Opera Introduces Opera News Lite

In what has to be an ace from the tech gods of serendipity, Opera News has just come up with Opera News Lite. From the moment it launched over two years back, Opera News became one of the most used news and content apps in the world with more than 160 million users. It is against this successful backdrop that Opera now launches Opera News Lite, a minuscule version of the popular Opera News application. Designed for devices with limited data storage capabilities, it has the download size of less than 1MB. It is also much faster as a download in areas with patchy service such as the rural areas. “We have developed Opera News Lite as per requests from our users. The app is extremely responsive to slow network conditions as it minimizes the use of data and resources. It also helps smartphone users save storage space on their mobile devices, especially for users with older handsets,” said Jørgen Arnesen, Head of Marketing and Distribution at Opera.

By end of 2019, there were more than 3.8 billion mobile internet users in the world, with smartphones representing 65% of all mobile connections according to GSMA. In a lot of instances, smartphones do not have enough storage capacity. Those located in remote areas often struggle with network connectivity. Opera News Lite has been optimized for just such cases, making information more accessible to all regardless of geographical location or connectivity issues. Opera News Lite offers the key features of the regular Opera News app such as personalized news articles, notifications about breaking news, and exclusive original content. However, Opera News Lite is 10x lighter than the regular version, the current Opera News app.

Opera News Hub also now available in Kenya

Opera has also announced the availability of Opera News Hub in Kenya. Opera News Hub is a new online editorial platform where Kenyan content creators can produce, share and monetize their own content across the Opera ecosystem. Content creators who choose to produce their content with Opera News Hub have the potential to maximise their online visibility and reach an international audience of more than 350 million people using Opera products around the world.

Opera News Hub was initially launched in Lagos, Nigeria in September 2019. In less than six months, more than 35,000 African content creators have joined the platform and who upload thousands of articles to it every day. Opera News Hub also connects seamlessly with other Opera mobile applications, including the new standalone application Opera News Lite. This means that Kenyan users will be able to read more local stories when accessing the app thanks to the quick expansion of local authors on Opera News Hub.

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 in order to provide them with personalized news. This means people get faster and easier access to the news and videos that interest them.

Quadruple navigation 

Fans who choose to download Opera News Lite on their mobile devices can now browse 4x faster on the app, thanks to the recent installation of local data centres in the Mombasa city. The new Opera local data centre located in Mombasa has already proven itself by reducing connection latency, providing Kenyans with unprecedented speeds. “We believe that Opera News Lite will become the fastest online news application in the market. Due to its unique characteristics and by connecting to our local data servers in Kenya, users can be confident that they will access news faster than before regardless of any connectivity conditions,” said Arnesen.

Opera News Lite is now available for download in more than 40 countries.