According to a dataset by G&R, exclusively provided to FS, Opera Mini, the mobile phone browser, tops the rank of a list of browsers prepared based on the use of visitors of most of the Bangladeshi websites.
Using data from most of the leading Bangladeshi websites over a period of two weeks of early September, it ranks browsers based on one indicator: traffic/users a browser send to Bangladeshi websites and following scenario reveals:
Browser-wise page view/hits
| Rank | Browser | Page View/Hits (%) |
| 1 | Opera Mini | 32.28 |
| 2 | Chrome | 27.19 |
| 3 | Firefox | 21.73 |
| 4 | UC Browser | 6.32 |
| 5 | Android Webkit | 5.33 |
| 6 | Safari | 3.45 |
| 7 | Mozilla | 1.94 |
| 8 | Internet Explorer | 1.1 |
| 9 | BlackBerry Browser | 0.04 |
| 10 | Java Browser | 0.05 |
| 11 | Others | 0.58 |
Source: G&R, the largest online ad market in Bangladesh
Notes to take
Above charts depict clearly where we are heading towards. Small screen is the future. Opera Mini leads the rank with 32.28% websites users using the browser for visiting Bangladeshi websites. Top of that, Android Webkit, Blackberry, and Java browser send another 5.33% and 0.04, & 0.05% consecutively making mobile likely leader of the future.
This tells a story, an important one indeed.
Most of the Bangladeshi internet users are mobile first users and majority of these users also care about mobile data consumption. Opera Mini is popular because it claims that it consumes less data which means browsing internet via Opera Mini is less costly. From above data we can assume that data consumption cost is important for most Bangladeshi web users.
Google Chrome stands next to Opera Mini with 27.19% of traffic coming from the browser. This also carries significance. Chrome is the most popular browser now and it is equally popular in mobile and desktop. While popularity of Chrome suggests a balance, it also suggests growing maturity of our internet users.
Metrics are easy, insight is hard
Apparently, these are simple information to devour. But in reality these are important for more than one reasons. For most Bangladeshi news media and online platforms, mobile is still a second priority. However, things are changing rapidly. Majority of internet users are coming from mobile and hence a reset in strategy needs to be considered seriously. The most important insight from this whole piece is that media and online platforms should go for mobile first approach while also giving required importance on desktop devices.
In the following episode, we will be looking into device-wise and operating system-wise users of Bangladeshi websites to better understand future of Bangladesh web and content consumption.
[su_note note_color="#63a4fb" text_color="#fefefe" radius="0"]Note: Courtesy: G&R. Brought to you under a collaboration between G&R and Future Startup.[/su_note]
