Since its launch two years ago, Opera News has become one of the most used news and content apps in the world, with more than 160 million users. Today, Opera launches Opera News Lite, a smaller version of the popular Opera News application, designed for devices with limited data storage capabilities. With a download size of less than one megabyte, Opera News Lite is also a fast download for people on limited mobile networks. 

“We have developed Opera News Lite as per requests from our users. The app is extremely responsive on slow network conditions as it minimizes the use of data and resources. It also helps smartphone users save storage space on their mobile devices, especially for users with older handsets.” said Jørgen Arnesen, Head of Marketing and Distribution at Opera. 

At the end of last year, there were more than 3.8 billion mobile internet users in the world, with smartphones representing 65% of mobile connections according to GSMA. In many cases, those smartphones do not have enough storage capacity and some of them are located in remote areas that often struggle with network connectivity. Opera News Lite has been optimized for such cases, making information more accessible for everyone regardless of geographical location or network connectivity conditions. 

Opera News Lite offers the key features of the regular Opera News app such as personalized news articles, notifications about breaking news, and exclusive original content. However, Opera News Lite is ten times lighter than the regular version of the current version of the Opera News application. 

More local content with more than 35 thousand content creators 

In 2019, Opera announced the launch of Opera News Hub, a new editorial platform where African authors and bloggers can create online content and share it with the fast-growing Opera user base of more than 350 million users worldwide. 

In less than six months, more than 35,000 African content creators have joined Opera News Hub, uploading articles every day to the platform. In addition, Opera News Hub connects seamlessly with other Opera mobile applications including the new Opera News Lite. This means that users in Africa are able to read more local stories when accessing the app thanks to the quick expansion of local authors in Opera News Hub. 

Opera News Lite is powered by the same AI news engine used in the full version of Opera News and the popular Opera Mini browser. The AI system studies users’ news-reading behaviour in real-time and learns from it in order to provide them with personalized news. This means people get faster and easier access to the news and videos that interest them. 

Four times faster connectivity

Users who choose to download Opera News Lite on their mobile devices are able to browse four times faster on the app, thanks to the recent installation of local data centres in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. 

The new Opera local data centre has already proven effective as it reduces connection latency, providing Nigerians with 4x faster navigation on any of the Opera products.

“We believe that Opera News Lite will become the fastest online news application on the market. Due to its unique characteristics and by connecting to our local data servers in Nigeria, users can be confident that they will access news faster than before regardless of any connectivity conditions,” said Arnesen. 

Available for download 

Opera News Lite is now available for download in more than 40 countries. 

Applicable countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Egypt, Algeria, Tanzania, Senegal, Zambia, Guinée, Morocco, Congo, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Etiopia, Libya, Angola, Tunisia, Mali, Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Tchad, Madagascar, Togo, Gabon, Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania, India, Indonesia, Russia, and United States.

About Opera

Opera is a leading global internet brand with an engaged and growing base of over 350 million

monthly active users. Building on over 20 years of innovation, starting with our browser

products, we are increasingly leveraging our brand as well as our massive and highly active

user base in order to expand our offerings and our business. Today, we offer users across Europe, Africa and Asia a wide range of products and services that include our PC and mobile

browsers as well as our AI-powered news readers, Opera News and Opera News Lite, and our app-based microfinance solutions.

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