Opera has 100 million users in Africa

A Norwegian software company best known for its web browsers, has released its State of Mobile Web Report Africa 2016, which highlights mobile Internet trends across the continent.

The report indicates that Opera currently has 100 million users in Africa, with an 86.41% market share in Kenya, 71.83% in Nigeria and 53.1% in South Africa.

The report contains consumers’ browsing behaviour and app usage, some of which are highlighted below.

• Ghanaians, Kenyans, Seychellois and Mauritians are the highest data users with an average usage of over 160MB/month.

• Findings also show that visits to streaming video websites on Opera Mini in Africa have increased by 36% since 2012.

• Users from Tanzania (22%) are most likely to visit YouTube followed by South Africa (20%) and Ghana (19%).

• South Africa ranks first in Africa in terms of app usage, with a third of its population using mobile applications, followed by 31% in Ghana, 28% in Nigeria, 19% in Kenya and 18% in Uganda.

• Nigerians are regular social media users with 70% of Nigeria’s 16 million Facebook users, accessing the site via Opera Mini.

• In addition, Opera Mini users are accessing local news as much as 300% more than in 2014.

Furthermore, the report highlights the usefulness and importance of data compression technologies, especially as it concerns high data costs, which has slowed down the adoption of mobile Internet.

We believe data compression is as relevant and useful now as it was a decade ago – in fact, with the growth of smartphone penetration coupled with prohibitively high data costs, it’s a critical enabler,...said Richard Monday, VP for Opera, Africa.

The compression technology used in Opera Mini and Opera Max helps consumers save on data costs and addressed issues relating to congestion and page sizes.

In fact, the report states that in 2016, Opera’s compression technology has allowed South Africans to save approximately US$111m in data costs, with Nigerians and Kenyans saving US$280m and US$116m, respectively.

To get the full report, click HERE.