Song Lin
Analyst · Citigroup. Your line is open
Yes, thank you Frode. Hello everyone. So first, I’d like to appreciate your participation and the interest in following our company. I will start by talking a bit about our users, so I’ll start with Opera news, our AI based company platform. So again, we are quite pleased to share a very strong Q3 in terms of user growth. We grow to an average of $121.4 million MAU, Opera News platform, in Q3. This is more than $20 million up from the last quarter average. Within this, we have also reached about $17.4 million MAU on the dedicated Opera News app, which is another increase of nearly $10 million from the last quarter average. Overall, we are very excited about the continued strong user growth on Opera News and we hope you feel the same. Beyond Opera News, we’re also very pleased with the overall growth of our smart phone user base,, where we’ve reached $195.4 million average MAU in the quarter, which is up over $14 million in aggregate. Also, on the PC, side we’ve reached $58.4 million MAU, which is up $1.3 million in the quarter. I would also like to comment that we are now starting to see a convergences, where it really allow ourselves in this quarter to focus more on feature and the design rich mobile products as we’ve done on the PC platform. And now this year we’re seeing all the signs that our statistical positioning of our Opera differentiated PC offering in the west maybe complemented with a new pick up of also mobile user base there. We never really have that. So with this is in context, I think as you should have in mind so when you read about or perhaps even better try our new and award winning Opera Touch browser, which we just launched on Android or iOS. I think that you’ll like how instantly the search portal when you’re opening us Opera Touch. For myself I have become a loyal user of it and I hope after the trial you’ll feel the same. So as a conclusion, I think Q3 demonstrates our ability to benefit from our existing scale and the strong product portfolio. We continue to believe that our position to secure a dominant account in the platform with Opera News, in particular in Africa and the emerging markets is really cementing a highly attractive strategic positioning. As you all know, the market is only going to get bigger and probably faster than any other global regions. So to us, this is really a greenfifeld opportunity, which is too attractive to pass. Also, I would like to weigh this context discuss about our $30 million investments into StarMaker, which we also announced. So as also mentioned partly in our roadshow where some of you have participated for us, we really view music as a strategic vertical that drives a lot of engagement and time spent. And this is within the category of entertainment and conference. Not everyone wants to create music, but most people enjoy consuming it. People may not realize but in emerging markets, it actually can be even more prominent. For instance, in Africa, people would actually be more motivated to create and consume music whenever network conditions and handset allow it then perhaps creating and sharing something text based. So finally, the other important point is that the social networking aspect of such a platform is also super important. So for us, instead of spending time to build this from scratch, trying to secure sufficient copyrights from other music companies and really expanding the entertainment aspect of all programs, we feel it was a relatively easy decision for us to try to secure strategic alliances in the music field by taking a stake in a successful and probably more importantly faster growing company that already existed in our portfolio. So within a short timeframe, StarMaker has become the number one singing app in India and top two across Indonesia and the Middle East. And it's really much more than just the singing app. It has the continuous feed flow and very attractive party room functionality. And again, I think I would recommend you to try it on your android phone and you will also get a better sense of it and I hope you are equally excited. Finally, I would also like to point out that music within a news stream is a very proven model, perhaps first in China and now it's -- and all its stage of expanding into the global theme. And for us, it's super important to be part of it. We ourselves believe strongly that Opera and StarMaker have many opportunities for mutually beneficial corporation. And of course, the cash we have invested into the business will be able to support this investment into growth. We believe we can assess if we want to exercise our option and take a controlling stake or remain a holder of preferred shares with guarantees and rights above other shareholders. So we strongly believe this will be very valuable in the long run. And also, I would like to mention that I our past communication, we have almost down plate some of our potential to be on conference, namely in anticipation of mobile payments. So that’s why in this quarterly release, we have also provided just a bit more color and the metrics that hopefully will start building an appreciation of some only building blocks of what we are staging for the future. For instance our associate, OPay, which is actually of the few licensed and live mobile money platforms in Nigeria. Within Q3 just one quarter, it has reached the daily transaction volume of more than 200K and now during October, it has reached 700K per day daily. As you can see, the potential there is huge, both in terms of transaction and also in potentially attractive other payment service system port. And on top of it, we have also penetrating into other related fields. For instance, in many countries we have launched prepaid mobile air time and data, which effectively has the same functionality of the currency in many of the countries where we focus on. And this points that initiatives are not focusing on immediate profit short-term, but more in line with the scale and building a much more consist able payments as you would see in normal e-commerce business models. And we feel this can show as a good base for future expansions. Just to conclude, I would just note that while I did spend time by providing a broader view of what we are doing, one thing has to be very clear. For now, our number one focus remains to be the leading platform for AI-based content distribution, may it be articles, may it be video or beyond. On top of this, we were expanding to verticals in areas where we are strong. So again, we are a company with very high ambitions. And with this, I will hand it back over to Frode for the final details of our earning result.