State of the Opera: Q1 2010

May 19, 2010 · by Haavard

The financial results for the 1st quarter of 2010 are in.

Once again the revenue is negatively affected by the currency situation, and a strong NOK. However, this will even out over time. The business itself was profitable, but a one-time expense caused a loss in the quarter.

What's interesting is tha we are seeing stronger traction for Opera Mobile with mobile manufacturers than expected, particularly in Asia. We recently announced an agreement with the second largest supplier of mobile phones in the world, MediaTek. Most people probably haven't heard about them, but there are more manufacturers out there than one might think.

Total revenue was 151.4 MNOK, and was negatively affected by a strong NOK. However, it was in line with what we expected. Revenues would have been about 168 MNOK if the currency situation had been the same as in Q1 2009
Opera had 52 million desktop users in April (a 37% increase since Q1 2009)
There were 55 million Opera Mini users in April (not including branded or bundled versions), which is an increase of 140% since Q1 2009
More than 110 million people use Opera every month (not including bundled versions)
Very strong volume growth from mobile operators (50% growth since the end of Q4 2009)
Opera has never gotten as many new operator customers as in Q1
More and more of Opera's revenue is from licensing rather than Non-Recurring Engineering (which is a good thing)
The Opera Mini application store: Launched in Q1, hosted by Opera, and available to operators. Vodafone is using it, and there is a "three-digit" number of apps available
Despite the 90% compression, Opera Mini actually increases data traffic up to 5-6 times, leading to higher revenues for mobile operators (as they have found when doing limited trials)
The EU choice screen seems to show signs of strong long-term effects

As expected, the drop in NRE combined with the currency situation has a negative effect on this quartery report. However, there is very strong growth from operators, and the big launches this year haven't even taken place yet.

There was also a significant one-time expense in the quarter, which will lead to to a better financial situation over time.

While the quarter saw a very strong lineup of new agreements, more are coming in the second quarter. There are also some significant agreements where the customer has not yet been announced.

Readers' comments 7

Left under the original article, as archived.

Daniel HendrycksWednesday, May 19, 2010 12:00:21 PM
ouzowtfWednesday, May 19, 2010 12:27:36 PM
Sounds good, keep it up!
Mad Scientist (عادل)Wednesday, May 19, 2010 12:53:27 PM
Naturally, when compared with some built in mobile browsers, Operamini will produce more traffic overall since it's actually a pleasure to surf with Operamini, but I personally, will not use my phone's built in browser except when I have no other option. (i.e: to download Operamini or Opera Mobile )
Charles SchlossWednesday, May 19, 2010 1:07:45 PM
МарияWednesday, May 19, 2010 3:34:38 PM
do you want me?i'm dont know english....do you know russian?
Cutting SpoonWednesday, May 19, 2010 5:07:37 PM
These many ominous hints of "big launches" later in the year...I would hope that Widgets for Mini will be coming to the general public through an online store? Opera's overall position does look rather good, and the company's high liquidity must have streamlined your recent purchases.

May I estimate another loss with high non-recurring expense in 2Q 2010? Primarily due to FastMail acquisition, provided there were no other surprises to share? It looks like Mini will be offering many more services, and possibly similar offerings will come to Mobile (along with platform growth). If these bets pay off, I would expect healthy profit by the end of this year.
d4rkn1ghtWednesday, May 19, 2010 8:44:31 PM