Norwegian-based Web company Opera is resetting its relationship with African countries, announcing a new strategy solely focusing on the continent, and promising greater career Internet-oriented opportunities in major cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The firm says it believes the continent is awash with potential – which is why Opera has adopted its multi-pronged “Africa first” strategy to scout for opportunities together with locals.
With the strategy, Opera says its mobile products and services will now be developed first and foremost with the African consumer in mind.
Jørgen Arnesen, executive vice-president of mobile browsers at Opera, says the company will invest more in the region to bring more people online, and will “employ brilliant African colleagues across key cities like Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Cape Town, who fill key functions, such as business and product development, to name a few”.
Opera believes Africa is a region with massive potential for the adoption and development of technology, and it has started rolling out its plans to capture the market.
In SA, plans are afoot for Opera to launch a data centre; however, because of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project is delayed.
In March, ITWeb exclusively reported that the company was looking to open a local data centre this year.
“Africa is a key focus for Opera and we believe there is significant growth ahead. The region is the fastest growing continent in terms of Internet penetration. Recent reports from GSMA show that only 300 million out of the total population of 1.1 billion people are connected to the Internet in Sub-Saharan Africa, which means less than one in three people are online today,” says Arnesen.
He explains that among the key initiatives tied to Opera’s “Africa first” strategy this year are the partnerships it formed with the leading telcos across Sub-Saharan Africa to provide people with free browsing in the Opera Mini browser.
“In Q1 this year, we partnered with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria, followed by MTN Zambia. In the second quarter, we expanded our partnerships with the telcos in Ghana with MTN, AirtelTigo and Vodafone.
“In August, we replicated our success with Safaricom in Kenya – among the leading telcos on the continent, soon followed by Airtel Kenya. More recently, we were excited to announce our partnership with MTN South Africa.”
Freedom to surf
Through these 10 partnerships, he says, Opera has provided nearly 40 million people with up to 1.5GB of free browsing every month across five African countries.
Arnesen believes access to the Internet should be a universal right.
“In my home country Norway, which has a GDP per capita of $81 697, the cost of 1GB of data is $5.28. In South Africa, the same GB costs $4.30, slightly less than in Norway, but the GDP per capita is $6 374.
“The difference is stark. Because of these fundamental challenges seen across Africa, we’re proud and humbled that Opera and Opera Mini are often considered synonymous with the internet. Every time I’m in Lagos, Nairobi or Joburg, it's inspiring to hear that nine out of 10 people know Opera.”
According to Arnesen, the Opera user base is growing, evidenced by the 18% surge across all its products in the third quarter of 2020, reaching a combined user base of 150 million monthly active users.
“We see significant growth in our apps, like Opera Mini and Opera News, and we’re confident our growth will continue next year.
“We believe that developing better browsers and news apps that offer great features and personalised content has been key to Opera’s continued growth across Africa in 2020. We have optimised our apps to solve everyday challenges.”
For example, he says, Opera added a news channel dedicated to COVID-19, where people could find trustworthy and reliable information using Opera Mini and Opera News, and stay informed about the situation in their country.
“Opera News Hub has become the leading publisher of local African content, with approximately 10 000 articles self-published every day.”
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