Opera, the Norwegian-based mobile phone and PC web browser developer, has announced the launch of a considerably smaller version of its popular news app – Opera News Lite.
Opera News Lite is designed to connect South Africans to the world around them, without the hassle of excessive data depletion thanks to its less than 1MB download size. The app offers the same great news experience as Opera News, despite being 10 times lighter, without compromising on its ability to operate with extreme responsiveness, even in slow network conditions.
There are more than 3.8 billion mobile internet users in the world with smartphones representing 65% of mobile connections according to GSMA at the end of 2019. In many cases, those smartphones do not have enough storage capacity and many users are based in remote areas. Opera News Lite has been optimised to make the latest news and information more accessible for everyone, regardless of geographical location and network connectivity.
Since its launch two years ago, Opera News is one of the most used news and content apps in the world, with more than 160 million users. It’s currently the most downloaded news app in 2020 in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, according to App Annie – the App Analytics and App Data Industry Standard, and became the world’s most downloaded news app in Q2-2019.
“The development of Opera News Lite comes at a time when more and more South Africans find themselves spending most of their time indoors, yet still faced with the need to keep up with what’s happening in the world around them. The app is designed to work optimally in these conditions, delivering relevant news to users based on their interests without compromising on responsiveness, even in the event of increased network traffic that can result in slower-than-usual speeds. The app will also help users save storage space thanks to its reduced download size.” said Jørgen Arnesen, Head of Marketing and Distribution at Opera.
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 to provide them with personalised news. This means people get faster and easier access to the news and videos that interest them.
Opera News will have more local content with more than 35,000 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. Opera News Hub connects seamlessly with other Opera mobile applications including the new Opera News Lite. This means that users in Africa can read more local stories when accessing the app, thanks to the quick expansion of local authors in Opera News Hub.
Available for download
Opera News Lite is now available for download in Google Play in more than 40 countries.
