Opera Mini reaches 50 million mark

Opera Mini, the mobile web Browser claims to have crossed the 50 million unique monthly users mark in January this year.
According to a company statement, the number of users has grown by 150 per cent, from 20 million unique monthly users in January 2009. This number comprises active users of the software.
Opera Mini has been developed by Norway-based Opera Software and can be downloaded free of cost on handsets. The browser offers compression from the Opera server, which shrinks web pages by up to 90 per cent before loading them on the device, for faster internet browsing and lesser data usage.
“Our original goal with Opera Mini was to make the web available to everyone, regardless of their network or mobile phone. Fifty million active monthly users is a great start,” said Lars Boilesen, chief executive officer, Opera, in the statement.
Opera Software had earlier reported that India ranks third among the top markets for Opera Mini, overtaking China. The company does not share country-specific numbers but has reported that page views in India have gone up 202 per cent since September 2008. The number of unique users has also gone up by 61 per cent in this period.