State of the Mobile Web, August 2008

Welcome to our State of the Mobile Web report covering the month of August. This month we take a look at the breadth of the mobile Web. You might call this the Long Tail, a trend that in the case of our report shows the importance and strength of niche sites on the mobile Web.

For many years, we've maintained our belief that Web usage trends will converge. People will view the same sites, seek out similar content, and use the Web in much the same way on their phone just as they do on their PC. We are after all creatures of habit.

Our report this month proves that people use the Web on their mobile phone just as we've maintained. The presence of the Long Tail bolsters our belief in One Web, our long-held vision that you should be able to have access to the same sites and services regardless of the device. We need less fragmentation in this world. One Web is our driving ambition to create one seamless experience from device to device.

I hope you enjoy our look at the Long Tail this month. Let us continue to work together to realize the promise of One Web.

Kind Regards,
Jon S. von Tetzchner
CEO, Opera Software

Part 1: Growth

Number of Users

In August, Opera Mini was used by approximately 17.3 million users, a 9.1% month-on-month increase from July and more than 357% compared to August 2007.

Pages Transcoded

Opera Mini users viewed more than 4.1 billion pages in August. Each person using Opera Mini viewed approximately 242 pages on average. For the third month in a row, the number of pages viewed per user has gone up. Since July, page views have gone up 11.7%. Since August 2007, this number is up 337%.

Pages transcoded by Opera Mini per month

Month	Page views
January 2006	39,969,125
February 2006	70,119,707
March 2006	102,386,928
April 2006	123,915,618
May 2006	155,660,949
June 2006	183,518,205
July 2006	231,325,050
August 2006	268,738,912
September 2006	274,840,901
October 2006	336,044,711
November 2006	378,938,100
December 2006	423,503,600
January 2007	507,622,606
February 2007	540,701,179
March 2007	632,313,886
April 2007	705,063,025
May 2007	767,107,863
June 2007	788,283,659
July 2007	867,208,160
August 2007	907,690,600
September 2007	872,028,768
October 2007	1,192,916,658
November 2007	1,414,205,703
December 2007	1,558,566,188
January 2008	1,787,235,674
February 2008	1,883,751,325
March 2008	2,429,200,080
April 2008	2,491,451,387
May 2008	2,947,979,866
June 2008	3,224,286,622
July 2008	3,736,244,111
August 2008	4,172,941,429

Data Consumed

In August, 17.3 million Opera Mini users generated more than 60.3 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since July, the data consumed went up by 12.1%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed 90% on average. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 603 million MB of data in August.

Total data consumed per month (in MB)

Month	Data transfer (MB)
January 2006	587,826
February 2006	759,338
March 2006	1,072,662
April 2006	1,334,715
May 2006	1,831,441
June 2006	2,127,142
July 2006	2,614,633
August 2006	2,979,209
September 2006	2,976,858
October 2006	3,692,282
November 2006	4,124,607
December 2006	4,652,547
January 2007	5,322,457
February 2007	5,573,556
March 2007	6,529,736
April 2007	7,264,413
May 2007	8,093,274
June 2007	7,984,642
July 2007	9,729,792
August 2007	10,379,959
September 2007	9,922,367
October 2007	12,491,633
November 2007	14,732,591
December 2007	20,129,575
January 2008	23,690,372
February 2008	26,521,524
March 2008	33,096,381
April 2008	35,636,188
May 2008	43,095,243
June 2008	46,735,465
July 2008	53,853,102
August 2008	60,399,886

Part 2: Country snapshots for August 2008

Part 3: The Long Tail of Web pages visited

Opera Mini was used to view over 4.1 billion pages in August. Out of the over 12 million sites viewed, 87 sites generated more than half of those 4.1 billion page views, with the vast number of other visited sites generating the rest.

Therefore, it appears that mobile Web users spend a significant amount of time browsing the Long Tail of the Web in addition to the most popular online destinations.

Percentage of traffic generated by the top 100 sites

Country	Percent
Russia	43%
Indonesia	76%
India	52%
Ukraine	57%
China	76%
South Africa	38%
United States	48%
United Kingdom	57%
Poland	57%
Germany	49%

Country-by-country statistics for the month of August provide us with further insight:

• In Russia, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 44% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini.
• In Indonesia, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 76% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini. In fact, Friendster alone generated over half of Opera Mini's page views in Indonesia.
• In India, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 52% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini. The top 53 sites in India generated over half of Opera Mini's page views in that country.
• In Ukraine, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 57% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini. The top 48 sites in Ukraine generated over half of Opera Mini's page views in that country.
• In China, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 76% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini. The top 11 sites in China generated over half of Opera Mini's page views in that country.
• In South Africa, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 38% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini.
• In the United States, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 48% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini.
• In the United Kingdom, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 57% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini. The top 44 sites in the United Kingdom generated over half of Opera Mini's page views in that country.
• In Poland, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 57% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini. The top 45 sites in Poland generated over half of Opera Mini's page views in that country.
• In Germany, the top 100 sites (in terms of page views) generated 49% of that country's total page views via Opera Mini.

It appears, therefore, that the Long Tail effect is more pronounced in countries such as Russia, South Africa, the United States and Germany. In each of those countries, the top 100 sites are generating less than 50% of the total traffic in that country. The opposite case can be observed in countries like Indonesia and China, where the 100 most popular sites in those countries generate 76% of all the traffic. In Indonesia, Friendster is especially dominant, generating over half of that country's Opera Mini traffic all by itself in the month of August.

In general, we conclude that Opera Mini users do not feel restricted to big-name sites when browsing the Web on their handsets. With Opera Mini, they are accessing the full Web, including niche sites that do not individually generate massive amounts of traffic. This is in direct contrast to WAP browsers, where the content available to users is limited by the confines of the "walled gardens" within which users are forced to stay. As users get more comfortable with the idea of browsing the full Web on their handsets, we expect that the Long Tail of the Web visited by Opera Mini users will continue to grow, both in each country and globally.