Opera has hit a record 150 million monthly active users in Africa in Q3-2020 and a strong 18% growth of YOY across all its products. The firm has 380 million monthly active users globally.
The Opera Mini browser recorded more than 500 million installations from Google Play and Olist, Opera’s classifieds business in Nigeria is now the second biggest classifieds business in the country, with approximately 6 million monthly active users.
According to Jørgen Arnesen, EVP – Mobile at Opera, “We believe that developing better browsers and news apps that offer great features and personalized content has been key to Opera’s continued growth across Africa in 2020.”
To fuel the growth of its products, Opera has also been on a customization journey to see its apps solve everyday challenges such as the COVID-19 info source on Opera Mini and Opera News and the growing entertainment news on Opera News Hub with approximately 10,000 articles self-published every day.
Opera users across many African countries can download and stream music in their Free Music channel and share it with their friends.
Opera News recorded 25 million monthly active users as of Q3-2020, while the Opera News AI service is used by nearly 80 million users every month in the region. Opera News Hub was launched in Nigeria a year ago and today the platform publishes more than 10 thousand news articles on a daily basis in Africa.
Opera For Business launched this year in partnership with Google My Business to help local businesses come online and be discoverable by anyone at any time from any mobile device, is growing steadily.
Africa is a key focus for Opera only 300 million people out of the total population of 1.1 billion people are connected, meaning less than 1 in 3 people are online today.
By 2025, it is expected that 678 million people in the region will be connected to the internet. This continued surge in internet penetration will be driven by key fundamental factors:
The United Nations reports that 60% of the region’s population is aged under 25, a demographic which will shape the future of Africa and will come online at a record pace.
Carriers are transforming and accelerating the investment into infrastructure and 4G rollout, making data cheaper for consumers.
GSMA reports that smartphone adoption is growing rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa reaching 50% of total connection in 2020. This is due to the availability of more affordable smartphones and popular smartphone financing models. With operations in Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Cape Town, Opera believes access to the internet should be a universal right, though less than 1 in 3 people have access to the internet in Sub-Saharan Africa.
To fuel its growth, Opera has signed up partnerships with leading telcos across Sub-Saharan Africa to provide people with free browsing in the Opera Mini browser. Opera is working with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria, MTN Zambia. MTN, AirtelTigo and Vodafone in Ghana. Safaricom and Airtel in Kenya. And most recently with MTN South Africa.
Through these ten partnerships, Opera has provided nearly 40 million people with up to 1.5 GB of free browsing every month across five African countries.
