Opera, the makers of the mobile Web browser, Opera Mini, have released their monthly ‘State of the mobile Web’ report, which shows that the mobile Internet continues to grow and operators all over the world continue to make a lot of money.
According to their monthly report, the Opera Mini had over 50.5 million users in February 2010, which is 1.7% more than the number of users in January 2010 and 145% more than the number of users in February 2009.
The number of page views in February 2010 was 22 billion, which is 5.6% lower than what it was in January 2010. The main reason for this could be the fact that January has 31 days, while February has only 28 days. The figure has however gone up by 200% compared to February 2009.
By the same logic, February 2010, generated over 330 million megabytes of data worldwide, which is 164% higher than February 2009, but 1.9% lower than January 2010.
The top 10 countries worldwide using the Opera Mini are Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, Nigeria, U.S., Vietnam and U.K.
In February 2010, consumers in the top 10 countries spent approximately $103.8 million, which is approximately $1.2 billion per year. Considering $1 per megabyte to be the average global charge, the Opera Mini thus generates $4 billion per year for mobile operators.
The Opera Mini is operational on smartphones as well as on other phones, thus allowing more users to access the internet through their mobiles.
In North America, the countries, which use the mobile Web the most are U.S. Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Trinidad & Tobago, Panama and Puerto Rico.
The number of page views in these countries has gone up by 153% while the number of unique users has gone up by 109% and data transfer has increased by 84% between February 2009 and February 2010.
In most of these places, Google is the most frequently accessed website.
The most commonly used handsets for Web browsing are R.I.M’s BlackBerry, LG, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.
The Opera Mini has a 90% compression rate, which allows users to save a considerable amount of money on their mobile bills even while browsing the Internet on their mobiles.
Mobile operators are now offering users flat rate data plans, which further encourage users to access the mobile Web without having to worry about exorbitant mobile bills at the end of the month. In effect more consumers using the mobile Web, means more money for the mobile operators.
