State of the Mobile Web, July 2009
Just last month, I was excited to see Opera Mini users view more than 10 billion pages in one month. This month, their hunger for mobile Web content was even greater. Twelve billion pages in one month is an impressive raw number. This 15 percent jump over June is greater than the usage growth, which itself was significant at nearly 10 percent.
So we know each person views more pages, but I often wonder why. What drives growth? That to me is the most fascinating question. The more we learn about why people use the mobile Web, the better we can all serve consumers with the best products and most desired content.
What we can tell from the stats this month is that some countries are experiencing higher usage than their downloads would indicate. We are not sure if this might be a vacation effect, but it is interesting to see. Seeing Aruba and Australia on this list could certainly lead one to believe that these numbers represent vacationers.
We can also look at our geographic spotlight to see how, if not why, people use the mobile Web. This month we look into the Middle East. The numbers are quite interesting, particularly the statistics from Iran, where the election recently dominated the news.
Regardless of the whys or hows we can find in these reports, one thing endures: we love making browsers because they give people access. The fact is that not everyone in the world will access the Web from a computer. In fact, the most prevalent communications device by far is a regular, everyday mobile phone. 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 That was why we originally made Opera Mini.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 are humbled by that response.
Kind Regards,
Jon S. von Tetzchner
CEO, Opera Software
Highlights
- As usual, this month saw increases in all three categories of growth (users, pages viewed and data consumed).
- Nigeria jumped to eighth place in the top ten list of countries, placing it ahead of the United Kingdom and Poland.
- 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%.
- Since our last spotlight on the Middle East, Saudi Arabia moved from #3 to #2, United Arab Emirates moved from #6 to #5, and Oman moved from #7 to #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: In Iran, there were more Opera Mini downloads in July than there were unique users in June, but Iran showed only 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! and Live.
- Facebook has continued its rise in the Middle East, except in Saudi Arabia, where Friendster remains the preferred site for social networking.
- 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.
- Locations in July where Opera Mini users appear to be on vacation include Turkmenistan, Antarctica, Aruba, Andorra, Burundi and Australia. In those areas, unique users increased by higher numbers than the new downloads can account for.
Part 1: Growth
Number of users
In July 2009, Opera Mini had nearly 29.1 million users, a 9.9% increase from June 2009 and more than 145% compared to July 2008.
Pages transcoded
Opera Mini users 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%.
| Month | Page views |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| March 2009 | 8,627,181,759 |
| April 2009 | 8,687,835,336 |
| May 2009 | 9,641,002,614 |
| June 2009 | 10,447,031,428 |
| July 2009 | 12,051,716,351 |
Data consumed
In July 2009, Opera Mini users 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%.
| Month | Data transfer (MB) |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| March 2009 | 148,884,676 |
| April 2009 | 151,023,302 |
| May 2009 | 159,545,769 |
| June 2009 | 168,483,963 |
| July 2009 | 186,996,258 |
Part 2: Country snapshots for July 2009
Part 3: Spotlight on the Middle East
Highlights
- 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%.
- Since our last spotlight on the Middle East, Saudi Arabia moved from #3 to #2, United Arab Emirates moved from #6 to #5 and Oman moved from #7 to #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: In Iran, there were more Opera Mini downloads in July than there were unique users in June, but Iran showed only 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! and Live.
- Facebook has continued its rise in the Middle East, except in Saudi Arabia, where Friendster remains the preferred site for social networking.
- 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.
Top 10 countries snapshot
Part 4: Summer fun part 2 — Vacation browsing
July is the height of summer, and it is not unusual for people to take vacation during that month. Here at Opera, we wondered how much Opera Mini is being used while on vacation. To determine that, we used a simple metric: specifically, we looked for locations where there were significant increases in unique users between June and July that could not be explained by new downloads alone. So, for example, if a location had many new users in July but not many new downloads, we hypothesized* that many of those Opera Mini users were visiting from other areas.
Whether or not they are truly popular summer destinations (for whatever reason), here are the locations that stand out:
Note: The following locations (limited to those with at least 15 unique users in July) showed a lot of growth between June and July that cannot be attributed to new downloads. In each of the listed locations below, new downloads make up less than 50% of the new unique user total.
Highlights
- Turkmenistan
- 8,440% growth between June and July
- 3.4% of the new users, at most, can be attributed to new downloads
- Antarctica
- 800% growth between June and July
- 0% of the new users, at most, can be attributed to new downloads
- Aruba
- 398% growth between June and July
- 8.9% of the new users, at most, can be attributed to new downloads
- Andorra
- 89% growth between June and July
- 48.5% of the new users, at most, can be attributed to new downloads
- Burundi
- 80% growth between June and July
- 12.5% of the new users, at most, can be attributed to new downloads
- Australia
- 47% growth between June and July
- 41.9% of the new users, at most, can be attributed to new downloads
Burundi and Antarctica only have a handful of Opera Mini users, especially compared to countries like Australia and Turkmenistan, but we appreciate those few intrepid travlers nonetheless and hope Opera Mini kept them well-connected during their time away from home!
Note: It is also possible that phone manufacturers/distributors in these countries preinstalled Opera Mini on a large scale, resulting in many new users who did not download the browser on their own.
Other formats
- Printable version (PDF, 176kB)
- Opera Mini data sheet (Excel, 28kB)
Related resources
Recent reports
- A quick look at early adopters on Android
- Opera Web Pass insight
- Opera on mobile phones experience record growth
- The top local domains of Europe
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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