Facebook, VKontakte world’s top mobile social networks

Opera’s State of the Mobile Web looks back on a full year of mobile Web growth

Oslo, Norway — January 22, 2008

Fast facts

Facebook and VKontakte are the most visited social networks for Opera Mini users according to Opera’s State of the Mobile Web, published today. Unique Opera Mini users of Facebook grew more than 693% in 2008. Owing to the popularity of Opera Mini in Russian-speaking countries, VKontakte is the most popular social network. Usage of the site grew almost 910% in 2008. The full report is available from www.opera.com/smw.
Opera Mini users viewed more than than 6.4 billion pages in December. Since November, page views have gone up 13.0%.
Opera Mini users generated more than 93.8 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since November, the data consumed went up by 13.2%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed 90% on average. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 938 million MB of data in December.
NOTE: In November, during a regular verification of our Opera Mini statistics, we discovered a technical issue concerning the counting of unique users. We have corrected this issue for our December numbers. Historic figures prior to October 2008 are estimates. We will update the charts as we correct the data set. This affects the total number of unique users, although estimated growth rates, page views, data transfers are accurate. Indeed, page views have increased to almost 360 pages per user per month.

Report findings

Opera’s first State of the Mobile Web examined social networks. In this month’s report, Opera returns to review the top social networks in key countries.

Globally the top 10 social networks for Opera Mini users are (ranked by unique users):

vkontakte.ru — 909.17% growth in 2008
facebook.com — 693.11% growth in 2008
friendster.com — 670.13% growth in 2008
orkut.com — 296.78% growth in 2008
odnoklassniki.ru — 545.40% growth in 2008
peperonity.com — 396.65% growth in 2008
hi5.com — 372.60% growth in 2008
myspace.com — 618.42% growth in 2008
mamba.ru — 1055.51% growth in 2008
mocospace.com — 834.89% growth in 2008

In the United States, Facebook edged out MySpace thanks to an impressive growth rate during the year, with unique users growing 1632%, while MySpace user growth was almost 52%.

Facebook continued its impressive performance in English-speaking countries. In the United Kingdom, Facebook gained 536% to become the most visited social network for Opera Mini users. South Africa also had Facebook as its top social network. Outside of the anglophone world, Facebook had impressive performance in Egypt as usage jumped more than 3400%.

All was not lost for MySpace, however. In Germany, MySpace was the strongest of all the social networks, growing 492% in 2008.

Just as on the wired Web, Orkut was the most popular in India and Brazil, while Nasza-klasa was the most popular in Poland. This further underscores Opera’s belief that there is only One Web, which is accessed through a variety of devices.

Supporting quotes

“Social networks are helping drive sustained growth of One Web,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “Despite prevailing economic conditions, we expect the use of the Web through mobile devices will continue to grow in 2009. More people want access to the Web on a global scale. With extra capacity in both developed and developing nations, we expect to see more people come online using a mobile phone than any other device.”

About Opera Software ASA

The worldwide World Wide Web — any device, any platform, any bandwidth, absolutely anywhere in the world. Opera Software was founded in 1994, based on the idea that access to the Web should be a universal right. 220 million people (and counting) use the Opera web browsers for computers, mobile phones, TVs and other connected devices. Opera also delivers tools, distribution, engagement, monetization and market insights to developers, publishers and brands around the world. We are passionate about breaking down barriers, so everyone can share in the power of the Internet. Our vision of one Web for all remains at the heart of what we do, because we believe that participation changes everything. Opera Software ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.