Opera reports fourth quarter and full-year 2021 Results
2022-02-22 09:58:20
"We're very excited that both revenue and adjusted EBITDA came in ahead of expectations, closing out a very strong 2021", said Co-CEO Song Lin. "Looking back, we can conclude that our investments in marketing to accelerate our growth trajectory and strengthen our position in higher-ARPU markets, and investments in our strong and growing product portfolio, have paid off."
"Even more encouragingly, as we look ahead, we have every expectation that we will continue a healthy growth trajectory from this elevated scale, with margins continuing to normalize."
Fourth Quarter and Recent Business Highlights
Core search and advertising revenue growth rates grew 47% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, driven by strong browser and news performance.
Opera's average monthly active user base was 344 million MAUs in the quarter; with a continued directional shift towards higher ARPU markets. User growth was the strongest in the Americas, this time led by Latin America up 35% and North America up 22%, while we continue to focus investments in emerging markets more specifically towards users that are monetizable.
In the fourth quarter, each user on average generated a record 83 cents of revenue on an annualized basis, up 11% sequentially, and up 62% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
The Opera GX gaming browser had over 14 million monthly active users across PC and mobile during the fourth quarter.
The beta version of the Opera Web 3.0 browser was released as the newest addition to our family of browsers.
Fourth quarter 2021 consolidated financial results
All comparisons in this section are relative to the fourth quarter of 2020 unless otherwise stated.
Revenue increased 45% to $72.6 million in the quarter.
Search revenue increased by 35% to $34.8 million driven by both PC and mobile browser monetization growth.
Advertising revenue increased by 59% to $36.7 million, predominantly fueled by monetization growth within Opera News, our ad tech platform and our mobile browsers.
Technology licensing and other revenue was $1.2 million.
