State of the Mobile Web, June 2011

• How do I manage that new data plan
• Growth
• Country snapshots for June 2011
• Regional spotlight — Africa

Part 1: How do I manage that new data plan

It’s closing time at the all-you-can-eat mobile data buffet. On July 6th, Verizon Wireless became the newest U.S. carrier to offer a tiered pricing structure for data packages.

Current mobile data subscribers with an unlimited plans can keep them. Let the good times roll. But any consumer who is just now discovering Angry Birds on their phone, it’s time for proactive management. Exceeding the allotted bytes per month will result in overage charges or a drastic reduction in network speeds. Each consumer should check with their carrier to know what happens after crossing that threshold.

But just how much data does it take to visit Facebook? Is there enough room to access Wikipedia one more time during a test? One more refresh of ESPN in a boring meeting? These activities use data. Our analysis of just how much data it takes might surprise even the most savvy mobile web expert.

The graphic clearly shows the impact of proxy-based browsers like Opera Mini. For instance, ESPN.com takes up nearly 700 KB of your data plan with each view. Using the cloud to compress that before delivering it to your phone takes just over 100 KB.

Opting for mobile optimized sites also makes sense. Each page view of m.facebook.com is 27KB versus 206KB for the full site. Nice work, Facebook developers. This saves not only time — the site loads faster — but also preserves precious room on a plan. Opera Mini transforms the already-lean Facebook mobile site into an 8KB sliver of data.

Because we work with operators all over the world, we’re used to seeing metered plans which, until now, have been more common outside of the U.S. Here are our top tips for managing that new data plan.

• Open the full email only if necessary. Open email attachments sparingly, if at all.
• Manage your apps’ hunger for mobile data. Disable push notifications.
• Consider using a smart mini browser, like Opera Mini. These keep you from downloading too much data to your phone.
• Spotify is awesome, but use your locally-stored playlist when on the go.
• Update and download apps over WiFi.
• Consider using mobile-friendly webpages. Our research shows they shave off a significant amount of data that otherwise would count against your cap.
• Turn off images when nearing your cap. Most browsers make it easy. In Opera Mini, just click Settings > Load Images.
• Avoid HD video on YouTube when browsing on a mobile connection. Just 10 minutes of HD video per day fills a standard 2GB plan.

Part 2: Growth

In June 2011, the Opera Mini browser saw increases in all three categories of growth: unique users, pages viewed and data consumed. In all, 115.0 million people used the Opera Mini browser in June, 67.3 billion pages were served, and 9.9 petabytes of operator data were compressed for Opera Mini users.

Number of users

In June 2011, there were over 115.0 million Opera Mini users, a 1.4% increase from May 2011. Since June 2010, the number of unique users has increased 93.5%.

Pages transcoded

Opera Mini users viewed over 67.3 billion pages in June 2011. Since May, page views have gone up 6.2%. Since June 2010, page views have increased 146.1%.

Month	Page views
June 2011	67,303,912,324
May 2011	63,386,735,162
April 2011	57,935,683,078
March 2011	59,768,735,532
February 2011	51,531,490,158
January 2011	52,377,317,703
December 2010	46,725,301,390
November 2010	44,652,355,113
October 2010	41,623,101,976
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

Data consumed

In June 2011, Opera Mini users generated over 1,068 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since May, the data consumed went up by 3.6%. Data in the Opera Mini browser is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 9.9 petabytes of data in June. Since June 2010, data traffic is up 156.6%.

Month	Data transfer (MB)
June 2011	1,068,360,258
May 2011	1,031,183,476
April 2011	954,840,197
March 2011	946,210,968
February 2011	790,192,801
January 2011	804,000,878
December 2010	706,327,921
November 2010	677,508,852
October 2010	616,192,761
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

Part 3: Country snapshots for June 2011

Top 10

Nigeria passed Ukraine to take the #4 spot on the top 20 countries list. South Africa, China and Turkey all went up in the ranking of top 20 countries.

Countries 11-20

Part 4: Spotlight on Africa

Top 10 countries snapshot