Since its launch two years ago, Opera News has become one of the most used news and content apps in the world, with more than 160 million users. Today, Opera launches Opera News Lite, a lighter version of the popular Opera News application, designed for devices with limited data storage capabilities. With a download size of less than one megabyte, Opera News Lite is also a fast download for people on limited mobile networks.
“We have developed Opera News Lite as per requests from our users. The app is extremely responsive on slow network conditions as it minimizes the use of data and resources. With Opera News Lite, we are making Opera News more accessible to everyone. especially for users with older handsets.” said Jørgen Arnesen, Head of Marketing and Distribution at Opera.
At the end of last year, there were more than 3.8 billion mobile internet users in the world, with smartphones representing 65% of mobile connections according to GSMA. In many cases, those smartphones do not have enough storage capacity and some of them are located in remote areas that often struggle with network connectivity. Opera News Lite has been optimized for such cases, making information more accessible for everyone regardless of geographical location or network connectivity conditions.
Opera News Lite offers the key features of the regular Opera News app such as personalised news articles, notifications about breaking news, and exclusive original content. However, Opera News Lite is ten times lighter than the regular version of the Opera News application.
New data centers in Africa
Users who choose to download Opera News Lite in Kenya and Nigeria on their mobile devices are able to browse four times faster on the app, thanks to the recent installation of local data centers in the cities of Lagos and Mombasa.
The new local Opera data centers have already proven to effectively reduce connection latency, providing users with 4x faster navigation on any of the Opera products.
“We believe that Opera News Lite will become the fastest online news application on the market. Due to its unique characteristics and by connecting to our local data servers in Kenya and Nigeria, users can be confident that they will access news faster than before regardless of any connectivity conditions.” said Arnesen.
Available for download
Opera News Lite is now available for download in Google Play in more than 40 countries.
Applicable countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Egypt, Algeria, Tanzania, Senegal, Zambia, Guinée, Morocco, Congo, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Etiopia, Libya, Angola, Tunisia, Mali, Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Tchad, Madagascar, Togo, Gabon, Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania, India, Indonesia, Russia, and United States.