Slightly ajar

After studying the CIS nations in my last post, I’d like to continue the study with a look at another sub-region. This time I’e chosen the former Yugoslavia, as it is a region I used to visit a lot as a child, back before the war, and it is another region where Opera is fairly strong – although not as strong as the CIS.

Unfortunately, unlike the CIS nations, I don’t know of another free market share site other than StatCounter. The XiTi report, which doesn’t break down the market share by country ranks Opera as 5.1% (in November), but doesn’t include many of the former Yugoslavian countries – of the six states, it only covers two; Croatia and Slovenia. If anyone knows any global or regional market share statistics sites that include this or any other region, then please let me know in the comments. With that out of the way, how does Opera fair in this region?

Croatia

Croatia is a proposed member state for EU expansion, and had 1,995,000 Internet users in 2007 according to the CIA. According to StatCounter Opera had 4.39% market share in Croatia in Feburary, bigger than Chrome and Safari combined. In this case Firefox is the number one browser, ahead of IE.

Serbia

Until recently still named Yugoslavia, then Serbia and Montenegro (before Montenegro ceded from the union), Serbia is the second largest country in the former Yugoslavia in terms of internet population, with 1,500,000 users in 2007 according to the CIA. By StatCounter statistics, Opera had 10.79% market share in Serbia in February. Opera is again behind Firefox and IE in third place, and again bigger than Chrome and Safari combined.

Slovenia

Perhaps the most westernised country of the former Yugoslavia, having already ceded into the European Union, and escaping much of the fighting in the war, Slovenia was the third largest in 2007 in terms of Internet population with 1,300,000 users. According to StatCounter Opera had 2.17% market share in February, dropping into fourth place for the first time, behind Chrome.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

With perhaps the biggest melting pot in terms of mixture of cultures and ethnic origins in the region, Bosnia has 1,055,000 Internet users in 2007 according to the CIA. Opera is back on top form according to StatCounter statistics with 6.18% market share in Bosnia in February, putting Opera back in third place, and again bigger than Chrome and Safari combined.

Macedonia

Due to a dispute over naming with Greece, Macedonia is still officially known as the mouthful The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Macedonia is according to legend where Alexander the Great hailed from. Macedonia had 685,000 Internet users in 2007 according to the CIA. Macedonia follows suit with the general pattern of the region with Opera in third place, bigger than Safari and Chrome combined with 3.88% market share in February.

Montenegro

Montenegro is the newest independent state in the region after ceding from the union with Serbia. In 2007, the CIA ranked Montenegro’s Internet population as 280,000. According to StatCounter stats, Montenegro follows suit with Serbia in having very strong Opera figures, with 9.62% market share, again beating Chrome and Safari combined.

Overall

This study wasn’t as comprehensive as the CIS study due to the data coming from one source, but it gives a good idea of Opera’s popularity in Southern Europe and the Balkans. It was notable that Opera was in third place in every country apart from Slovenia, which was the only country that is a member of the European Union. We will see in further studies if this holds true for other EU states in further studies. Even though Slovenia was the weakest of the six nations for Opera, it still had a figure above two percent, over three times the figure quoted by HitsLink/Net Applications as their global figure for Opera.