Southeast Asia hungry for the mobile Web

MOBILE BROWSER DEVELOPER, Opera, has released a report stating the mobile Web is on the rise, to the extent it may even be edging out the wired Web.

Opera’s latest report focused on Southeast Asia, where the firm says it has seen stunning page-view and usage growth, gathering data from people who have downloaded Opera Mini.

In first place for mobile browsing usage in Southeast Asia is Indonesia – which, incidentally, also ranks second overall in the world. In 2008 alone, Indonesia reportedly saw 330 per cent user growth and 827 per cent page view growth in mobile browsing.

Malaysia was also a winner, apparently leading the region in usage growth, jumping up over 460 per cent this year to snatch the second spot in the region. The Philippines also seems to be making massive strides towards mobile browsing, with Opera claiming to see a 1,120 per cent jump in page views this year.

Opera, based in Norway, also reckons the number of monthly consumer users - those who download Opera Mini on their own without being offered a version from their operator – shot up to 21 million in October.

Up by 326 per cent since October 2007, page views by Opera Mini users purportedly almost even reached the five billion mark and data transfers grew by 490 per cent in a year, hitting 73.7 million MB (compressed).

Opera’s report postulates that in many of the Southeast Asian countries studied, the mobile Web isn’t simply used in addition to the wired Web, it actually replaces it in many cases.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, social not-working and search sites come top in mobile browsing, as they do in desktop browsing too. Opera’s Chief exec, Jon von Tetzchner, noted "There is an incredible appetite in Southeast Asia for the mobile Web".

Elsewhere in the world, Opera noted that Egypt’s mobile browsing habit seemed to be on the up and up since kicking off last month, but that the UK and Poland had moved down the charts to make way for new mobile browsing nations, mainly from Africa.

The firm reckons that, as the line continues to blur between computers and mobile phones, with the emergence of smaller and smaller Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), mobile browsing and will only continue to rise.

The full report is available here. µ