State of the Mobile Web, February 2009
Dear friends,
If you have been reading these reports, you know that Russia and Ukraine always rank high on the list of countries with the most Opera Mini users. We feel this is due to several factors, chief among them being that Russia, Ukraine and the other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States have always embraced Opera.
Several years ago, we began to notice a large percentage of our desktop users were, in fact, from Russia and the other CIS countries. Today, Opera on the desktop holds more than a 35% market share in Russia and also enjoys high penetration throughout the CIS countries. So, perhaps on one level, it is not surprising to assume Opera Mini would have similar success.
However, I believe software is only as good as the problems it solves. Opera and Opera Mini have had great success in this region because we had features that helped solve real problems--such as network speed, Internet access costs, and more--that people faced. As we solved those problems for more people, they began spreading the word.
So we felt it was time to give this fast-growing region its due. There are more Opera Mini users combined here than in any other region on the planet. These users also tend to use popular and local services such as Yandex for search, VKontakte for social networking and Mail.ru as both e-mail and content portal.
As you know, I am a big fan of our page-view numbers, as they indicate how much the service is actually used. Uzbekistan was the big winner here with more than 2600% growth in the past year.
Nokia was also a big winner, as the Finnish giant had more handsets in the top 10 devices for each country than any other manufacturer.
I enjoy seeing the mobile Web take off in every region, but as these reports have proven consistently, it succeeds for different reasons in different regions. Next month, I will be back from CTIA and look forward to seeing how the mobile Web is progressing in the United States. I wish you all continued success and hope to meet many of you and see how the mobile Web is evolving where you live.
Kind Regards,
Jon S. von Tetzchner
CEO, Opera Software
Highlights
- February 2009 saw an increase in both Opera Mini users and data consumed and a slight decrease in the number of total page views. The numbers for this month were generally positive, but a little more modest than usual--due to the fact that February has only 28 days.
- This month, we looked at countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in the CIS are: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.
- Nokia is by far the most popular handset brand chosen by Opera Mini users in the CIS, followed by Sony Ericsson--which boasts the number 1 handset in Armenia.
- Facebook, which is popular in so many other regions covered in previous installments of this report, is nowhere to be found in the top 10 lists of the CIS countries. Instead, Vkontakte takes the crown.
- Within the CIS countries, Yandex is the preferred search engine, followed by Google and Yahoo! except in the countries at the bottom of the top 10 list (Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan) where Google is slightly ahead of Yandex.
- Mail.ru is is ranked first or second in each of the CIS countries reported on.
Part 1: Growth
Number of users
In February 2009, Opera Mini had over 20.5 million users, a 2.9% increase from January 2009 and more than 160% compared to February 2008.
Pages transcoded
Opera Mini users viewed over 7.3 billion pages in February 2009. Since January, page views have gone down 3.2%. Since February 2008, page views have increased 290%.
| Month | Page views |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| September 2008 | 4,533,894,901 |
| October 2008 | 5,088,923,679 |
| November 2008 | 5,703,580,103 |
| December 2008 | 6,418,665,392 |
| January 2009 | 7,592,623,125 |
| February 2009 | 7,347,728,912 |
Data consumed
In February 2009, Opera Mini users generated more than 124 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since January, the data consumed went up by 2.3%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90% on average. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed nearly 1.2 PB of data in February. Since February 2008, data traffic is up 338%.
Note: This year, February had 28 days.
| Month | Data transfer (MB) |
|---|---|
| March 2007 | 7,011,251 |
| April 2007 | 7,800,104 |
| May 2007 | 8,690,087 |
| June 2007 | 8,573,444 |
| July 2007 | 10,447,285 |
| August 2007 | 11,145,396 |
| September 2007 | 10,654,061 |
| October 2007 | 13,412,789 |
| November 2007 | 15,818,999 |
| December 2007 | 21,613,966 |
| January 2008 | 25,437,344 |
| February 2008 | 28,477,270 |
| March 2008 | 35,536,969 |
| April 2008 | 38,264,066 |
| May 2008 | 46,273,165 |
| June 2008 | 50,181,823 |
| July 2008 | 57,824,328 |
| August 2008 | 64,853,884 |
| September 2008 | 70,095,676 |
| October 2008 | 79,167,872 |
| November 2008 | 91,084,753 |
| December 2008 | 103,144,185 |
| January 2009 | 122,005,065 |
| February 2009 | 124,835,298 |
Part 2: Country snapshots for February 2009
Snapshot: Russia
- Vkontakte continues to dominate while Yandex and mail.ru jostle for the number 2 position in Russia.
- After a few months of downward movement, Wapos.ru has gone up one position, displacing Wikipedia.
Top 10 sites in Russia (# of unique users)
- vkontakte.ru
- mail.ru (up from 3)
- yandex.ru (down from 2)
- odnoklassniki.ru
- rambler.ru
- google.com
- my.opera.com
- wapos.ru (up from 9)
- wikipedia.org (down from 8)
- seclub.org
Snapshot: Indonesia
- Wikipedia and waptrick are back on the list after short absences (2 months for Wikipedia and 1 month for waptrick).
Top 10 sites in Indonesia (# of unique users)
- friendster.com
- google.com
- facebook.com
- yahoo.com
- waptrick.com (back on the list)
- peperonity.com (down from 5)
- gamejump.com (down from 6)
- getjar.com
- wikipedia.org (back on the list)
- digg.com
Snapshot: Ukraine
- Yandex made a big jump to the number 3 position at the expense of Wikipedia, which dropped to position 7 (Yandex's ranking in January).
- The Ukrainian version of Google, which debuted last month at position 4 (lower than the usual number 2 rank for Google) dropped all the way to position 8 in February.
- Ukraine is the lone CIS country where Odnoklassniki.ru is not in the top 10.
Top 10 sites in Ukraine (# of unique users)
- vkontakte.ru
- mail.ru
- yandex.ru (up from 7)
- rambler.ru (back on the list)
- wapos.ru (up from 6)
- my.opera.com (down from 5)
- wikipedia.org (down from 3)
- google.com.ua (down from 4)
- yahoo.com
- seclub.org
Snapshot: China
- Opera China, which debuted last month at position 9, moved up slightly.
- After a 3-month absence, Paojiao.com is back on the list.
Top 10 sites in China (# of unique users)
- kong.net
- baidu.com
- google.cn
- sina.com.cn
- xiaonei.com
- qq.com
- hao123.com
- operachina.com (up from 9)
- taobao.com (back on the list)
- paojiao.com (back on the list)
Snapshot: India
- For the second month in a row, the top half of India's top 10 list showed no change, with Google Web properties taking 3 of the top 4 spots.
Top 10 sites in India (# of unique users)
- google.com
- orkut.com
- yahoo.com
- gmail.com
- gamejump.com
- rediff.com (up from 7)
- songs.pk (down from 6)
- wikipedia.org (up from 9)
- peperonity.com (down from 8)
- my.opera.com
Snapshot: South Africa
- Yahoo! dropped a bit in February (position 3 to position 5).
- Gmail is back on the list after a 3-month absence, while webmail.co.za has not been on the list since November 2008.
Top 10 sites in South Africa (# of unique users)
- facebook.com
- google.com
- wikipedia.org (up from 4)
- gamejump.com (up from 5)
- yahoo.com (down from 3)
- zamob.com
- my.opera.com (up from 8)
- gmail.com (back on the list)
- waptrick.com (back on the list)
- live.com (down from 9)
Snapshot: United States
- As usual, the US top 10 list is pretty stable, with the exception of Yahoo! dropping two places (from position 5 to position 7).
Top 10 sites in the U.S. (# of unique users)
- google.com
- facebook.com
- myspace.com
- wikipedia.org
- nytimes.com (up from 6)
- youtube.com (up from 7)
- yahoo.com (down from 5)
- gamejump.com
- accuweather.com
- my.opera.com (back on the list)
Snapshot: United Kingdom
- MSN is back on the list after a 4-month absence, displacing My Opera (which debuted last month). Other than that, February's list is exactly the same as January's.
Top 10 sites in the U.K. (# of unique users)
- google.com
- facebook.com
- yahoo.com
- bbc.co.uk
- live.com
- wikipedia.org
- bebo.com
- youtube.com
- gamejump.com
- msn.com (back on the list)
Snapshot: Poland
- Sciaga.pl is back on the list after a 2-month absence.
Top 10 sites in Poland (# of unique users)
- nasza-klasa.pl
- google.com
- lajt.onet.pl
- allegro.pl
- wikipedia.org
- fotka.pl (up from 7)
- wp.pl (down from 6)
- youtube.com
- gamejump.com
- sciaga.pl (back on the list)
Snapshot: Germany
- Yahoo! had a good month in Germany, jumping from position 8 to position 4, whereas SPIEGEL ONLINE dropped from position 5 to position 9.
Top 10 sites in Germany (# of unique users)
- google.com
- wikipedia.org
- studivz.net
- yahoo.com (up from 8)
- web.de (down from 4)
- youtube.com (up from 7)
- gmx.de (down from 6)
- sport1.de (up from 9)
- spiegel.de (down from 5)
- ebay.de
Part 3: Spotlight on the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
- The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in the Commonwealth of Independent States are: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.
- Nokia is by far the most popular handset brand chosen by Opera Mini users in the CIS, followed by Sony Ericsson--which boasts the number 1 handset in Armenia.
- Facebook, which is popular in so many other regions covered in previous installments of this report, is nowhere to be found in the top 10 lists of the CIS countries. Instead, Vkontakte takes the crown.
- Within the CIS countries, Yandex is the preferred search engine, followed by Google and Yahoo! except in the countries at the bottom of the top 10 list (Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan) where Google is slightly ahead of Yandex.
- Mail.ru is is ranked first or second in each of the CIS countries reported on.
Top 10 countries snapshot
Other formats
- Printable version (PDF, 276kb)
- Opera Mini data sheet (Excel, 20kb)
Related resources
Contact
For more information about the State of the Mobile Web report, please contact Pål Unanue-Zahl palu[at]opera.com, +47 2369 2400.
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