Opera Mini's active user base has surpassed 50 million.

Opera Mini, the world's most widely used mobile browser, has reached a significant milestone: as of January 2010, the number of active users exceeded 50 million. This milestone demonstrates Opera Mini's popularity – users choose the Opera browser for its functionality and unique features.In recent years, Opera Mini has experienced unprecedented growth in popularity across all regions. In just one year, the browser's user base increased by 150%—from 20 million in January 2009 to 50 million in January 2010. These figures include not only those who downloaded Opera Mini but also those who actively use the browser to browse the web.

Opera Mini is a compact and easy-to-use browser that runs on most mobile phones and utilizes server-side data compression technology. This technology compresses the traffic downloaded to users' phones by up to 90% of its original size, increasing browsing speed and reducing mobile data costs.

According to research firm Gartner, by 2013, mobile phones will become the primary means of internet access, just as computers are today. This forecast explains the rapid growth in popularity of Opera Mini in recent months. It took Opera Mini 28 months (from January 2006 to April 2008) to attract its first 10 million users. And the growth from 40 to 50 million users occurred in just three months.

"Opera Mini's primary goal is to make the Internet accessible to everyone, regardless of carrier bandwidth or mobile phone model. 50 million unique monthly users is a good start toward this goal," says Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software.