3 ms·

I'm not sure if this is a joke or not. Opera has been around for over fifteen years -- longer than Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. It's been around as long as Int

I'm not sure if this is a joke or not. Opera has been around for over fifteen years -- longer than Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. It's been around as long as Internet Explorer. But their main revenue source is mobile, where they have been the #1 browser vendor for a long time. Opera accounts for over 20% of mobile browser page views worldwide. The desktop market is less of a focus for Opera than for other vendors. Even so, while Opera accounts for only about 1% of desktop browser page views in the US, it's about 4% of desktop page views in Europe, and much much higher within certain countries (around 9% in Poland and 20% in Russia, for example). Market share depends highly on geography, and it's much harder for a global company to ignore any of the major browsers. Desktop map: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201206-201206-map http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201206-201206-... Mobile map: http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201206-201206-map http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201206-...

tomjen3 14y ago
I am still technically correct as 15 is more than 2. But that still leaves the question, why hasn't it been picked up?
- luchs 14y ago
  Because it's neither bundled with any operating system (like IE or Safari) nor can they afford to do a lot of advertising (like Chrome). Firefox got popular because many sites advertised it as a 'better browser than IE' for free, I guess.
- mbrubeck 14y ago
  I tried to explain that above. Opera's revenue, and therefore their development and marketing and sales strategy, is primarily in the mobile market, where it has been "picked up" quite successfully. They haven't focused as much on competing for usage share in the desktop browser market. (And even so, 2% of all computer users in the world is not exactly a failure; it's a very large number!) It's like a mirror image of Firefox , which focused almost exclusively (and successfully) on the desktop, but has not been picked up on mobile because it has not focused as much on development or strategy there.
- cyclinghacker 14y ago
  Simple, back when the browser shake-up was going on (early 2000s) Opera was a paid browser, or a free browser with banner advertisements. It was also Windows only for a long time. I don't remember exactly when they came to their senses and admitted that no one pays for a web browser, but by that point it was too late.

tomjen3 14y ago

I am still technically correct as 15 is more than 2. But that still leaves the question, why hasn't it been picked up?

luchs 14y ago
Because it's neither bundled with any operating system (like IE or Safari) nor can they afford to do a lot of advertising (like Chrome). Firefox got popular because many sites advertised it as a 'better browser than IE' for free, I guess.
mbrubeck 14y ago
I tried to explain that above. Opera's revenue, and therefore their development and marketing and sales strategy, is primarily in the mobile market, where it has been "picked up" quite successfully. They haven't focused as much on competing for usage share in the desktop browser market. (And even so, 2% of all computer users in the world is not exactly a failure; it's a very large number!) It's like a mirror image of Firefox , which focused almost exclusively (and successfully) on the desktop, but has not been picked up on mobile because it has not focused as much on development or strategy there.
cyclinghacker 14y ago
Simple, back when the browser shake-up was going on (early 2000s) Opera was a paid browser, or a free browser with banner advertisements. It was also Windows only for a long time. I don't remember exactly when they came to their senses and admitted that no one pays for a web browser, but by that point it was too late.