Browser company Opera has released its latest State of the Mobile Web report, which charts the top global trends on the mobile web among Opera Mini browser users. In addition to the top trends and country snapshots, the report highlights trends in Southeast Asia and looks at search engine usage on the mobile web.
Global trends: 

• In May 2009, Opera Mini had nearly 25.4 million users, an 8.4% increase from April 2009 and a 136% increase on May 2008. These numbers reflect only the Opera Mini users who have specifically chosen to install the browser on their phone.
• Those 25.4 million Opera Mini users viewed over 9.6 billion pages in May 2009. Since April, page views have gone up 11%. Since May 2008, page views have increased by 227%.
• Opera Mini users generated almost 160 million MB of data for operators worldwide in May 2009, a 5.6% increase on the figure for April, and a 254% increase on May 2008.

Mobile Search trends:

• Google continues to assert itself as a global leader in search, but Yandex and Baidu continue to be the top players in Russia and China, respectively, while Yahoo is strong in Indonesia and Nigeria.
• Opera Mini users in India and Nigeria are the biggest users of search portals. In India, 16.3% of page views are from search portals, and users view an average of 63.7 search portal pages per month. In Nigeria, 26.6% of page views are from search portals, and users view an average of 49.6 search portal pages per month.

Southeast Asia trends:

• The top nine countries using Opera Mini in Southeast Asia are Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos.
• Between May 2008 and May 2009, overall page views in the top nine countries increased 459%.
• Growth rates in Southeast Asia remain high: Vietnam leads the top 9 countries with 412.9% growth in users this year, followed by the Philippines (353.6% growth) and Malaysia (249.6% growth).
• Nokia handsets continue to be dominant in Southeast Asia, followed by Sony Ericsson.

UK Snapshot – Top 10 sites in the UK, based on the number of unique users: 

1. Facebook.com 
2. Google.com 
3. Yahoo.com
4. BBC.co.uk
5. Live.com
6. Wikipedia.org
7. Bebo.com
8. Youtube.com
9. My.opera.com 
10. Hotmail.com

Searching the web via a mobile device presents an enormous opportunity for both search engines and consumers, says Opera CEO, Jon von Tetzchner. Almost all search engines are moving forward to offer relevant and timely information based on location. Yet, consumers prefer services from the search engines they already know and use. As the mobile web becomes more pervasive and more people have their first experience on the web from a mobile device, it will be fascinating to see how these habits might change.
You can download the full report for free here.