Interview with Opera Mobile Store: Focus on Quality

It's no secret that the most popular function of smartphones, along with telephone, is the mobile Internet. The mobile browser is used 11% of the time, and this is more than the time spent on working with mail through the phone, watching a video, listening to music or using the camera.

Mobile Internet is a giant market. And it grows.

Once conceived in Japan, the first gaming products for a mobile browser are now claiming to become one of the most promising monetization objects in the market (both within applications and in the data transfer market). Some examples: GREE, the largest Japanese developer of SNS games (the ones for mobile browsers) last year showed a net profit of $ 502 million in its native Japan , with revenue of $ 2 billion. Only Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers (extremely popular in our country) are used monthly by about 200 million people worldwide, a significant share of which is occupied by Russia and its neighboring states.
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Again, referring to dry statistical facts: more than $ 2 billion were left last year as a whole by players in mobile social networks. And 23% of players generally play games only from their mobile. In total, in the world, according to various estimates, from 1.8 to 2 billion Internet users. And 1.2 billion of those who last year simply played mobile games (which, however, have a 97% mobile browser on board the phone) should not be forgotten.

But back to the games in the browser. The growth rate of the domestic market for browser-based mobile online games, as a separate segment of the gaming market, which significantly accelerated last year, has already significantly exceeded expectations. The real gaming entertainment boom in the Russian mobile Internet came in 2012 - according to experts, today the market is estimated at 50 million dollars with an annual growth of more than 30%. In general, according to J'son & Partners, the Russian mobile gaming market grew to $ 392 million by the end of 2012.

In view of the growing popularity of mobile games and the active development of the game segment in the Russian market, the first agreements between mobile browser developers and mobile phone game developers have already been concluded. So, the other day Opera Software Company has concluded a long-term deal with one of the leading developers of mobile browser games in Russia and the CIS.

On this occasion, we could not but interview Michael Ilyin, the general director of Opera Software Russia, one of the true leaders in the mobile browsing market, to learn about the prospects for the development of mobile browsers in Russia and what links them to mobile games.

Mikhail, what directions will Opera Software develop in Russia in the near future?

We will continue to develop Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, introducing different versions of new products for popular OS, including Android and iOS. The focus, as always, will be on the ease of use and quality of our products — what users love Opera browsers for.

What are the successes and prospects of Opera Mobile Store, you can note what benefits it gives to developers?

To date, the potential audience of the Opera Mobile Store (OMS) is more than 200 million users of mobile versions of Opera around the world. Additionally, we have prepared convenient monetization mechanisms (for example, Pay Per Download). OMS grows with Opera, especially in developing countries such as Brazil or India. If a mobile application developer wants to quickly enter these markets, welcome to the Opera Mobile Store.

What advantages does Opera give to mobile developers?

Our browsers and services are a single ecosystem in which a developer can host their mobile applications and gain access to Opera’s multi-million dollar audience. One of the main tasks at the same time is to create a catalog of really high-quality and useful services, so we conduct a thorough selection among candidates for placement. In addition, special attention is paid to the quality of ideas implemented in mobile applications - we always try to give priority to talented teams of developers who create unique products that can empower users when working on a worldwide network.

What, in your opinion, is the reason for the active development of the mobile browser games segment in Russia over the past couple of years?

In fact, everything is simple: all over the world there is a rapid growth in the number of mobile Internet users, and games are one of the most popular types of activity in the network. Every month, more and more new models of various mobile devices are launched on the market, and their capabilities in terms of performance or usability are constantly improving. As a result, the owners of such devices spend more and more time on the network, and mobile browser games are among the leaders in demand. The functionality of gaming applications is constantly growing, and users get the opportunity not only to enjoy the gameplay itself, but also to find new friends, communicate with acquaintances, use multiplayer games. And, I note, all this in any place and at any time, no matter where the user is at the moment - mobile devices free their owners from having to be tied to a room with a desktop computer. And therefore it is very important that the browser installed on the device provides maximum opportunities both in terms of the speed of the mobile applications in it and in the convenience of the interface. And all these features are in Opera browsers.

How will the relationship of browser and native games develop?

So far, the most popular are the native applications distributed through various appstor, but with the development of web technologies, cross-platform applications that will not need to be adapted for each mobile platform will gradually gain popularity. And there are obvious advantages in this: you make only one application that automatically becomes available to the entire audience of mobile users, regardless of the operating system, while your application is already ready even for those platforms that will only appear on the market in the future; the developer gets the opportunity to offer its users updated versions with bug fixes and new features instantly, without waiting for the publication process to finish in the appstore; also, the developer ceases to be dependent on the owners of the appstore, who often change the rules and terms of cooperation with third-party developers unilaterally; etc. Of course, the appstores, which are familiar to us today, also have a number of advantages, so they will not die out completely. But this is right: the user must always have a choice.

Many application developers understand this and there are already examples when browser mobile services developers adapt their products for appstores, and those who started with native development also release browser versions. As an illustration: the Cut The Rope from ZeptaLab can already be played directly from the browser, and Playtox ported the entire line of games to the Apple AppStore and Google Play. Thus, the audience of users of these products becomes as wide as possible: owners of native applications get the opportunity to play with users of browser versions, and this is the very freedom of choice that is always an incentive for the rapid development of the market as a whole.

By what criteria did you choose the company as a partner for the conclusion of the just announced two-year deal?

Under the conditions of the tender, there were quite a few criteria - we were looking for the perfect balance between the competencies of a partner in terms of product, existing portfolio, commercial conditions, work experience in the international market, development strategy and a number of technical factors. Playtox proved to be the strongest by all the main criteria, although the competition among all bidders was very high. After a detailed analysis, we chose the offer of Playtox, based on objective data.

What prospects for joint development do you see ?

I can not talk much about the details of future development - we prefer to make pleasant surprises to our users, but to be brief - first of all we would like to develop our international history and build a similar gaming ecosystem in other markets around the world where Opera is present.

How will Playtox games affect the continued growth in the popularity of Opera’s mobile browser?

As I said earlier, Opera is not just a browser: it is a whole ecosystem in which the user lives. Each user has a set of services that he uses every day, and all these services are tightly integrated, “glued” in our browser. Mobile browser games are one of the services in our ecosystem, which significantly increases the time spent by the user in the network, contributes to the growth and quality monetization of the audience. In addition, the players - this is a very active audience. They share with friends, advise games and advise our browser, because the games are adapted to it, which ensures promotion, increasing the popularity of Opera.

Does Opera Software plan to implement any other joint projects in this area?

Required. International launches, technological projects to optimize and improve the appearance, gaming services, the so-called advanced user experience - we are currently working on it. Wait for the news.