Opera Mini, a popular web browser, is stopping its free data service in Kenya. This service gave 50 megabytes of free data every day to people using Opera Mini, Opera News, and Opera News Lite with Safaricom or Airtel lines. This started during the pandemic when staying connected was very important.
The company made this decision because local authorities in Kenya don’t want ads on speed dials in web browsers. But Opera is looking for a way to bring back the service.
Opera says they want to help bridge the gap between people who can easily browse the internet and those who can’t. They have 13.5 million users in Kenya, mostly using simple phones.
Kenya is getting stricter about online ads. They stopped sports betting ads on mobile web browsers’ start pages after concerns about kids seeing them. Opera Mini’s free data service gave users internet worth over $11 million in 2023 alone.
The Internet is expensive in Kenya, where most people use simple phones. They pay more for data compared to South Africa and Egypt. As of late 2023, there were over 31.8 million simple phones in Kenya.
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