web report for July examines the link between downloads and usage in determining some of the places Opera Mini users might vacation during the summer.
The 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 the top global trends, country snapshots, the report highlights trends in the Middle East, including the recent Iranian elections.
Global trends
- In July 2009, nearly 29.1 million people used Opera Mini, a 9.9% increase from June 2009 and more than 145% compared to July 2008. These numbers reflect only the Opera Mini users who have specifically chosen to install the browser on their phone.
- Those 29.1 million people viewed more than 12 billion pages in July 2009. Since June, page views have gone up 15.4%. Since July 2008, page views have increased 223%.
- Opera Mini users last month generated nearly 187 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since June, the data consumed went up by 11.0%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 1.7 PB of data in July. Since July 2008, data traffic is up 223%.
- The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage are (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, Nigeria, Germany and Poland.
Middle East trends
- The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in the Middle East are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen.
- Some numbers regarding the Middle East: From July 2008 to July 2009, overall page views in the top 10 countries listed increased 67.5%. From July 2008 to July 2009, overall unique users in the top 10 countries listed increased 16.5%. From July 2008 to July 2009, overall data transferred in the top 10 countries listed increased 36.6%.
- Growth rates in the Middle East: Syria leads the top 10 countries with 376.6% growth in users this year, followed by Yemen (180.7% growth) and Jordan (167.4% growth).
- Case study on Iran: In Iran, there were more Opera Mini downloads in July than there were unique users in June, but Iran only showed a 32% growth in unique users from June to July. Furthermore, between July 2008 and July 2009, the number of unique users in Iran actually decreased by 22.4%, whereas the only other decreases were seen in Saudi Arabia and Israel (under 10% each). Despite the decrease, Iran is still at the top of the list for the Middle East. Page-views per user in Iran went up from 119 to 188 between July 2008 and July 2009.
- In the Middle East, among mobile Web users, Google is the dominant player in the search engine space, followed by Yahoo!. Facebook is the preferred social network in the Middle East, except in Saudi Arabia where Friendster remains the top social network. Nokia handsets continue to be dominant in the Middle East, with one LG and a handful of Sony Ericsson handsets being popular in a few of the countries.
Browsing on vacation?
Locations in July where Opera Mini users appear to vacation include Turkmenistan, Antarctica, Aruba, Andorra, Burundi and Australia. In these locations, unique users increased more than the download rate.
What we say
“This month’s report shows that people are using the mobile Web more intensively,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “We believe that giving people everywhere a better browser will encourage them to browse more. So if we want the Web to be available to everyone, we need a solution that can work on almost every phone. That was why we originally made Opera Mini. And so far, the world has responded. We continue to be humbled by that response.”
State of the Mobile Report archive: http://www.opera.com/smw/archive/
About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/ .
