By GIFT NDOLWANE
JOHANNESBURG – AN investment of $100 million by Opera, the developer of the most popular mobile browser in the continent, over the next two years is poised to facilitate the growth of African digital economy.
Opera is investing in developing a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence engine for smartphone users that will ensure content discovery is at the heart of the browser.
The company will use the investment to speed up internet adoption in Africa and strengthen the internet ecosystem with local partners.
Richard Monday, Vice President of Africa, Opera Software, said Africa is a very important market for Opera.
Nine of the top 20 Opera Mini user countries are from Africa.
“We aim to invest heavily in Africa, to build a local platform and grow with the local business partners. This platform will expand the user base for content providers, e-commerce businesses,operators, OEM’s and others to strengthen the African internet ecosystem,” said Monday.
Currently, Opera has operations in Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa and is expanding with new offices in Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya to support business and product development.
It plans to hire around 100 people for these offices over the next three years.
Recently, the company celebrated 100 million monthly users in Africa.
– Guardian