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Which Country Experienced the Greatest Growth in Mobile Web Usage Last Year?
Opera, which provides a Java based mobile browser has reported that in January 2009, consumer Opera Mini use jumped 12.1% over the previous month to 20 million unique users. Monthly page views increased even more, jumping 18% to 7.6 billion Web pages in the same time period. Data transfers were also up 18% from December 2008 as Opera Mini generated more than 122 million MB of data for operators worldwide.
"Looking back on a full year of mobile Web growth, it is easy to see why mobile devices will become the primary device for Web usage in most of the world," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. "Developing countries may lead the way due to the sheer prevalence of mobile devices versus PCs, but the solid growth rates in developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, show that the entire world is moving in this direction. These numbers underscore how critical it is that all Web-enabled devices come equipped with a quality Web browser."
Armenia led all countries in Opera Mini growth from January 2008 to January 2009, with usage jumping more than 2800%. Nigeria was second, with 1854%. Other notable countries include: Egypt (1391%), Philippines (570%) and Kazakhstan (419%). Armenia also led all of the top 35 countries in page views per user. Armenia users viewed on average 669 pages in January 2009.
The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in the Middle East are: Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen. Ukraine narrowly edged out Indonesia with users viewing, on average, 530 pages per month.
| Country | YoY growth | Page views/user (January 2009) |
|---|---|---|
| Russia | 156.9% | 416 |
| Indonesia | 312.1% | 507 |
| Ukraine | 124.2% | 530 |
| China | 11.2% | 216 |
| India | 166.7% | 354 |
| South Africa | 93.5% | 264 |
| USA | 73.0% | 222 |
| UK | 63.4% | 245 |
| Poland | 147.2% | 178 |
| Germany | 51.8% | 113 |
Even in the countries that began the year in the top 10, growth rates were still notable, particularly in developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Only China had less than 50% YoY growth.
The State of the Mobile Web report also examines the Middle East. In many of the countries, Facebook brought people and friends together. It was one of the top 10 sites in 9 of the top 10 countries in the Middle East: Iran (#9), Israel (#1), Saudia Arabia (#10), Syria (#3), Jordan (#3), United Arab Emirates (#3), Oman (#9), Kuwait (#4) and Lebanon (#1). The report also contains data on top handsets and a complete list of top sites for the top 10 countries, ranked by the number of unique Opera Mini users.
The full report is available from http://www.opera.com/smw/.
Posted to the site on 25th February 2009