WHICH COUNTRY EXPERIENCED THE GREATEST GROWTH IN MOBILE WEB USAGE LAST YEAR?
The Financial
March 25 2009
Georgia
The FINANCIAL — In January 2009, consumer Opera Mini use jumped
12.1% over the previous month to 20 million unique users. Monthly
page views increased even more, jumping 18% to 7.6 billion Web pages
in the same time period.
Data transfers were also up 18% from December 2008 as Opera Mini
generated more than 122 million MB of data for operators worldwide.
Data in Opera Mini is compressed 90% on average. If this data were
uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed more than 1.1 billion
MB of data. This is the first month that Opera Mini servers have
processed more than 1 petabyte of data for consumer Opera Mini users.
Armenia led all countries in Opera Mini growth from January 2008 to
January 2009, with usage jumping more than 2800%. Nigeria was second,
with 1854%. Other notable countries include: Egypt (1391%), Philippines
(570%) and Kazakhstan (419%).
Armenia also led all of the top 35 countries in page views per
user. Armenia users viewed on average 669 pages in January 2009.
The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in the Middle East are: Iran,
Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman,
Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen.
Report findings
The month’s report highlights the top 35 countries, ranked by number
of Opera Mini users. The top countries varied widely in growth rates,
with Indonesia surging to second place with a 312% Year-on-Year
(YoY) growth.
Ukraine narrowly edged out Indonesia with users viewing, on average,
530 pages per month.
The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage (ranked by # of unique
users):
Rank Country YoY growth Page views/user (January 2009)
1 Russia 156.9% 416 2 Indonesia 312.1% 507 3 Ukraine 124.2% 530 4
China 11.2% 216 5 India 166.7% 354 6 South Africa 93.5% 264 7 United
States 73.0% 222 8 United Kingdom 63.4% 245 9 Poland 147.2% 178 10
Germany 51.8% 113
Even in the countries that began the year in the top 10, growth rates
were still notable, particularly in developed countries such as the
United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Only China had less
than 50% YoY growth.
The State of the Mobile Web report also examines the Middle East. In
many of the countries, Facebook brought people and friends together. It
was one of the top 10 sites in 9 of the top 10 countries in the Middle
East: Iran (#9), Israel (#1), Saudia Arabia (#10), Syria (#3), Jordan
(#3), United Arab Emirates (#3), Oman (#9), Kuwait (#4) and Lebanon
(#1). The report also contains data on top handsets and a complete
list of top sites for the top 10 countries, ranked by the number of
unique Opera Mini users.
About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones
and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform Web browser
technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance
and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic
online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway,
with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo
Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA.