Opera Mini usage in India jumps 167 pc

OSLO, NORWAY: Mobile Web usage in India surged ahead 167 percent last year according to a recent report published by Opera. Users on average viewed 354 pages on their mobile phones in January 2009.

The report states, In January 2009, consumer Opera Mini use jumped 12.1 percent over the previous month to 20 million unique users. Monthly page views increased even more, jumping 18 percent to 7.6 billion Web pages in the same time period. Data transfers were also up 18 percent from December 2008 as Opera Mini generated more than 122 million MB of data for operators worldwide.

Data in Opera Mini is compressed 90 percent on average. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed more than 1.2 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 percent. Nigeria was second, with 1854 percent. Other notable countries include: Egypt (1391 percent), Philippines (570 percent) and Kazakhstan (419 percent).

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.

"Looking back on a full year of mobile Web growth, it is easy to see why mobile devices will become the primary device for Web usage in most of the world," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera.

"Developing countries may lead the way due to the sheer prevalence of mobile devices versus PCs, but the solid growth rates in developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, show that the entire world is moving in this direction. These numbers underscore how critical it is that all Web-enabled devices come equipped with a quality Web browser," added Tetzchner.

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 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) growth.

The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage (ranked by # of unique users):

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 percent 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.

India snapshot

The top half of India's top 10 list showed no change in January.

Top 10 sites in India (# of unique users)

google.com

orkut.com

yahoo.com

gmail.com

gamejump.com

songs.pk (up from 7)

rediff.com (down from 6)

peperonity.com (up from 10)

wikipedia.org (down from 8)

my.opera.com (down from 9)