Opera Kills Off Its Free Data-Saving App, Opera Max

Mark Wycislik-Wilson, writing for BetaNews: Opera Max -- the free data-saving and VPN-like tool from the team behind the Opera web browser -- is being killed off. The app has been removed from Google Play with immediate effect, and there will be no more updates. Opera is not really giving a reason for the sudden decision other that the fact that Opera Max had "a substantially different value proposition than our browser products."

Translation

[AmiMoJo]

"We lost fuckloads of money because our business model relied on it becoming insanely popular, and it wasn't"

Re:

[macraig]

"... substantially different value proposition... "

Lord, do these people talk like that at home? If so I'm guessing they're still lacking wives.

Re:

[CrashNBrn]

No more roaming in the EU for data charges...

Re:Translation

[Riceballsan]

Actually I'd imagine further the other way, their business model probably relied on it encouraging many to get the browser, and few people using the VPN, and instead it resulted in people who already use the browser just using the vpn and few new customers.

Sounds like..

[intellitech]

..a value proposition was pointed out in which it no longer makes sense to offer it for free.

Opera In-Browser VPN

[darkain]

Probably maybe possibly just because of the main features from Opera Max are integrated directly into their mainline Opera browser on all platforms now? No need for Opera to fragment themselves.

https://www.operavpn.com/ [operavpn.com]

In related news, data and servers cost money

[green1]

Free is great, but it requires a lot of bandwidth, and servers, to provide this type of service. The money has to come from somewhere, so what do you do? do you insert ads in to the stream you just compressed? and if so, how do you display them? and how do you make sure that you still saved data when you're sending more stuff?
If you aren't inserting ads, then maybe it comes out of your marketing budget, will people pay more for a product that has this feature? (considering google also provides this for free

Re:

[ctilsie242]

Then, there are Chinese and EU data privacy laws that may conflict with each other. One might want VPN data to be kept for later perusal by the government, the other demands the data be destroyed. With that conflict, coupled to it being a cost center, it is no wonder why Opera tossed that service.

Re:

[green1]

Companies have tried that in the past, and places have sued.
It's legal for me to block ads on my end, but it's not necessarily legal for you to alter the content along the way.

Re:

[Luthair]

I always assumed they did it to track their users.

Re:

[green1]

The question is whether tracking your users generates enough money to keep the lights on, and I suspect they've just discovered that it doesn't. I bet their user demographic, and the information they can collect about it, just isn't valuable and unique enough to earn enough money to cover the expenses.

I used it during the beta

[DrXym]

It was a pretty reasonable app, able to anonymize (a bit) and save data at the same time. Unfortunately when it came out of beta it turned into nagware, constantly prompting to turn it on, get more data etc. I uninstalled it at that point. Tainted it forever in my eyes. Google Wifi Assistant supposedly does something similar but it's not available in my country.

I still use Opera Mini though. It's still handy for breaking through stupid filtering proxies in places such as public wifi spots.

What Opera has been doing lately breaks my heart

[Lisandro]

From having *the* best, most advanced browser in the game to becoming just another Chrome skin.