Some blog publishers in Nigeria are unhappy with the Nigerian office of
popular Norwegian software company, Opera and its business subsidiary,
Opera News.
Although Opera is renowned globally for its
user-friendly browsers designed for personal computers and mobile
devices, Opera News is its standalone news app that is designed to keep
people updated on favourite news and video content.
Launched on
January 9, 2018, the app delivers a variety of trending news and
entertaining videos and gets smarter with each use, using machine
learning to tailor content for the individual.
Perhaps a major
attraction for users is that Opera News saves up to 80 percent of the
users’ mobile data usage due to its unique data-saving capabilities.
Unsurprisingly,
in less than four weeks after its launch, Opera News said it achieved
one million downloads across Africa, and according to AppAnnie became
the most downloaded news app in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and
Tanzania by June 2018.
This reporter gathered that to keep users
updated with relevant and timely content, Opera News signed agreements
with different bloggers to feature their blog content on the Opera News
app for a fee.
According to investigations carried out by this
reporter, the publishers’ grouse is connected to Opera News’ alleged
refusal to pay them agreed fees for the use of their content.
The
publishers, who spoke to this reporter in separate chats on condition
of anonymity for fear of victimisation, accused Opera News of
deliberately avoiding payment by deploying different tactics, including
under-reporting revenue.
A publisher of a general-interest news
blog who spoke to this reporter said, “Over a period of time, I think
every month, we got about one million unique visitors and three million
views from Opera News. Those three million views don’t even translate to
any money.
“So for the whole year, people (blog publishers) who
have been getting an average of two million page views from Opera News
every month did not get anything. Nobody has been paid.
“That is the scam that I am trying to draw your attention and the attention of the general public to.”
The
publisher added, “Think about this: If somebody is getting five million
views (from Opera) every month but does not collect one naira, then
something is terribly wrong because a lot of this traffic comes from
developed countries too, not just Nigeria.
“Traffic comes from
the USA and so on and almost all these pages that are seen all around
the world on Opera, Opera is monetising those pages.
“Opera is
monetising those pages and (according to an agreement which I can also
share with you for context) agreed to give the publishers 50 percent of
the revenue.
“But what do they is that they don’t report any
revenue, or any substantial revenue, and that is what allows them to
hold off on payments to publishers indefinitely.
“So, there are
several huge publications that even make tens of thousands from the same
Google Ads that Opera places on their platform. Opera doesn’t pay them
anything, and Opera tries to pretend as if it is doing us (publishers) a
favour because Opera knows that Google is not really paying Nigerian
publishers as much for Nigerian traffic.
“That is why it is
important that you understand that a lot of the traffic also comes from
other sources from around the world; it’s not just Nigerian traffic.
There’re very wealthy sources of traffic from, say, the US.
“For example, American consumers, when they see an ad, it is different from when a Nigerian consumer sees an ad.
“But
it looks like what Opera is trying to do is to try and under-report its
revenue, pretty much allegedly scamming the publishers that are on its
network, virtually all of them.
“And that is why we have decided to come forward.”
Another
publisher, who also confirmed signing an agreement with Opera News,
further confirmed the company’s non-payment of agreed fees to him after
several months of being his blog content being featured on the platform.
He said, “I don’t just want to talk about them (Opera News) because the experience has just not been as expected.”
However, he disclosed that some publishers on the platform claimed to have received some sort of payment from Opera News.
The
publisher added, “There are some publishers that have had good
experiences with them. I know a few publishers that have received
payment from them.
“So, I don’t really want to comment on the Opera issue. I just let them be.”
The company could not be reached for comments as at the time of filing this report.
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