Africa in ‘mobile browsing transformation’

MOBILE

Opera says Africa is in the midst of a mobile web browsing transformation. With less legacy fixed-line infrastructure, not only do more people have mobile phones, but mobile phones are the most popular means for Africans across the continent to access the web.

This month’s report, which highlights Africa, says across Africa, data growth seems to outpace page-view growth. This fact suggests that Africans are browsing larger pages and most likely, using richer, more advanced websites.

The report looked at trends among Opera mobile browser users in 53 countries. It noted that 25 out of 53 countries (47%) have international news sites as the most popular news source. These countries include Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Libya and Côte d’Ivoire. 18 of those 25 countries turn to the BBC as the most-used source.

36 countries more than doubled their Opera Mini user bases in one year. Côte d’Ivoire showed spectacular growth, says Opera. The number of Opera Mini users rose 600% in one year. Page views grew 744%, meaning people are browsing more pages than they did the year before. Data use grew 760%, outpacing the growth in page views.

 “Two hundred million people use Opera Mini and Opera Mobile to connect to the world around them,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera. “For many of them, a browser is more than a tool to ‘browse the web’. Sometimes it’s a school when you can afford none, sometimes it’s the only line to an outside world shut off by an oppressive regime. Providing a service that reliably and cheaply delivers critical information to just about everyone with a phone is the reason Opera makes browsers. We want to make a difference in the world, not only on the web.”