News24 partners with Opera Mini in SA
2010-03-18 13:08
Opera Software today announced its partnership with News24.com, South Africa's leading digital news brand. Moving forward, users of Opera Mini in South Africa will have one-click access to the News24 site, m.news24.com, direct from the browser. Opera Mini is a free download for almost every mobile phone, available at http://m.opera.com/.
By including a default bookmark, millions of South African Web users will have instant access to South Africa's largest locally-visited news Web site. News24 reaches over 2 million readers a month on their website, and nearly 200,000 users on mobile phones.
"The collaboration with Opera mini is in line with our ongoing strategy to make News24 accessible via as many different digital platforms as possible," says Marian van der Linden, Product Manager at 20fourLabs. In South Africa, anecdotal figures point to local mobile web usership standing at around 11 million which is more than 40% larger than the traditional desktop web and presents a massive opportunity for the brand to extend its reach. Having the mobile version of News24 available for download via the Opera mini browser will not only get more of our existing readers to access the site via their phones, but will also enable us to penetrate a new segment of the market and grow our reader base.”
South Africa is an important market for mobile Web browsing. According to Opera's State of the Mobile Web Report, South Africa ranks number six in the world for most mobile Web users. During the past year, mobile Web usage has jumped 241% in South Africa.
"South Africa is one of countries defining the future of mobile Web access," said Nuno Sitima, Senior Vice President, business development for Opera Software. "By bringing relevant, local content to our users, Opera Mini is more convenient. At the same time, we can bring many news users to m.news24.com by providing instant access to their site from the main start-up page of the most-used mobile browser in South Africa."
About News24
News24 is South Africa's leading digital news brand reaching more than 2 million people monthly across multiple devices. From the web to mobile phones to interactive TV, South Africans go to News24 to stay up to date on what is happening locally or internationally.
About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.