The latest opera web report

1. State of the Mobile Web, November 2012
December 14, 2012
The top local domains of Europe
International websites may top the lists of most visited domains, but Europeans do love their local sites, as
well. This month’s State of the Mobile Web report, we offer a look at which local websites are the most
visited in the European countries. Using anonymous and aggregated data from the Opera Mini mobile web
browser, which compresses data on the fly for its users, we’ve compiled a very accurate list of the most
visited sites.
The variations in top local domains vary greatly from country to country. Some countries are fixated on
news, others use a mobile browser to visit education sites, and some countries are outright sports crazy.
However, there is one category that dominates local websites in Europe.
News and Entertainment is clearly the most popular local website category in Europe, with 23 countries out
of 35 having a news site in first place, and each country having at least one news site on its respective top-
ten local website list. Croatia and Norway have the most news sites in their top ten, with a total of eight
local news websites. Portal and search is the second most popular category.
Sports-fixated countries include Romania and Spain, which each have sport sites at the top of their top-ten
lists, but Cyprus that is the country with the most sports fans, having a total of five sports sites on its top-
ten list of local websites.
In the ranking of international websites, the representation of international social networks is strong, and
few European countries can show off with a local alternative to the international social-network sites. There
are exceptions, such as in Spain, where there are two local social networks represented, and Germany,
where one community is at the top of the top-ten list.
The Portal and Search and Education category seem to be better represented in the eastern-most countries
such as Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia.
Other findings:
■ France, Belgium, Italy and Macedonia have women’s portals among their top-ten local sites.
■ Find the odd man out: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland and Greece all have weather sites on their top-
ten list. The Greek seem to be very interested in the weather, with a weather website in third place.
■ The Swedes have only two categories of local websites in their top ten: News and Entertainment and
Shopping and Classifieds.
■ Finland and Bulgaria have baby advice sites in their top-ten lists, under the Lifestyle category.
■ Germans seem to take their mobile phones into the kitchen, with a recipe website in its top-ten local site
list.
© Copyright 2012, Opera Software ASA, All rights reserved.
1

2. Top local domains
© Copyright 2012, Opera Software ASA, All rights reserved.
2

3. © Copyright 2012, Opera Software ASA, All rights reserved.
3

4. Growth
As of the April 2012 State of the Mobile Web, we now report both Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers.
Read more about this change.
In November 2012, the consumer base of the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers increased in unique
users. In all, more than 215 million people used Opera Mini or Opera Mobile in November. The Opera Mini
servers (which do not process pages from Opera Mobile browsers) served more than 130 billion pages and
compressed over 11 petabytes of data for Opera Mini users. More than 31% of the total users of Opera
Mini and Opera Mobile are using smartphones to browse the web. Compared to November 2011, the total
number of Opera Mini and Opera Mobile users grew more than 92% year over year.
Number of mobile product users
In November 2012, there were over 215 million Opera Mini and Opera Mobile users. Out of this number,
more than 20 million were Opera Mobile users, and the rest were Opera Mini users. Compared to November
2011, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile combined grew more than 29% year over year.
Opera Mini pages transcoded
Opera Mini users viewed over 130 billion pages in November 2012. Since November 2011, page views have
increased by more than 47%.
© Copyright 2012, Opera Software ASA, All rights reserved.
4

5. Opera Mini data consumed
In November 2012, Opera Mini users generated over 2.4 billion MB of data for operators worldwide. Data in
the Opera Mini browser is compressed by up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users
would have viewed over 11 petabytes of data in November. Since November 2011, data traffic has risen by
more than 72%.
Read the original report at www.opera.com/smw.
© Copyright 2012, Opera Software ASA, All rights reserved.
5