Uncle Chris explains how Opera is the past, present and future of mobile internet browsing

January 16th, 2020

Last year our team flew to Lagos, Nigeria to meet some Opera users. We wanted to hear about their first interactions with the web and how Opera Mini has helped them as a valuable source of information in different aspects of life such as school, work and community.

We met with Tochi, a 25-year-old student who dreams of becoming a model in Nigeria, and Oluwaseunfunmi and Seun who are both long-time Opera Mini users.

Today, we are happy to share with you the story of Uncle Chris. He shared with us his thoughts about how the web has changed his life, from the way he interacts with his family by reading stories from his childhood to his grandchildren via ebooks, to how important it has become to manage businesses using mobile phones.

Uncle Chris talked with us about the high cost of data in Nigeria and the need for affordable data packages that can be used to their full potential. At Opera, we decided to solve this problem and are presenting more affordable data packages with discounted data bundles for Opera users on the MTN network. These data bundles allow you to enjoy the the web for even longer. Read more about Opera and MTN’s data packages.

Saving up to 80% of data with Opera Mini

We have always cared about providing our users with a fast browsing experience, which is why the data saving functionality has been part of the Opera browser for a long time.

We recently tested the twenty most popular websites in Nigeria, measuring the actual data savings per browser under various network conditions. This 2019 data savings test showed that the extreme data compression mode in Opera Mini saves an average of more than 80% of data when browsing.

The test also showed that the data compression mode in Opera Mini is capable of reducing some web page sizes by more than 80%. This means that Opera Mini users consume less than 10% of the data used by other browsers which don’t have data saving capabilities.

Browsing up to 4x faster

We also tested browsers with data saving capabilities and found that the data saving mode in Opera Mini was far superior to Google Chrome. The tests showed that Google Chrome’s data saving mode was only functioning on very slow Edge networks, and only provided an average savings of 9%.

To further provide our users in Nigeria with a better internet connection, we have recently invested money in a new data center, which enables our users in Nigeria to browse faster.

Don’t have Opera Mini or Opera News yet? Download Opera Mini, and Opera News.