Opera: State of the Mobile Web, November 2008

2008 is winding down and with it comes the inevitable review of what transpired during the year. Experts predicted this year as the year when the mobile Web would become mainstream. Our numbers from previous reports on Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia have confirmed that indeed the mobile phone has come into its own as a platform for the Web. More people viewing more pages on mobile phones is the clear trend.

This year we've looked mainly at countries where the mobile Web is essential. PC penetration and broadband penetration are lower in those countries than in other areas. What about countries where broadband penetration is high, and where PCs are affordable and easy to obtain? Our final State of the Mobile Web for 2008 looks at both North America and Europe to see what happens when the mobile Web goes up against the wired Web.

Not surprisingly, the results show that mobile Web usage still exhibits strong growth. In some countries that have high broadband penetration, we believe the mobile Web is growing partly because consumers have grown accustomed to connectivity. They are never truly unplugged from the Web. They simply access it from a number of different devices.

Worldwide, the mobile Web has incredible room for growth. The next billion people will come online with a mobile device. I hope we look back on 2008 not as the year the mobile Web went mainstream, but as the year people realized that we have One Web that we access through a multitude of devices. The closer we come to realizing that critical point, the closer we come to tapping the vast potential of the mobile Web.

I wish you happy holidays and a festive New Year.

Kind Regards,
Jon S. von Tetzchner
CEO, Opera Software

Highlights

In November, the United States shot up the rankings, moving from position seven to three in the top ten list of Opera Mini-using countries. India fell two places, from three to five, and Egypt fell two places from eight to ten in a reversal of its meteoric rise in the previous two months. In 2009, we will watch carefully to see if Egypt remains in the top ten ahead of Germany.
This month's geographic focus is on two regions: North America and Europe.

Part 1: Growth

Number of users

Due to a technical issue this month with the active user counter, the Opera Mini active user statistics will return in January 2009.

Pages transcoded

Opera Mini users viewed more than 5.7 billion pages in November. Since October, page views have gone up 12.1%. Since November 2007, this number is up 303%.

Pages transcoded by Opera Mini per month
Month	Page views
January 2006	39,969,125
February 2006	70,119,707
March 2006	102,386,928
April 2006	123,915,618
May 2006	155,660,949
June 2006	183,518,205
July 2006	231,325,050
August 2006	268,738,912
September 2006	274,840,901
October 2006	336,044,711
November 2006	378,938,100
December 2006	423,503,600
January 2007	507,622,606
February 2007	540,701,179
March 2007	632,313,886
April 2007	705,063,025
May 2007	767,107,863
June 2007	788,283,659
July 2007	867,208,160
August 2007	907,690,600
September 2007	872,028,768
October 2007	1,192,916,658
November 2007	1,414,205,703
December 2007	1,558,566,188
January 2008	1,787,235,674
February 2008	1,883,751,325
March 2008	2,429,200,080
April 2008	2,491,451,387
May 2008	2,947,979,866
June 2008	3,224,286,622
July 2008	3,736,244,111
August 2008	4,172,941,429
September 2008	4,533,894,901
October 2008	5,088,923,679
November 2008	5,703,580,103

Data consumed

In November, Opera Mini users generated more than 82.9 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since October, the data consumed went up by 12.5%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed 90% on average. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 829 million MB of data in November. Since November 2007, data traffic is up 463%.

Total data consumed per month (in MB)
Month	Data transfer (MB)
January 2006	587,826
February 2006	759,338
March 2006	1,072,662
April 2006	1,334,715
May 2006	1,831,441
June 2006	2,127,142
July 2006	2,614,633
August 2006	2,979,209
September 2006	2,976,858
October 2006	3,692,282
November 2006	4,124,607
December 2006	4,652,547
January 2007	5,322,457
February 2007	5,573,556
March 2007	6,529,736
April 2007	7,264,413
May 2007	8,093,274
June 2007	7,984,642
July 2007	9,729,792
August 2007	10,379,959
September 2007	9,922,367
October 2007	12,491,633
November 2007	14,732,591
December 2007	20,129,575
January 2008	23,690,372
February 2008	26,521,524
March 2008	33,096,381
April 2008	35,636,188
May 2008	43,095,243
June 2008	46,735,465
July 2008	53,853,102
August 2008	60,399,886
September 2008	65,281,686
October 2008	73,730,827
November 2008	82,972,386

Part 2: Country snapshots for November 2008

Snapshot: Russia

Yandex remains the search engine of choice for Russian users of Opera Mini. Google retains its number six position, and Yahoo is back on the list at number ten after a three month absence.
Wikipedia and My Opera, popular sites among Opera Mini users in several other countries, are new to the top ten list in Russia.

Top 10 sites in Russia (# of unique users)

vkontakte.ru
mail.ru
yandex.ru
odnoklassniki.ru
rambler.ru
google.com
my.opera.com (new)
wapos.ru (down from 7)
wikipedia.org (new)
yahoo.com (back on the list)

Snapshot: Indonesia

Entering the list at position four last month, Facebook is now at position three. Facebook appears to be the alternative social network of choice among Indonesian users of Opera Mini.

Top 10 sites in Indonesia (# of unique users)

friendster.com
google.com
facebook.com (up from 4)
gamejump.com (down from 3)
my.opera.com (back on the list)
yahoo.com (down from 5)
waptrick.com (down from 6)
peperonity.com (down from 7)
getjar.com
wikipedia.org (down from 8)

Snapshot: United States

The mobile social networking wars are heating up. For the first time, Facebook has surpassed MySpace on the top ten list in the United States. Friendster, which became much more popular in other regions of the world, is a surprising newcomer to the list.
After a five month absence, CNN is back on the list, possibly in conjunction with the US national election.

Top 10 sites in the U.S. (# of unique users)

google.com
facebook.com (up from 3)
myspace.com (down from 2)
wikipedia.org
yahoo.com
friendster.com (new)
nytimes.com (down from 6)
gamejump.com (down from 7)
cnn.com (back on the list)
my.opera.com (back on the list)

Snapshot: Ukraine

Similar to Russia, Wikipedia and My Opera are new to the top ten list in Ukraine, along with Rambler which has been popular in Russia for several months now.
Yahoo is back on the list at position nine.

Top 10 sites in Ukraine (# of unique users)

vkontakte.ru
google.com
yandex.ru (up from 4)
mail.ru (down from 3)
rambler.ru (new)
wapos.ru (down from 5)
my.opera.com (new)
wikipedia.org (new)
yahoo.com (back on the list)
seclub.org (down from 6)

Snapshot: India

The top ten list in India did not exhibit much change, with no new sites and only a handful of sites switching places with each other.
With Yahoo out of the top three, Google is dominant this month.

Top 10 sites in India (# of unique users)

google.com
orkut.com
gmail.com (up from 4)
yahoo.com (down from 3)
gamejump.com
rediff.com
wikipedia.org
songs.pk (up from 10)
my.opera.com
indianrail.gov.in (down from 8)

Snapshot: China

Portals continue to dominate in China.
Taobao.com, an auction site, is new to the top ten list in China.

Top 10 sites in China (# of unique users)

kong.net
baidu.com
google.cn
sina.com.cn
qq.com
hao123.com
xiaonei.com
taobao.com (new)
3g.cn (back on the list)
sohu.com (back on the list)

Snapshot: South Africa

Gmail, which debuted last month at position seven, fell off of South Africa's top ten list in November. South African Opera Mini users currently prefer webmail.co.za.

Top 10 sites in South Africa (# of unique users)

facebook.com
google.com
wikipedia.org
gamejump.com
yahoo.com
my.opera.com
mxit.co.za (up from 9)
youtube.com
webmail.co.za (up from 10)
waptrick.com (back on the list)

Snapshot: United Kingdom

After five months at position three, Facebook has finally surpassed Yahoo to take the number two spot.

Top 10 sites in the U.K. (# of unique users)

google.com
facebook.com (up from 3)
yahoo.com (down from 2)
bbc.co.uk
bebo.com
wikipedia.org (up from 7)
live.com (down from 6)
youtube.com
gamejump.com (up from 10)
myspace.com (down from 9)

Snapshot: Poland

The only change this month is the debut of Sciaga.pl, an education-related site.

Top 10 sites in Poland (# of unique users)

nasza-klasa.pl
google.com
lajt.onet.pl
allegro.pl
wikipedia.org
wp.pl
fotka.pl
youtube.com
gamejump.com
sciaga.pl (new)

Snapshot: Egypt

The top ten list in Egypt is apparently starting to stabilize. The only new sites are Metacafe (videos) and Yallakora (sports).

Top 10 sites in Egypt (# of unique users)

google.com
facebook.com
gamejump.com
youtube.com
my.opera.com
bbc.co.uk (up from 7)
yahoo.com (down from 6)
friendster.com
metacafe.com (new)
yallakora.com (new)

Part 3: Spotlight on Europe

With the major exception of Yandex in Russia, Google is the dominant search service in the region.
Despite the success of a few local social networking sites, Facebook has made significant inroads into Europe.
Nokia and Sony Ericsson dominate in Europe. The Nokia 6300 is extremely popular among Opera Mini users in that region.