South Africa has seen a massive surge in Android handset use over the past twelve months, with the number of Opera Mini users on the platform increasing by more than 300%, according to Opera Software’s latest State of the Mobile Web report.
While the number of basic-phone users continues to rise, the number of smartphone users has grown much more rapidly, with overall growth in the number of Opera Mini users in South Africa clocking in at more than 32% over the past twelve months. The percentage increase in smartphone users is more than ten times the increase in all users combined.
For South Africa, Search is still the most used site category among Opera Mini users. Being well-informed is important to South Africans, with Wikipedia also high up on the top-ten list of visited internet sites in South Africa.
Opera Mini, across all of the platforms on which it runs, has saved African mobile web users across the continent an estimated total of more than US$1.1 billion in data costs over the past year. This is due to its ability to shrink down webpages before they hit the phone, while retaining all of the functionality of the site being visited. Opera Mini can compress visited webpages down to 10% of their original size – making it a real money saver for mobile internet customers in Africa.
Growth of Opera mobile products
The global use of Opera Mini continues to grow on a yearly basis. From September 2012 to September 2013, the number of monthly users on mobile phone products such as the Opera Mini and Opera for Android browser, was up by 26%. The total number of users on Opera mobile browsers now stands at 261 million users.
Out of these 261 million users, 38% are on Opera’s smart hone products, the rest are on basic phones.
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For a full version of the State of the Mobile Web report and an interactive infographic, please visit: www.operasoftware.com/smw/2013-09
Want to meet up with Opera Software at AfricaCom? Make sure to book your appointment with Lynne Newnham (lynneo@opera.com) or visit us at booth E02a at AfricaCom.