Login

Lost your password?

Sign Up

Register

Login

Login

Lost your password?

Register

Wednesday, July 6, 2022
  • Home
  • Banking
  • Industry & Trade
  • Investing
  • Money Deals
  • Regional Markets
  • Tech & Biz
  • Countries
  • Opinion

Africa's
Investment
Gateway

The Exchange
  • Login
  • Register
Subscribe
This Month's Edition
Previous Editions
  • Home
  • Banking
  • Industry & Trade
  • Investing
  • Money Deals
  • Regional Markets
  • Tech & Biz
  • Countries
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
The Exchange
  • Home
  • Banking
  • Industry & Trade
  • Investing
  • Money Deals
  • Regional Markets
  • Tech & Biz
  • Countries
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
The Exchange
LOGIN
alternatetext
Opera's Mombasa servers saving Kenya users billions of Shillings

Opera browser

Opera’s Mombasa servers saving Kenya users billions of Shillings

During the second half of last year, Opera Mini reported that users in Kenya saved more than one million gigabytes in mobile data, which translates into over two billion shillings saved in mobile data.

by Kimani Chege
February 23, 2020
in Tech & Business
0
Share on FacebookShare on LinkedIn

Returning from a global legal onslaught, Chinese owned Opera has moved on to solidify its hold of Africa with the installation of new servers in Mombasa which it says makes browsing four times faster.

The browser with more than 350 million monthly active users has faced legal tackles mainly from US and Europe on how it handles app-based loans. Google play also announced that it will take measures against the company based on how it runs Okash, an online money lending app.

Opera has announced the successful installation of its new local servers in Mombasa, Kenya, through iColo.io MBA1 data center facility which has helped increase the browsing speed significantly. The company said its new server was saving a total of 4400 hours of time waiting for webpages to load.

These servers significantly increase browsing speed up to four times faster than before, meaning that millions of Kenyans who use Opera products, such as the popular Opera Mini browser, will enjoy a faster experience when accessing their favorite online content, a statement by Opera reads.

“Kenya is a hyper-connected country with 86% of its population already online. The challenge is supplying users with uninterrupted and quick internet connectivity,” said Krystian Zubel, IT Director at Opera. “With the installation of our local data servers in Mombasa, we are improving connectivity speeds and meeting the needs of millions of connected Kenyans.”

With the installation of the new local servers, Opera announced that it was reducing connection latency hence providing swifter browsing. The company conducted tests on the new servers and says the results showed the response time to servers has significantly improved.

Opera Mini is a fast and lightweight application and is currently the most downloaded browser in Kenya on Android devices. In the State of Mobile Web 2019, Opera gave an insight into the use of the data savings feature in the Opera Mini browser. In the report, Opera compared the average prices of mobile data in twenty countries in Africa. The results revealed that the data compression mode in Opera Mini saved users nearly 100 million USD of data cost in 2018.

In mid-January, US-based financial whistleblower and research organization Hindenburg Research released a report titled’ The Phantom of the turn-around’ in which it questioned the operations of Opera, the Chinese owned browser whose popularity in Africa has remained high. What has followed is a series of class-action lawsuits by a dozen law firms in US and UK against the browser.

The research firm accused Opera of “developing predatory short-term loans in Africa and India, deploying deceptive ‘bait and switch’ tactics to lure in borrowers and charging egregious interest rates ranging from 365-876%.” This, the company says is going against Google policies of charging fair rates on short term loans.

alternatetext

The company has been diversifying through various ventures aimed at holding users in Africa. Last December, Opera and Mdundo, a leading African music sharing platform, announced that Opera Mini users can now, for free, listen to and download their favorite music from the most recognized artists in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Opera Mini users can start listening to their favorite music with Mdundo as soon as they open the browser, with Mdundo displaying the 100 most popular songs in the country according to the geographical location of the user.

Read also: Internet spend growth challenges Kenyan telcos’ budgets(Opens in a new browser tab)

Tags: ChinaGoogle PlayKenyaMobile dataMombasaOperaOpera mini

STATE OF ECONOMY - GET THE REPORT

ASSESSING EAST AFRICA

Loading...

Kimani Chege

Related Posts

Adanian Labs CEO John Kamara (L). Adanian Labs has expanded out of Kenya and into Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, and Nigeria, which are some of Africa's biggest start-up and tech hubs. www.theexchange.africa
Tech & Business

Adanian Labs: Fueling start-ups growth in Africa from Kenya

July 5, 2022
A group of women on phones. Humanity Node Protocol, a blockchain-based platform which is working to eradicate poverty in Africa through community service. www.theexchange.africa
Tech & Business

Blockchain Africa: Building a decentralised economy/DGDP for 1.5 billion people

July 5, 2022
www.theexchange.africa
Business

Bolt opens Africa head office in Kenya following $716m funding

July 4, 2022
Next Post
Anael Samuel

Songas appoints new Managing Director

Danish cement mining company and Canadian East Africa Minerals have been granted major mining licenses which is seen as a kick for Ethiopian mining industry- The Exchange

Canadian mining firm East African metals offer Ethiopian mine to China

Off Grid Solar System: esamenrgy: Exchange

Global off-grid solar market surge, what next for Africa?




This months edition

Features

Countries

Era of the African Passport: A mixed bag of opportunities?

by june njoroge
July 4, 2022
0

The African passport is a common passport document that is set to replace the existing nationally issued AU member states’...

Read more
Sibongile Thobakgale. She is the area sales manager for South Africa at Aggreko Africa. www.theexchange.africa
Investing

Transforming manufacturing in Africa

by Opinion
July 4, 2022
0

From cement to food and beverages to metal production and processing, manufacturing organisations are looking for sustainable energy solutions to...

Read more
Wallace Manyara. He is the Business Development Manager, Region South & East Africa, Wärtsilä Energy. www.theexchange.africa
Investing

Renewables, gas cheapest ways to meet Mozambique’s electricity demand

by Opinion
July 1, 2022
0

To meet its growing energy needs and increase electricity access across the population, Mozambique must build 1.3GW of new power...

Read more
By 2030, tech financing in Africa will hit US$90 billion. African governments have a lot to do to reduce the risk of investing in tech startups. www.theexchange.africa
Tech & Business

Challenges and opportunities across Africa’s tech ecosystems

by Njenga Hakeenah
July 4, 2022
0

In addition, governments have to make things better for businesses. Currently, tech start-ups have to pay a lot to comply...

Read more
Foreign Currency Auction System Fails to Meet Soaring Demand
Industry and Trade

Foreign currency auction fails to meet soaring demand

by Laurence Sithole
July 4, 2022
0

Despite these fundamentals, the Zimbabwe dollar has continued to slide against the United States dollar prompting the government to take...

Read more

News

Banking
Industry & Trade
Investing
Money Deals
Regional Markets
Tech & Biz
Opinion

Countries

Kenya
Tanzania
Uganda
Burundi
Rwanda
Southern Africa
Ethiopia

More

My Account
Contact us
Advertise
About us
Help Center

Subscribers Center

E-paper
Premium Stories
Education Rates
Corporate Subscriptions
Weekely Newsletter

  • My account
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund Policy – The Exchange
  • Sitemap

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Banking
  • Industry & Trade
  • Investing
  • Money Deals
  • Regional Markets
  • Tech & Biz
  • Countries
  • Opinion
  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Cart

© 2021 The Exchange - Powered by MediapixManaged by Supported by Digihandler,

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In