Opera Limited

What is Opera Limited?

Opera Limited is a Nasdaq-listed company that owns and operates the Opera browser family. It is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and majority controlled by Kunlun Tech.

Is Opera a public company?

Yes. Opera Limited trades on the Nasdaq under ticker OPRA and has been listed since July 2018.

Who owns Opera Limited?

Chinese technology group Kunlun Tech, led by Zhou Yahui, holds a majority of Opera Limited's ordinary shares. The remainder trades publicly on Nasdaq.

Where is Opera headquartered?

Opera is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Its holding company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and its controlling shareholder is based in Beijing.

How does Opera make money?

Opera earns revenue through advertising in its browsers and through search query partnerships, primarily with Google. It reported $614.8 million in revenue for fiscal year 2025.

How many users does Opera have?

Opera reported approximately 285 million average monthly active users in late 2025, including 34 million on the Opera GX gaming browser and 60 million in Western markets.

Opera's corporate history splits into two eras. The original Opera Software grew out of a 1994 Telenor research project in Oslo, founded as an independent company in 1995 by Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner and Geir Ivarsøy. Its browser launched publicly in 1996 and built a loyal following through technical innovation: tabs, speed dial, integrated ad blocking, and a lightweight footprint that made it the preferred tool of power users even as Chrome and Internet Explorer dominated mainstream share.

Opera Software listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2004. The company made a pivotal engineering decision in 2013, abandoning its proprietary Presto rendering engine for Chromium's Blink, trading technical distinctiveness for compatibility. Co-founder von Tetzchner had already departed in 2011 and later founded Vivaldi.

The corporate reset came in 2016. A Chinese consortium including Kunlun Tech, Qihoo 360, and associated investment funds acquired Opera's browser and consumer businesses for approximately $600 million, while the remaining advertising technology operations stayed behind as Otello Corporation, which later sold its assets and wound down. The acquired browser business was reorganized under a Cayman holding company, Opera Limited, which listed on the Nasdaq in July 2018.

Under the new structure Opera shifted from browser company to monetization platform. It briefly operated fintech lending apps in Africa and India before a 2020 Hindenburg Research report prompted withdrawal from most of that business. The browser portfolio expanded into the niche strategy that defines it now: Opera GX launched in 2019 and grew to 34 million monthly users by late 2025, Opera Mini continued dominating bandwidth-constrained markets, and 2025 brought Opera Air and the agentic Opera Neon, repositioning the company as a browser and AI agent business.

Financial performance accelerated correspondingly. FY2025 revenue reached $614.8 million, up 28 percent year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of $142.5 million at a 23 percent margin. In February 2026 the board authorized a $300 million share repurchase program, structured to buy pro-rata from public shareholders and majority owner Kunlun alike, on top of a recurring dividend.

Opera's environmental footprint is modest as a software company, and it does not hold B Corp certification or publish a standalone sustainability report as a consumer goods company would. Its primary ESG exposure is governance-related: the Cayman holding structure, controlled-company status under Kunlun, and reliance on partner revenue are the material considerations for investors.

The company's privacy posture is a recurring topic. Opera markets built-in privacy features including a free VPN and ad blocker, while operating under European GDPR obligations as an Oslo-headquartered business, though its Chinese majority ownership periodically draws scrutiny over data handling.

Opera's principal independent recognition is financial rather than ceremonial: 20 consecutive quarters of Rule of 40 performance, the February 2026 $300 million buyback authorization, and consistent revenue outperformance against guidance constitute the market-validated markers of its standing.

Opera's most serious controversy was the January 2020 Hindenburg Research report alleging its fintech arm operated predatory lending apps in Africa and India with excessive interest rates and Google Play policy violations. Opera disputed the report's characterization but subsequently divested or wound down the majority of the lending business, refocusing on browsers and advertising.

Kunlun Tech's majority ownership has generated recurring privacy scrutiny, particularly in markets sensitive to Chinese-controlled tech entities. Opera maintains that user data is handled under European privacy law and that Kunlun's role is financial rather than operational, but the ownership structure remains a standing reputational consideration.