5 Million Mobile Readers with Opera

Today, Worldreader is celebrating a huge milestone on our path to bringing reading to everyone on the planet.

We’ve partnered with Opera Software, and together, in just 5 months, we’ve reached 5 million mobile readers in Africa. Globally, this means that Worldreader has enabled over 6 million people in Asia, Africa and South America, to access, read and enjoy over 28,500 free digital books.

Read the full press release now.

And we’re only getting started. We plan on reaching 10 million readers by the end of the year. We’re making our new year’s resolutions early.

Opera Mini, one of the world´s most popular mobile browsers, now features the Worldreader icon prominently on its speed-dial across 34 African countries, right next to Wikipedia. Here are a few fun facts about our readers:

• Which country is reading the most? 23% of our readers come from Ethiopia.
• Are readers mostly male or female? Mostly male – 65% male, 35% female.
• Who is reading more on their mobile phones? Women. On average, women are reading 48% more than men. (Women read 11.5 minutes per session while men read 6.5 minutes per session).
• How engaged are our readers? Active readers are spending 17 minutes reading per session.
• What topics are popular with the readers? The most popular literary categories amongst these new readers are Love, Sports, Education, and Health.
• What books are most popular? Most popular books include The Art of Public Speaking (education), Nutrition & Growth (health), Milk & Honey (romance), Laubach Way to Reading (education).

Mobile phones are more abundant in some parts of the world than toilets and toothbrushes. They are becoming ubiquitous. That’s exactly why we want to ensure that every single person in this world can use their mobile phones to access books they need and want. Through this partnership with Opera, we are reaching millions of people every month through the mobile phones they already have.

We are working together to ensure that books are available to every person on this planet so that they can reach their full potential and improve their lives.

To read free books on your mobile phone, visit read.worldreader.org.
Read the full press release about this major Worldreader milestone.