Tag: Opera

Facebook Most Popular Mobile Social Website

Facebook has become the most-visited social network on the mobile web, according to Opera’s State of the Mobile Web report.

Unique users of Facebook grew more than 600 percent during 2009, helping the site surpass Russian property VKontakte, formerly the most popular social network among Opera Mini users. Twitter saw its usage increase more than any other social network, jumping more than 2,800 percent in just one year.

In December 2009, more than 46.3 million people used Opera Mini, an 11 percent increase from November 2009 and more than 159 percent compared to December 2008. Opera Mini users viewed more than 20.7 billion pages in December 2009. Since November, page views have increased 10.1 percent.

"Fortunately the divide between the mobile Web and the Web accessed on PCs is now disappearing," said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder,Opera Software.

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"People want to use the same sites, regardless of whether they use a phone or PC to access those sites. The success of Facebook and Twitter among Opera Mini users shows that consumer habits do not change even though their devices do."

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January 26, 2010
Opera Scoops Up Mobile Advertising Firm AdMarvel

Opera announced today that it has acquired mobile advertising firm AdMarvel. Opera says the acquisition will enable it to expand its portfolio of products and services to include "highly scalable ad monetization services" for Opera branded mobile products and services.

"In our fast-growing industry, mobile advertising represents an interesting long-term revenue opportunity. Every month, nearly 50 million people access the Web using Opera on their mobile phones and together with AdMarvel, we think we can play an important role in the evolution of mobile advertising," says Opera CEO Lars Boilesen.

AdMarvel is based in San Mateo, California. It was founded in 2006, and works with a lot of different advertising firms around the world. It’s official description says:

AdMarvel makes mobile advertising work by enabling mobile publishers and operators to easily source, provision, manage and track advertising from virtually any ad network or direct sourced advertising inventory. As the leading trusted third party in mobile advertising, AdMarvel works with mobile publishers, developers, carriers, ad networks, agencies and advertisers to optimize advertising inventory and revenue. AdMarvel services work across mobile web, WAP, SMS and in-application modalities.

"We are very excited about joining forces with Opera," says AdMarvel CEO Mahi de Silva. "What started as a commercial relationship has blossomed into a wonderful partnership to serve the global mobile marketplace. Combining our monetization and analytics platform with the Opera browser and widget platform will create a new intelligent platform, where local and global advertisers can interact with a highly instrumented mobile audience."

Mobile advertising firms are being bought up like hotcakes. Other recent deals include Google acquiring AdMob and Apple acquiring Quattro. The Opera AdMarvel deal is reportedly for $8 million in cash plus a $15 million earnout.

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January 20, 2010
Opera Releases New SDKs and New Browser

Opera is unveiling three new releases at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This includes two new software development kits (SDKs), the Opera Devices 10.15 SDK for Linux and Windows CE (WinCE) platforms, and the company’s new standalone browser, Opera Devices 10 for WinCE (beta).

"Opera Devices SDKs are built with freedom and flexibility at their core, giving customers the ability to build a full Web browser, a widget or an application platform on any connected device, including TVs, STBs, media players, mobile Internet devices, and many more," said Christen Krogh, Chief Development Officer at Opera Software. "The TV industry’s evolution and innovation has created a demand for toolkits that can handle next generation IPTV and hybrid broadcast/broadband services on any TV screen. Opera Devices SDK for Linux is just the comprehensive client to help customers harness the power of Web technology."

Opera SDK features include:

– Opera Turbo
– Flash Lite 3.1
– HTML5/CSS3
– Widgets

Opera says the Linux version has a few additional features, such as:

– Hardware acceleration – Opera Devices SDK for Linux now takes advantage of accelerated hardware to boost page rendering. The SDK also supports DirectFB for tighter integration with hardware platforms.

– OOIF – Opera’s Open IPTV Framework allows for the development of HbbTV and OIPF clients, compliant with next-generation IPTV or hybrid broadcast/broadband services. For more information, go to www.oipf.org and www.hbbtv.org.

– Opera Widgets for TV – Opera’s acclaimed Widgets for TV demo has been extended with remote control inputs and now includes Web browsing, a fitting addition to the widgets experience.

The Opera Devices 10 browser for Windows CE supports Opera Turbo and includes features like portrait/landscape mode, URL auto-completion, touch screen browsing, visual tabs, and Opera’s Speed Dial shortcuts to pre-selected web content.

Watch for more WebProNews coverage of CES, with exclusive video interviews coming soon.

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January 6, 2010
Opera CEO Steps Down, Immediately Replaced

Jon von Tetzchner has stepped down as CEO of Opera, though he will remain with the company full-time in a "strategic and independent" capacity. Opera has appointed Lars Boilesen to take his place as CEO.

Jon von Tetzchner co-founded the company fifteen years ago. Boilesen has held executive positions at Alcatel-Lucent where he was CEO for the Nordics and the Baltics. He has also served at Opera Software where he was Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, from 2000 to 2005. A year ago, he rejoined Opera as Chief Commercial Officer, and has served on the company’s Board of Directors as Vice Chairman.

"Lars Boilesen brings both a very significant industry experience and a deep understanding of Opera to the role as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. In short, Opera’s spirit runs through his veins," says Jon von Tetzchner. "My decision to assume a new role in Opera is based on a lengthy consideration process. As outgoing Chief Executive, I leave confident in the company’s continued leadership in key markets, our strong management team, our ongoing commitment to innovation, and our robust financial foundation."

"I was very happy about convincing Lars to come back to Opera one year ago. Today, I am very excited about asking him to take over as CEO as we continue our growth and global expansion. We have worked closely together for many years and I am certain that he is the right person to lead Opera into a very bright future," added von Tetzchner.

"I am impressed with what Opera has achieved under Jon’s leadership," says Boilesen. "We provide browser technology not only to nearly 100 million consumers worldwide, but also to the major players in the industry: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Nintendo, KDDI, SKT, Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony Ericsson to name but a few. Our focus going forward is to execute on our current strategy and continue to deliver the best browser experience to the breadth of our customer and user base."

Opera says Boilesen played a crucial role in transforming Opera from a desktop browser vendor into a leader in cross-platform browsing.

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> Opera Turbo Sees 60% User Growth in One Month

> 40 Million Reasons You Need a Mobile Web Presence

> Opera Releases Latest Version of Popular Mobile Browser

January 5, 2010