New State of the Mobile Web explores Russia, Ukraine and the Commonwealth of Independent States
Oslo, Norway – March 25, 2009
Fast facts
- Opera Mini increased its total consumer user-base to more than 20.5million. This represents more than 160% growth since February 2008. OperaMini users viewed 7.3 billion pages, a 290% increase over February 2008.Opera Mini servers processed more than 1.2 petabytes of data in February,generating more than 124 million MB of data traffic for mobile operatorsworldwide. Since February 2008, data transfers have grown 338%. The fullreport is available from http://www.opera.com/smw/.
- Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are the top three countries for mobile Web use in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
- Yandex and VKontakte replace Google and Facebook, respectively, as thetop search engine and social network in Russia and the Commonwealth ofIndependent States.
- Nokia is by far the most popular handset brand used by Opera Mini usersin the CIS, followed by Sony Ericsson, which boasts the number-one handsetin Armenia.
Report findings
Russia and Ukraine rank high on the top countries for Opera Mini usageevery month. However, there are many Opera Mini users in other CIScountries, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Page-view statistics provide a good indication of how much Opera Mini isactually used by the people who have downloaded it. Uzbekistan led the wayin the region with 2600% growth in the past year, while Moldova was secondwith more than 900% growth.
Other countries also saw impressive page-view growth numbers despitehaving been heavy Opera Mini users even in the past year. Page views inRussia were up almost 270%, while page views in Ukraine grew just under400% over the past year.
Services targeted to Russian and users in the CIS remain popular. Yandexis the main search engine for most of these countries, and Google rankedahead of Yandex only in Kyrgyzstan. Vkontakte is the top social network,although in some countries it is locked in a heated battle withOdnoklassniki. Georgia is the only country that does not feature Vkontaktein its top 10 sites.
Supporting quote
“In regions like Russia and the CIS, Opera Mini solves real-world problemsof connectivity and cost, thus helping more millions of people access theWeb quickly and affordably,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “Opera ison a mission to help the next billion people get online and Opera Miniusers have taken it upon themselves to convince others to discoverbrowsing on a mobile device. This grassroots support is the key to openingthe Web for everyone, regardless of where they live or how they choose toconnect to the Web.”