Opera Mini blocks ads to reduce data consumption

The full-featured Opera Mini browser now loads webpages 40% faster, with the ad blocker disabled for the 120 million users of the Opera Mini browser for Android.

Opera Mini is known for its compression technology, which reduces the size of data from a web page. By also blocking ads, its users can achieve up to 14% in data savings on top of that, so that less is deducted from a user's mobile data allowance. That means users’ data packages can last even longer, for more news, more social media and more of the web.

“Our ad blocker speeds up Opera Mini by stopping ad requests that slow down your browser, making it 40% faster compared to the previous, already fast version,” says Nuno Sitima, SVP Mobile Browsers, Opera. “This is a frequently-requested feature from users who want faster browsing that’s less data hungry and less distracting. This is the best choice for a fast browser on any Android phone.”

Rise of ad blockers

Ad blocking is particularly significant for mobile, where online ads can hike up data charges and affect network experience. They also take up valuable screen space and slow you down when you want to look up information quickly on your mobile.

Research by Enders Analysis found that anywhere between 18% and 79% of data downloaded on smartphones is from ads. While smartphone penetration is increasing across the globe, the cost of data is still prohibitively high for many and heavy ads only exacerbate this problem.

A survey by GlobalWebIndex found that, in 4Q 2015, 79% of respondents were either already blocking ads on mobile or were interested in doing so. Speed and data savings were among the top six reasons for blocking mobile ads.