Opera’s Company FAQ

Frequently asked questions

About Opera

What is Opera?

Opera is a Norwegian company employing people around the world who are dedicated to building the best Web browser for any device or platform.

Opera ships a world-class web browser for PC, Macintosh and Linux computers. It is the world’s most popular browser for mobile phones and the best-of-breed provider of browsing solutions for devices ranging from the Nintendo DSi and set-top boxes to in-car systems.
When was Opera founded?

Opera began in 1994 as a research project within Norway’s largest telecom company, Telenor. Within a year, it branched out into an independent development company named Opera Software ASA.

What are Opera’s competitive advantages?

Opera stays true to its goal of providing a browser that operates across devices, platforms and operating systems, while delivering a faster, more stable and flexible Internet experience than its competitors.
What is Opera’s position on patents and intellectual property rights?

Opera does not believe innovation in the software industry is protected or encouraged by software patents. In particular, Opera actively works to ensure that software patents do not stand in the way of interoperability.

As a highly innovative company, Opera comes up with many ideas and concepts that are patentable. In some situations, Opera applies for software patents as a way to protect itself from attacks by other aggressive patent holders.

Opera works wherever possible to ensure those patents are made available to support open standards, for example through the W3C’s Royalty Free Patent Policy, OMTP’s “Turin Rules”, and other initiatives seeking to ensure an open development environment for all.

What are Opera’s products?

Opera’s product line-up includes Opera (for computers running Windows, Mac, Linux), Opera Mobile, Opera Mini and Opera Devices SDK.

How many people are using Opera?

Today, more than 300 million people are using Opera every month.

How does Opera make money?

Opera has two basic revenue models:

For enterprise products, such as Opera preinstalled on a mobile phone or a set-top box, Opera receives revenue as a mix of engineering fees, maintenance fees and shares of sales income. The balance varies from contract to contract. This model accounts for the majority of Opera’s income.

Opera also derives revenue from its free products through revenue sharing with partners. For example, several search engines make usage payments to Opera for searches made by Opera users. This is the major source of income for Opera’s desktop browser, with revenue shares also in place on a variety of mobile products.

How has the increasing competition in the browser market affected the market and Opera?

When competitors launch new products, Opera typically experiences an increase in its download numbers. It is interesting to note that after the release of Google Chrome in late 2008, Opera downloads increased by as much as 20 percent. This is a direct result of people becoming more aware that they have a choice in browsers. Overall, the increased competition in the browser market is positive for the consumers, as the browser makers are now fighting to provide the best and most innovative products.

Is Opera a publicly listed company?

Opera is a publicly listed company on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Refer to our Investor Relations pages for more information.

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Opera's One Web concept

What is One Web?

To Opera, One Web means being able to take the one true web and make it available to people on their own terms. One Web is an idea that meshes with Opera’s vision to deliver the best possible Internet experience on any device. With it, Opera aims to deliver a single, continuous and personal Internet experience.

Opera’s One Web concept is built on three pillars:

  • Same web, any device: You are able to seamlessly access the same familiar web content on any device you wish, whenever you want, and wherever you are.
  • Open standards: The web is built and grounded upon a single set of web standards that enable the same Internet experience on any device.
  • Full access: People have universal and equal access to the best possible full Internet experience regardless of device capability or network quality.

What does Opera do to express the notion of One Web?

Opera expresses One Web in two ways:

  1. Through Opera technology:
    - Opera products are cross-platform and are optimized for a wide variety of hardware.
    - Opera Turbo accelerates the Internet experience and reduces bandwidth consumption by up to 80 percent.
    - Opera Link syncs bookmarks and Speed Dials between any devices running Opera.
  2. Through the support of web standards that enable the same Internet experience on any device and enable developers to code once and deploy everywhere.

Why is Opera’s commitment to One Web important?

Opera users can enjoy a personal and seamless Internet experience on any device and on their own terms. Opera also delivers world-class web browsers and server solutions to operators and manufacturers worldwide. Using Opera technology, Opera’s partners can unify and expand their Internet-enabled product portfolio and service offerings, build brands and delight end users.

Opera believes that there is only one, true web. It is not a mobile web and a desktop web and a set-top-box web, but One Web, one Internet. This means that with fundamentals, such as web standards and technical innovations supporting widespread accessibility, people are able to access the same familiar web content seamlessly on any device.

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Opera's Technology

Why is Opera the fastest browser?

Opera is the fastest browser on earth, due to its lightning-fast Carakan JavaScript engine, its Vega rendering technology and its small, efficient code base.

More importantly, Opera helps you to surf more efficiently by providing handy tools such as mouse gestures and the ability to open all your favorite pages at once.

Is Opera a secure browser?

Opera is designed to keep users as safe as possible, which is proven by its number-one security track record at Secunia. To combat the growing threat of online fraud (phishing), Opera features a security information field that displays security certificate information and a security rating on secure sites, such as those for shopping and banking. This helps users judge whether or not a site is trustworthy. Opera also displays URLs even for anonymous pop-ups. Opera also offers the strictest privacy settings in the industry, enabling users to remove all traces of their online activity from their computers with one click. In addition, Opera automatically checks for updates to make sure you will always have the latest version available.

What is Opera Turbo?

Opera Turbo allows users to experience faster browsing by using less bandwidth. By compressing web pages up to 80 percent, Opera Turbo provides significant improvements in browsing speeds over limited bandwidth or very crowded connections, such as overloaded hot spots or in regions with poorly-developed network infrastructure.

For the millions of users who do not have unlimited broadband, this compression also represents a direct savings on their cost of Internet access.

For infrastructure providers, this compression enables them to offer more Internet with the same amount of infrastructure, significantly lowering the cost of supporting their users.

How can I change Opera’s look and feel?

Visit addons.opera.com/themes to choose between a large variety of themes. Once you have found a theme you like, you can enjoy an almost limitless amount of customizations by right-clicking on the element you want to change and choosing Appearance. Opera allows you to customize everything from arranging your tabs on the side to adding or removing buttons as you like.

Is Opera planning to go open source?

Opera has no current plans to go open source. Opera has great respect for the open source movement, and Opera’s products run on the various open source platforms. Opera believes that the most important thing is open Web standards. If web sites and browsers are created based on open standards, you get an ideal environment for innovation and healthy competition. Furthermore, Opera believes that the most efficient way to get Opera out on as many platforms as possible rapidly is to manage the central code base in such a way that improvements made for Opera on home media devices benefit the mobile and PC products as well. Opera’s unique differentiator in the market today is that it is the same Opera core that runs on everything on which Opera ships.

Sometimes I encounter sites that do not work in the Opera browser. Why?

Some web sites are not created in compliance with open standards, which is the main reason some sites do not work in all browsers. Opera has a goal to be compatible with real sites, while at the same time fighting for open standards. We are also working closely with web sites and the broader community to assist the site providers in developing standards-based sites and services. We have a dedicated team who works with the rest of the industry to open the web.

Why does Opera find it important to follow open standards?

Opera believes in an Internet where everyone can meet, innovate and thrive. For this to happen, certain international standards must be followed by everyone. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies, such as specifications, guidelines, software and tools, that make this possible. For more on Opera’s values, take a look at Opera’s mission.

Does Opera support extensions?

Opera has introduced extensions in Opera 11. For additional information on how to develop and publish extensions, please go to Opera’s developer site.

Does Opera support Java?

Yes. If a user visits a page that requires Java and it is not already installed, Opera will guide the user through downloading and installing it.

Does Opera support ActiveX and/or VBScript?

ActiveX is only available on Windows and is a source of many security problems. Opera instead supports Java and Plug-ins across multiple platforms.

Does Opera Mobile support Flash?

Opera Mobile supports browser plug-ins in the same way as desktop browsers do. Adobe Flash is one such plug-in, and Flash content will play if the plug-in is available from the handset manufacturer or Adobe. Opera is working closely with these companies to enable Flash support in the future.

What is the difference between Opera Mini and Opera Mobile?

Both Opera Mini and Opera Mobile are based on the same fast, standards-compliant browser core as that in Opera desktop. Opera Mini and Opera Mobile provide the same great usability and browsing experience.

For Opera Mini, the core browser engine is located on a server, which transcodes the web pages so that they can be viewed on a small client. The major benefit is that Opera’s servers compress the data, which means you can get data much faster, even on a low bandwidth connection.

With Opera Mobile, the browser engine is installed on the phone, meaning that web pages are fetched directly from the web server to your phone. This results in a rich, fast and complete browsing experience for smartphones.

Opera Mobile and Opera Mini have the same UI. Why?

Opera has invested heavily in delivering a great browsing experience with all its mobile products. With the help of a new, cross-platform user interface framework, Opera is able to deliver the same look and feel on a wide range of different platforms, which allows users to transition from device to device easily.

What sites are people visiting with Opera Mini?

Every month Opera conducts the definitive analysis of the key trends affecting the mobile web worldwide. Opera publishes these findings in the State of the Mobile Web report. Each report provides the most frequently visited sites, key data metrics from Opera Mini and a snapshot of a specific trend chosen by the analysis team that month. See the latest report at: http://www.opera.com/smw/.

Can secured transactions be done using Opera Mini or Opera Mobile?

Yes. If you are running Opera Mobile, you have direct connection with the site and you can complete secure transactions online very simply. It is the same as using Opera or any other browser on your desktop. Opera Mini uses a secure, encrypted connection to support all your secured transactions.

How are passwords stored?

Passwords are stored in the client. The user can easily delete all passwords and other private information such as history and cookies.

Does Opera Turbo work on Opera Mobile?

Yes.

What is the advantage of using Opera Turbo on mobile?

Opera Turbo is a server proxy which compresses content before it is downloaded to the phone. For users who do not have a flat-rate data plan, this can mean significant cost savings. This is also a big advantage for network operators.

Is Opera available on my phone?

Opera Mobile is available on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60-based phones. Opera Mini is available on all Java-based phones, in addition to special versions for Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry and iPhone. Check out Opera’s supported mobile devices.

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