Are you in a weekend or weekday surfing country?

Is there such a thing as an universal surfing pattern? Are mobile web users worldwide more active during certain periods of the week? In their latest State of the Mobile Web report, Opera Software looks at the shifts worldwide in surfing patterns between weekdays and weekends.

The analysis, based on anonymous and aggregated data from the servers of Opera Mini, the world’s most widely used mobile web browser, shows that users in two-thirds of all countries surveyed are more active on the mobile web during weekdays than the weekends. Different countries have different patterns to their surfing, and many can be divided into “weekend surfers” and “weekday surfers”.

Typical “weekend countries”, in terms of the total number of users, are Egypt, Iran, Ghana, Ethiopia and Tanzania, who top the list for increase in weekend users as compared to weekday users. For Egypt, this means a 7.6% increase in the unique user number as soon as the weekend comes around.

Typical “weekday countries” are Romania, Belarus, Moldova, the United States and Poland, who show the opposite trend on weekend days. When the weekend is over, consumers resume surfing again.

A drop in users on weekends doesn’t necessarily correlate with a drop in page views and data traffic. For example, the country of Georgia had a slight drop in users over the weekend, but topped the list for growth in pages viewed during the weekend.

“With a large population of users of Opera Mini worldwide, you start to see cool trends in the aggregated statistics,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “The trends in this edition show that mobile web users in different countries do behave differently on the mobile web. Their reasons to to be a ‘weekend surfer’ or a ‘weekday surfer’ may vary, but the statistics remain very consistent througout the measured period.”

Similar trends could be observed in the page views, but to different degrees. Some countries had more than a 10% increase from weekdays to weekends, while others decreased. However, the increase in page views from weekday to weekend is greater than the decrease after the weekend.

To read more about the differences in country day-to-day surfing habits, go to www.opera.com/smw/ and read the full report.

Opera Mini growth

January 2012 was another strong month for Opera Mini. All in all, more than 159 million users surfed with Opera Mini in January. Compared to December 2011, the increase was 4.2 % on a month-to-month basis.

Opera Mini users viewed 108.7 billion pages in January 2012. Since December 2011, page views have gone up 5.4%. Since January 2011, page views have increased 107.6%.

About Opera Software ASA

The worldwide World Wide Web — any device, any platform, any bandwidth, absolutely anywhere in the world. Opera Software was founded in 1994, based on the idea that access to the web should be a universal right. 250 million people (and counting) use the Opera web browsers for computers, mobile phones, TVs and other connected devices. Opera also delivers tools, distribution, engagement, monetization and market insights to developers, publishers and brands around the world. We are passionate about breaking down barriers, so everyone can share in the power of the internet. Our vision of one web for all remains at the heart of what we do, because we believe that participation changes everything. Opera Software ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.