State of the Mobile Web, September 2010

Exactly one year ago, we announced that Opera Mini users in the top 10 countries save more than 8 billion USD on their mobile data bills each year. We were honestly a bit surprised. We knew that Opera Mini’s technology should save people money, but we had no idea how much.

This year, we looked at the numbers again. We took the lowest price-per-MB plan in each of the top 10 countries and created a global average. Using that average, Opera Mini saves users worldwide more than 2.2 billion USD per month or more than 27.4 billion USD per year.

Although it is easy to attribute the rise in cost savings merely to the rise in data transfers (from more users and page views), we find it particularly interesting that it rose by so much, even while the price-per-megabyte in many countries dropped. But of course, with Opera Mini, the more your surf, the more you save.

To calculate how much Opera Mini will save you, we have brought back a new and improved cost savings calculator. Just enter a few numbers that describe your plan and your surfing habits, and we will tell you how much Opera Mini will save you each month.

Keeping costs low is more than just saving money. It is about making the Web more accessible to a wider-range of people. That is why we focus so heavily on making Opera Mini work on all phones—and, in fact, why we originally founded Opera. We believe access to the Web is a universal right, and we hope that, by keeping costs low, we play a part in helping people connect—on any device, wherever they are.

Happy browsing,

Jon von Tetzchner,
Co-founder, Opera Software

Part 1: Growth

Number of users

In September 2010, Opera Mini had over 71.2 million users, a 7.1% increase from August 2010. Since September 2009, the number of unique users has increased 100.1%.

Pages transcoded

Opera Mini users viewed over 36.9 billion pages in September 2010. Since August, page views have gone up 9.0%. Since September 2009, page views have increased 147.2%.

Month	Page views
September 2010	36,972,736,551
August 2010	33,923,604,102
July 2010	29,679,113,203
June 2010	27,350,331,025
May 2010	28,325,159,098
April 2010	26,311,685,380
March 2010	25,898,747,364
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

Data consumed

In September 2010, Opera Mini users generated over 535.3 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since August, the data consumed went up by 9.4%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 4.9 petabytes of data in September. Since September 2009, data traffic is up 135.8%.

Month	Data transfer (MB)
September 2010	535,337,310
August 2010	489,402,631
July 2010	445,158,599
June 2010	416,406,077
May 2010	433,688,140
April 2010	398,617,291
March 2010	396,171,723
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

Part 2: Country snapshots for September 2010

Top 10

Countries 11-20

Part 3: Spotlight on the European Union

Top 10 countries snapshot

Part 4: Data costs and savings

Since the data is compressed by up to 90%, Opera Mini users potentially save a lot of money. Based on the costs of browsing the Web on a mobile phone (on a per MB basis), users in the top 10 countries save over 802 million USD per month, or over 9.6 billion USD per year¹. (This estimate does not take into account pricing for users who have unlimited-use data plans.)

By looking at the data costs in the top 10 countries and averaging them, we estimate (roughly) that the global cost of browsing is 0.47 USD per MB. Based on that figure and the amount of data transferred by Opera Mini users each month, we calculate that Opera Mini users around the world save over 2.2 billion USD per month, or over 27.4 billion USD per year.

On a monthly basis, individual users in the United States and Nigeria save the most money using Opera Mini, based on their usage and the cost of browsing (per MB).

Monthly data costs and savings

Country	Cost per MB (local currency)	Cost per MB (USD)
Indonesia	1000 IDR	0,11
Russia	3.5 RUB	0,11
India	6 INR	0,14
China	5 CNY	0,75
Ukraine	1.4 UAH	0,18
South Africa	1 ZAR	0,14
Vietnam	5000 VND	0,26
United States	2 USD	2,00
Nigeria	150 NGN	0,99
Brazil	0.10 BRL	0,06

Try our cost savings calculator to see how much you might save using Opera Mini.

Cost-savings calculator

1 To calculate this, we looked at the top operators in each country and determined how much they typically charge per MB of browsing. Specifically, we looked for the lowest data rate offered by the operators in each country. This estimated cost of browsing in each country was multiplied by the amount of traffic generated in that country, and the resulting totals were summed. We chose the lowest data rate instead of the highest (and instead of an average) in order to make our estimates more conservative.

Average monthly data costs in the top 10 countries

Country	Data per user (MB)	Data cost (USD/MB)	Saved (USD)
Indonesia	6	0,11	6
Russia	10	0,11	10
India	7	0,14	9
China	3	0,75	20
Ukraine	15	0,18	25
South Africa	4	0,14	6
Vietnam	6	0,26	13
United States	8	2,00	141
Nigeria	5	0,99	44
Brazil	5	0,06	3