The tech firm’s journey of revamped and affordable internet plans started in response to underserved market

BY VICTOR ADAR

When you meet Mr Richard Monday, the Vice President of Opera Mini company, your first thought will be that he is a talkative person. But the veteran techy is just full of positive energy, and is simply highlighting the current glaring digital gap.

He joined Opera in 2012 to spearhead the firm’s efforts in the development of the ‘African digital’ economy. In an interview, he told Nairobi Business Monthly that with the market still searching for the best, and affordable internet deals, the company’s focus is on onboarding new clients and connecting users with low purchasing power to the internet.

For nearly three years, Monday says, Opera has spent a Sh2 bn investment in a free data campaign. The tech firm has also partnered with Safaricom and Airtel in an effort to offer users who make Opera their main browser up to 3 GB of data at no cost.

The ‘lightweight mobile browser’ also supports offline file sharing and has a built-in ad blocker, making it quite secure, flexible, and fast option for users seeking to save cash they spend on data.

“Bottomline is to get people online,” he says. “Opera is an interesting technology. Within 18 months of the browser’s launch in Kenya, we had 300, 000 downloads. Our browser is used by nearly 100 million people. So this (referring to free data) will boost internet penetration in a big way.”

Monday has been instrumental in growing the Opera brand across the continent drawing on over a decade of prior experience in business development – at outfits such as ChartsNow, Omnifone, and Edengene, where he was a co-founder.

He has continued to roll impressive products, and is alert to the fact that about a decade ago, tech companies, especially internet service providers and mobile network operators realized that future revenues were not going to come through voice alone. It was time to grow internet uptake.

“We made it cheaper so internet service providers could create offers that are amazing to ordinary users. By offering data for Sh39 per month, for example, we shall have developed prepositions for people to get online on their phone and that was the future of mobile operators back in 2007, 2008, 2009… so there was a mass scramble to get users online using low cost data,” he says.

A decade and half ago, internet user base was quite tiny. A 2019 World Bank report shows that Kenya’s digital economy (Information and Communications Technology sector) has recorded an average growth of 10.8% annually since 2016, becoming a significant source of economic development and job creation with spill over effects in almost every sector of the economy. The report also highlights that the country faces a significant digital divide, with 44% of the urban population having access to the internet compared to 17% in rural areas.

Today, demand for internet has picked up pace because of a young population, and high smartphone penetration. Data on internet accessibility from Communications Authority of Kenya shows that between 2022 and 2023, the country added 1.3 million users.

As at January 2023, the country had 10.55 million social media users, which is a 19.3% of the total population of 54.56 million as of January 2023. Additionally, only 9.8 million Kenyans (9%), living in urban and semi-urban areas have access to broadband internet. 38% have low speed dial up internet, with up to 22 million people not connected to internet. Given these gaps, Monday says, it was important for Opera to embark on “free data project”.

“It is to allow you complete access to the internet not to sit on social media platforms like Instagram or Tik Tok for 40 minutes a day,” he says. “Remember, before Facebook came a long nobody really thought there was a good reason to have internet on a phone. But what are you going to do with a phone without internet? And when Facebook came a long, nearly everybody wanted to get their notifications immediately and the only way to do it is on your phone, so the mobile operators not only in Kenya (it is everywhere) were forced to try and provide cheap data.”

Unique features of the Opera browser include data compression, a download tool with offline file sharing capabilities, private search, video player, and a built-in ad-blocker. It is also interesting to note that, compared to Google, Opera, which has invested about Sh13.8 bn ($100 mn) in Africa to address difficulties of accessing affordable internet, is a small player.

“Our capitalization is about a billion dollars. Compared to Google we are tiny, and I know that. It is not about that (referring to size of investment) but about what we do. We have a mission and our mission is to get poor people online,” he says.

In 2020, Opera partnered with Safaricom to provide free data of 20 MB every day, a move that enabled users to browse at no cost. At the time, the masses were able to experience the web without spending on data bundles.

“We are investing more and more in the Kenyan market and in the last three years we have invested 12 million dollars just with Safaricom on free data and that’s excluding Airtel… and the aim is to get poor people online. People who at the moment can’t get online that’s our job that’s why opera begun in 2006 the plan was to get people online. That’s what we are going to do,” he says.