Africans are reading Opera News in greater numbers as the company adds 16 million users in Q1 2021
Africans are reading Opera News in greater numbers as the company adds 16 million users in Q1 2021
While Opera is best known for its web browser, it has also created its own platform, Opera News Hub.
The News Hub is an Android and iOS application that has been downloaded over a hundred million times on Android alone. While media is inherently difficult, having your own platform gives you an advantage, particularly in terms of revenue generation.
And that is precisely what Opera's unaudited report for the first quarter of 2021 demonstrates, with a strong performance that has resulted in the company revising all of its year-end targets upward.
Opera adds 16 million users in the first quarter of the year
Opera's unaudited report for the first quarter of 2021 contains numerous positive notes. Its monthly active user base increased by 16 million in the first quarter, driven by 12 percent and 14 percent year-over-year growth in core regions Africa and Europe, respectively.
While it is popular with mobile users, it is also growing in popularity with desktop users, with 79 million average monthly desktop users in the first quarter, up 17% year over year. Its gaming browser, which launched last year, now has nearly 9 million users, a year-over-year increase of 190 percent in March.
Opera was able to increase both its ad revenue and revenue from search advertising due to these figures. Its revenue from the news was particularly impressive, with a 260 percent year-over-year increase and a 30% sequential increase over the fourth quarter.
However, it isn't easy to put this in context because the company did not disclose how much of the $51 million in Q1 revenue came from the news. Rather than that, it stated that Opera now has a revenue target of $55-$57 million for Q2.
Apart from its browser and news businesses, Opera has other ventures, making a profit in the third quarter.
Nanobank, OPay, and Starmaker
After exiting the micro-lending business in Nigeria last year, Opera formed Nanobank with Mobimagic (42 percent ownership). Nanobank is another lending service. At launch, the service reported 50 million users and disbursed $235 million in total value in Q1.
As a result, Nanobank, which operates independently, reported $4.3 million in post-tax profits.
Opera also owns 13.1% of OPay and frequently publishes OPay transaction data. Opera's sole mention of the company this quarter was to state that "OPay's total payment volume continues to grow and has exceeded the $2 billion level set in December 2020."
It also mentioned StarMaker, a karaoke app in which it owns 19.35 percent, stating that it had a "first-quarter revenue run rate of nearly $180 million, up 3.5 times from the year-ago period."
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