
What is going on at Opera Software? - ga-vu
https://www.ghacks.net/2020/01/19/what-is-going-on-at-opera-software/
======
NelsonMinar
Love all the comments here from folks who haven't read the article and are
going on about the browser. This article is about Opera's alleged fraudulent
loans business. Well really this article doesn't have much of its own to say,
it's mostly a rewrite / summary of this article:
[https://hindenburgresearch.com/opera-phantom-of-the-
turnarou...](https://hindenburgresearch.com/opera-phantom-of-the-turnaround/)

~~~
wildrhythms
Wow, that was a wild report and a good read. The detailed look into the
predatory short term load apps is a real eye-opener... the apps would read the
device contact list and shame late borrowers to their employer, parents,
friends... and in developing places like Kenya and Nigeria. Truly, TRULY
fucked up!

~~~
dessant
It appears only OPesa was taken down so far from Google Play. OKash, OPay and
CashBean are still available. CashBean's keyword stuffed app ID [1] is
remarkable, this is the first time I've seen such a spammy app ID on Google
Play.

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.loan.cash....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.loan.cash.credit.easy.dhan.quick.udhaar.lend.game.jaldi.paisa.borrow.rupee.play.kredit&hl=en_US)

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Nextgrid
Opera ended the day they deprecated their own rendering engine and became yet
another Chromium wrapper, which we already have more than enough of.

~~~
mike_d
Opera rolled out a weird always-on VPN and acceleration service built in to
the browser so every page was partially rendered on Opera servers. This gave
them access to the plain text of pages as sites were rapidly moving to HTTPS.
Effectively moving in on the ad targeting business where ISPs used to live.

Building a rendering engine didn't really fit in to that business model.

Fortunately the China sale spooked a ton of longtime Opera users who all
jumped ship. Now apparently the husk of the company has been used to grow a
lending company.

~~~
pathartl
I thought this was only true with Opera Mini?

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xwowsersx
How did Opera get involved in the short term lending business? How does
corporate governance for a public company allow this to happen?

~~~
toyg
From what the article states, Opera was likely acquired with the explicit
purpose of making this pivot. The brand was popular in the developing world,
where this sort of predatory lending is still considered socially acceptable.

------
killjoywashere
What this really sounds like is Hindenburg Research daring Google to not
notice.

Also, please switch the link to the original research, or go upvote the
original
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22092095](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22092095))

------
Gustomaximus
Makes me sad. Opera was well positioned ~10 years ago to grow and innovate.
And such an incredibly passionate and involved community.

IMO here's the beginning of the end for Opera when Jon resigned, the investors
took the reins and his open letter;

[https://techcrunch.com/2011/06/24/opera-founder-jon-s-von-
te...](https://techcrunch.com/2011/06/24/opera-founder-jon-s-von-tetzchner-
resigns-over-differences-with-board/)

Good luck to the Vivaldi team in getting a bit of 'old Opera' back.

~~~
xerox13ster
Been using Vivaldi since the day they released the technical preview and it
has been a wonderful 5 years. It in my mind has been true to what 'old Opera'
was and since they released the android app I have completely abandoned
Chrome.

------
RandomGuyDTB
Not entirely relevant but; RIP Opera. It was a competent browser even after it
became Chromium based, now few people trust it and even fewer people use it.
Hope some of the features I remember seeing back when I used it, especially
the ones in Opera GX, make it to other browsers.

~~~
xerox13ster
It was a competent browser, but it lost everything that made it Opera. They
seemingly nuked its entire feature set and it was no better than a skinned
chrome.

I still remember the day, roughly 2 years later when the Technical Preview of
Vivaldi launched. I don't even remember how I found it, but I've been using it
since day one and it has remained a true spiritual successor to what made the
original Opera what it was, aside from the rendering engine.

------
mratsim
Wow, I did use Opera for years and also on mobile when in Africa with limited
data plans.

Time flies, I still remember Opera 10 years ago, they probably had the best
tech April Fool's I ever stumbled upon with their "Face gestures"[1].

When you had a team that could create that behind your product, you knew that
the team cared and was driven by passion and excellent craftmanship.

[1]: [https://dev.opera.com/blog/introducing-opera-face-
gestures/](https://dev.opera.com/blog/introducing-opera-face-gestures/)

~~~
wolfgke
> Time flies, I still remember Opera 10 years ago, they probably had the best
> tech April Fool's I ever stumbled upon with their "Face gestures"[1].

> When you had a team that could create that behind your product, you knew
> that the team cared and was driven by passion and excellent craftmanship.

Even better: the Opera speed test:

>
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdirsXNaibo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdirsXNaibo)

which was the Opera developer's reaction to the Google Chrome Speed Test:

>
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oarMXGq3gI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oarMXGq3gI)

------
dep_b
Can’t read it on iOS safari, keeps reloading.

~~~
epanchin
I’m on iOS safari and it works. I do have Firefox focus installed as a content
blocker, perhaps that helps.

------
sempron64
Opera Mini is simply the best experience for compressed mobile web browsing on
low-speed connections. I use it when traveling and when my data plan runs out
for reading the news and web sites (I don't log into anything because I don't
trust the provider, and they have to MITM HTTPS). I'll be sad if this goes
away.

I wish there was a self-hosted solution for compressed mobile browsing that I
could put on a server. It'll be hard to replace the aggressive optimizations
they have done to make this possible, though it's likely I can get most of the
way by inlining everything and replacing script and image tags...

~~~
sempron64
After a few moments research, I found this
[https://github.com/barnacs/compy](https://github.com/barnacs/compy)

~~~
lostmsu
It is not exactly the same. Mini runs JS on the server for you.

------
olliej
Sad for the company to pivot to abusive loan schemes.

I mean I’m sure it didn’t help when they switched to being yet another
chromium wrapper - why pay for essentially the same browser you can get for
free? That can’t have helped their revenue

------
jackinloadup
I wish Opera would open source their presto engine. I'm guessing that isn't
possible due to some licensing issues. Personally I find it unfortunate that
all that amazing work will be lost. While I didn't use Opera due to it's
proprietary nature, as a browser engine it was competitive for its time.

I'm having the same feeling now about the EdgeHTML engine which is now being
fazed out. This engine was a breath of fresh air compared to trident. It was
bringing value to the internet space.

Granted, I do realize there are perfectly valid business reasons Opera and
Edge switched to chromium.

~~~
superkuh
There was a source leak a while back talked about here on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13417307](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13417307).
I'm still seeding this torrent and you may find it elsewhere.
[http://superkuh.com/opera12v15presto-
source.torrent](http://superkuh.com/opera12v15presto-source.torrent)

~~~
sovok_x
Opensource is not about having a source code but having a license to use it.
You can easily get in trouble with them if you'll distribute your non-trival
modifications otherwise.

~~~
superkuh
Only if you involve money. If you don't it's pretty safe.

------
unixhero
Anybody remember Operas beta feature "Opera Fridge"?

Source:
[http://images.ientrymail.com/webpronews/article_pics/fridge....](http://images.ientrymail.com/webpronews/article_pics/fridge.html)

~~~
penetrarthur
I remember using most of the stuff Opera browser offered. RSS reader was
amazing, email client was great. I even used their torrent client. It was all
built in the browser.

~~~
indigodaddy
They had news and irc clients too iirc?

------
modzu
ya know what. when opera presto had feature parity with chrome, developers
still walled their websites with useragent checks so for your average joe
nothing worked and it created a negative feedback loop of users blaming the
browser and devs avoiding supporting it. what else could they do? with
chromium engine opera suddenly worked (lol).. there was still a lot of value
on top of that, like a native speed dial that wasnt harvesting your data,
fantastic bookmark management, a free vpn (yeah not for the ultraparanoid but
still useful), tons of customization options, etc. its sad opera was sold and
its days are probably numbered

~~~
toyg
_> developers still walled their websites with useragent checks_

Opera was, I think, the first browser to make UA-switching a first-class
feature, precisely to avoid this phenomenon. I believe at one point they even
sent a fake UA string by default. This sort of thing was really not the reason
they hit the rocks.

The truth is that making a browser is hard work for little reward. Keeping up
with web standard was pretty hard already, for an operation running on thin
margins and based in an expensive country; when Google got in the game,
brutally accelerating the development of features and hammering people with
adverts for Chrome, Opera struggled to compete. They found some margins in the
developing world, where their bandwidth-optimizing services were popular; but
targeting the low end of the market only buys you some time (if you exist
because connections are bad, as connections improve people will leave you).

Eventually, their perennial search for cash ended with an inevitable sale to
this or that financial shark, and here we are.

~~~
Ndymium
> I believe at one point they even sent a fake UA string by default.

In fact Vivaldi, the spiritual successor to Opera, just moved to a fake UA
string in the latest version (masquerading as Chrome), precisely due to UA
sniffing still being a thing, even with Google's sites.

------
redis_mlc
FYI: the SEC is investigating how mainland Chinese companies ever got listed
on US exchanges as their accounting methods are not compatible with US
requirements.

Figure 12 - 18 months before they're mostly delisted.

------
ksec
I wished they Open Source the "Old" Opera Engine.

It was small and Fast. If I remember correctly it had the browser engine,
Javascript, Email client, RSS etc all in the sub 15MB download.

------
z3t4
Opera browser is still big on Mobile

------
hansjorg
> Hindenburg Research

Great name and interesting business.

------
chrismeller
Well that’s all unsubstantiated hearsay at this point, but I think we can all
agree that Opera has, sadly, seen its day as a browser.

~~~
xioxox
Using it on Android still, as it's the only browser I've found with good text
reflow on zooming.

~~~
te0006
Exactly. It such a shame that neither Chrome nor Firefox provide this basic
Accessibility feature out of the box. All their devs have 20/20 eyesight
seemingly. And if anybody can recommend a good alternative, please tell it.

------
samantohermes
R.I.P. Opera. Long live Pale Moon, Brave, Vivaldi and WebkitGTK. Chrome,
Firefox and Edge could go f--k themselves.

