State of the Mobile Web, August 2009

We spend a lot of time talking about milestones because Opera Mini gives us so many reasons to celebrate. Last month, we crossed 12 billion page-views and earlier in the year, we were excited to discover our servers processed more than a petabyte of data every month.

In August, however, we hit two milestones worthy of sharing. Usage of Opera Mini jumped almost 10% over July, as we reached and quickly surpassed 30 million monthly users. In fact, we added more than one new user every second. At the same time, appetite for Web content surpassed even the user growth. In August, our servers sent 200 million MB of compressed data to phones all over the world. This is up almost 12% month-over-month. Our servers were close to processing two petabytes of raw data, but that is a milestone I expect next month.

But this report also looks at what will happen next. We want to gauge where the mobile Web is heading, so we, as an industry, can make smarter, more informed decisions. This month, we looked not only at our usual top 10, and our geographic spotlight on Europe, but also the countries that might soon unseat some of our top 10 countries.

For instance, Vietnam seems as if it might break into the top 10. Vietnam is currently ranked number 11 and usage there increased 20% in just one month. The Philippines, Kenya and France also look to press their claims for the top 10. Will Poland and the United Kingdom be able to fend them off? That is a question we will answer in the coming months. Perhaps next month we might have a very different top 10.

Next month, we can also look forward to seeing the first results from our recent beta launch of the completely redesigned Opera Mini 5. I am curious how the new Speed Dial and tabs affect our user, page-view and data-consumption numbers. If you have not tried the new beta, we welcome you to see our new take on the world's most popular mobile Web browser.

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

Part 1: Growth

Number of users

In August 2009, Opera Mini had over 31.9 million users, a 9.9% increase from July 2009 and more than 147% compared to August 2008.

Pages transcoded

Opera Mini users viewed over 13.9 billion pages in August 2009. Since July, page-views have gone up 15.7%. Since August 2008, page-views have increased 234%.

Month	Page views
August 2009	13,949,154,395
July 2009	12,051,716,351
June 2009	10,447,031,428
May 2009	9,641,002,614
April 2009	8,687,835,336
March 2009	8,627,181,759
February 2009	7,347,728,912
January 2009	7,592,623,125
December 2008	6,418,665,392
November 2008	5,703,580,103
October 2008	5,088,923,679
September 2008	4,533,894,901
August 2008	4,172,941,429
July 2008	3,736,244,111
June 2008	3,224,286,622
May 2008	2,947,979,866
April 2008	2,491,451,387
March 2008	2,429,200,080
February 2008	1,883,751,325
January 2008	1,787,235,674
December 2007	1,558,566,188
November 2007	1,414,205,703
October 2007	1,192,916,658
September 2007	872,028,768

Data consumed

In August 2009, Opera Mini users generated nearly 209 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since July, the data consumed went up by 11.7%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 1.9 PB of data in August. Since August 2008, data traffic is up 222%.

Month	Data transfer (MB)
August 2009	208,786,577
July 2009	186,996,258
June 2009	168,483,963
May 2009	159,545,769
April 2009	151,023,302
March 2009	148,884,676
February 2009	124,835,298
January 2009	122,005,065
December 2008	103,144,185
November 2008	91,084,753
October 2008	79,167,872
September 2008	70,095,676
August 2008	64,853,884
July 2008	57,824,328
June 2008	50,181,823
May 2008	46,273,165
April 2008	38,264,066
March 2008	35,536,969
February 2008	28,477,270
January 2008	25,437,344
December 2007	21,613,966
November 2007	15,818,999
October 2007	13,412,789
September 2007	10,654,061

Part 2: Country snapshots for August 2009

Part 3: Spotlight on European countries outside of the top 10

Top 10 countries snapshot

Part 4: Countries to watch

Although the top-10-country ranking did not change in August, a few big movers outside of the top 10 stand out and warrant further attention.

Outside of the top 10 but within the top 30 countries, the fastest growing countries (for Opera Mini usage) with double-digit growth percentages between last month and this month, are Australia, Georgia, Vietnam, Kenya, France, Philippines, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Outside of the top 10 but within the top 30 countries, here are the fastest growing countries (for Opera Mini usage) with double-digit growth percentages between last month and this month:

Country	Current rank	User growth from July to August 2009
Australia	29	52%
Georgia	30	34%
Vietnam	11	20%
Kenya	14	19%
France	16	16%
Philippines	13	15%
Brazil	24	14%
Kazakhstan	17	13%
Pakistan	26	11%
Malaysia	23	10%