State of the Mobile Web, February 2010

In October, we reported on just how much money Opera Mini’s 90% compression rate saves consumers on their mobile browsing bills. The number was quite impressive: more than $8 billion per year.

At the same time, Opera Mini encourages people to browse the Web on more than just smartphones, since Opera Mini offers a fantastic experience regardless of processor power, memory or pretty much any other mobile phone spec (except perhaps a color screen).

Because more people can get more from the mobile Web with Opera Mini, operators stand to gain quite a bit more in data revenues. Using the same model we used in October, we look at the revenue that operators make from Opera Mini. The results were quite dramatic: Opera Mini generates more than $1 billion per year for operators globally.

We like to think of Opera Mini as a win-win solution. Consumers who would otherwise not pay for the mobile Web can do so without fear of “sticker shock” when they see their bill. People paying for a flat-rate data plan can enjoy quick and hassle-free browsing over EDGE or 3G connections. Operators attract new customers for their data packages, and their strained networks can catch their breath while our servers do the heavy lifting.

From our experience, and from these numbers, it seems everyone benefits from a better mobile Web experience. That, I think, is something about which we can all agree.

Happy browsing,

Jon von Tetzchner,
Co-founder, Opera Software

Part 1: Growth

Note on methodology: All growth percentages in Part 1 are calculated using normalized figures that account for the varying number of days in each month.

Number of users

In February 2010, Opera Mini had over 50.5 million users, a 1.7% increase from January 2010 and more than 145% compared to February 2009.

Pages transcoded

Opera Mini users viewed over 22 billion pages in February 2010. Since January, page views went down 5.6%, partly because February only has 28 days compared to January’s 31. Since February 2009, page views have increased 200%.

Month	Page views
February 2010	22,055,615,946
January 2010	23,356,863,511
December 2009	20,719,112,062
November 2009	18,814,158,683
October 2009	17,179,459,019
September 2009	14,958,270,625
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

Data consumed

In February 2010, Opera Mini users generated over 330 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since January, the data consumed went down by 1.9%, also related to the fewer number of days in February. Data in Opera Mini is compressed by up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 3 petabytes of data in February. Since February 2009, data traffic is up over 164%.

Month	Data transfer (MB)
February 2010	330,601,107
January 2010	337,088,690
December 2009	315,150,762
November 2009	285,126,819
October 2009	263,245,795
September 2009	226,990,071
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

Part 2: Country snapshots for February 2010

Part 3: Spotlight on North America and the Caribbean

Top countries snapshot

Part 4: Opera Turbo on Opera Mobile

Note on methodology: All growth percentages in Part 4 are calculated using normalized figures that account for the varying number of days in each month.

Since November 2009, Opera Turbo has been widely available to users of Opera Mobile. Opera Turbo is a technology for compressing Web pages, similar to what has always been available to users of Opera Mini and has subsequently been available to users of Opera for desktop.

In February 2010:

• There were over 645,000 unique users of Opera Turbo on Opera Mobile, an 11% increase since January 2010.
• Over 73 million pages were viewed using Opera Turbo on Opera Mobile, an 18% increase since January 2010.
• Over 4.1 terabytes of data (post-compression) were served to users of Opera Turbo on Opera Mobile, a 25% increase since January 2010.
• The average compression ratio for Opera Turbo was 59%, meaning that approximately 10 terabytes of uncompressed data were processed by Opera’s servers.
• An average of 114 pages (per month) were viewed by users of Opera Turbo on Opera Mobile.
• The average page size (post-compression) viewed by users of Opera Turbo on Opera Mobile was 60 kilobytes.

Part 5: Operator Revenue

In order to calculate operator revenue, we researched metered rates for 1 MB of mobile data as offered by the top operators in each of February’s top 10 countries. Using those rates, we determined the average price-per-MB in each country. This average price-per-MB was multiplied by the data transferred in each country to give us a revenue estimate for the month of February.

In previous reports, we demonstrated how much money people can save by using Opera Mini. That said, operators benefit from Opera Mini as well. By providing Opera Mini users with a full internet experience that is both speedy and less bandwidth intensive (for users and operators alike), people are encouraged to browse more on their handsets, especially in places where unlimited-use data plans are uncommon or too expensive, high speed networks are unavailable, and a large number of people are using feature phones.

When people browse more, it is a win-win situation as operators receive more revenue, users have more incentive to upgrade their data plans, and people get the Web pages they want in an efficient and affordable manner.

In February 2010, people browsing with Opera Mini in the top 10 countries (according to unique users) spent approximately 103.8 million dollars, based on their usage and the average cost of browsing in each country (see the two tables below). That figure translates to approximately 1.2 billion dollars per year. Using $1 per megabyte as a global average, Opera Mini users generate nearly $4 billion for operators worldwide each year.

From a per user perspective, Opera Mini users spent approximately $4 on average in the month of February, which comes out to $48 per year. The heaviest spending occurs in the United States and the United Kingdom, whereas the least spending occurs in India and South Africa (mostly due to data costs, as opposed to the amount of data transferred).

Country	Data/user (MB)	Data cost (USD/MB)	Expenditure / user (USD)	Revenue / user / year (USD)
Russia	8	0.22	1.79	21.48
Indonesia	5	0.43	2.20	26.40
India	6	0.12	0.73	8.76
China	2	1.5	3.48	41.76
Ukraine	13	0.17	2.25	27.00
South Africa	4	0.27	0.96	11.52
Nigeria	5	1.02	5.38	64.56
United States	6	2	12.20	146.40
Vietnam	5	0.61	2.84	34.08
United Kingdom	5	1.68	8.50	102.00

Note: These estimates do not take into account pricing for users who have unlimited-use data plans.

Average monthly data costs in the top 10 countries

Country	Cost per MB (local currency)	Cost per MB (USD)
Russia	6.50 RUB	0.22
Indonesia	4,096 IDR	0.43
India	5.70 INR	0.12
China	10.24 CNY	1.50
Ukraine	1.40 UAH	0.17
South Africa	2 ZAR	0.27
Nigeria	154.78 NGN	1.02
United States	2 USD	2.00
Vietnam	10978 VND	0.61
United Kingdom	1.02 GBP	1.68