Opera sees September surge in mobile data use

Middle East and Africa account for lion's share of increase in data traffic

Opera controlls 24 per cent of the mobile browser market

Use of the mobile phone browser Opera Mini increased by 10 per cent over the past four weeks, thanks largely to impressive uptake in developing markets such as the Middle East and Africa.

Opera’s product manager for mobile, Philip Grønvold, said: “We are reaching a tipping point in the Middle East and Africa, and those developing markets are starting to follow the same trends as Western Europe. With only 20 per cent of the world connected to the internet, we are bound to see data usage continuing to grow.”

He added that a surge at this time of year is not unusual: “In terms of mobile web data usage, we always have a summer dip."

"Coming into the autumn things do usually increase, with people going back to work and school, and this accounts for a few percentage points, but what we have seen this month is not simply an increase in data usage, but the addition of new users.”

According to web analytics firm StatCounter, Opera controlled 24.8 per cent of the mobile browser market in September, with its Opera Mini browser boasting some 66.5 million users.