Opera Limited (OPRA) 20-F2022 FY Annual report (foreign)

CONVENTIONS THAT APPLY TO THIS ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 20-F

Unless otherwise indicated and except where the context otherwise requires:

All discrepancies in any table between the amounts identified as total amounts and the sum of the amounts listed therein are due to rounding.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This annual report contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of current or historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made under the “safe harbor” provision under Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those listed under “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors,” that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “likely to” or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements include statements about:

You should read this annual report and the documents that we refer to in this annual report with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from, and worse than, what we expect. Other sections of this annual report include additional factors which could adversely impact our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in an evolving environment. New risk factors and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements made in this annual report relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this annual report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This annual report also contains statistical data and estimates that we obtained from industry publications and reports generated by government or third-party providers of market intelligence. Although we have not independently verified the data, we believe that the publications and reports are reliable. However, the statistical data and estimates in these publications and reports are based on a number of assumptions and if any one or more of the assumptions underlying the market data are later found to be incorrect, actual results may differ from the projections based on these assumptions. In addition, due to the rapidly evolving nature of the online content consumption and e-commerce industries, projections or estimates about our business and financial prospects involve significant risks and uncertainties.

PART I

Item 1. Identity of Directors, Senior Management and Advisers

Not applicable.

Item 2. Offer Statistics and Expected Timetable

Not applicable.

Item 3. Key Information

A.           [Reserved]

B.           Capitalization and Indebtedness

Not applicable.

C.           Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

D.           Risk Factors

There is a high degree of risk associated with our company and business. You should carefully consider the risks described below, together with all of the other information in this annual report on Form 20-F. The risks described below are not the only risks facing us. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business operations. If any of the following risks occur, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected and the trading price of our ADSs could decline.

Summary of Risk Factors

Below is a summary of certain material risks we face, organized under relevant headings.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Risks Related to Our Technology and Intellectual Property.

Risks Related to Our Suppliers and Partners.

Risks Related to Our Internal Controls and Reporting.

Risks related to our ADS.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We may fail to maintain or grow the size of our user base or the level of engagement of our users.

The size, geographical composition and engagement level of our user base are critical to our success. Our business and financial performance have been and will continue to be significantly affected by our success in adding, retaining and engaging active users. We continue to invest significant resources to grow our user base and increase user engagement, whether through innovations, providing new or improved content or services, marketing efforts or other means. We cannot assure you that our user base and engagement levels will grow at satisfactory rates, or at all. Our user numbers and engagement could be adversely affected if:

Our efforts to avoid or address any of these events could require us to incur substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our content, services or platforms. If we fail to retain or continue growing our user base, or if our users reduce their engagement with our platforms, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We face intense competition in a number of spaces and industries and if we do not continue to innovate and provide products and services that meet the needs of our users, we may not remain competitive.

We face intense competition in all of the products and services we offer. In the browser space, we generally compete with other global browser developers, including companies such as Google (Chrome), Apple (Safari), Microsoft (Edge) and Samsung, which have distributional or other advantages on their respective hardware or software platforms. We also compete with other regional internet companies that have strong positions in particular countries. From time to time, we have to compete with smaller, independent browser companies such as Mozilla Firefox, Brave, Avast, Yandex, DuckDuckGo and UC Web as well for those users who want to choose an alternative browser for their devices in addition to their respective default browsers. In the advertising space, we compete with other global internet companies which operate advertising platforms and audience extension products, such as those offered by Meta and Alphabet for both inventory and advertisers. In the content space, we have faced significant competition from other internet companies promoting their own content products and services globally, including Google, Apple and Facebook, and traditional media such as local and global newspapers and magazines. Unlike some other large competitors in the content space, we have historically focused on emerging markets, which enables us to integrate unique content to users via our evolving AI-powered content discovery, recommendation platform. However, we expect to increasingly compete with digital media properties and other AI based news offerings as we continue to expand into developed markets.

In addition, we compete with all major internet companies for user attention and advertising spend. Moreover, in emerging international markets, where certain mobile devices lack large storage capabilities, we may compete with other applications for the limited space available on a user’s mobile device. As we introduce new products, as our existing products evolve, or as other companies introduce new products and services, we may become subject to additional competition. For example, we launched the Opera cashback rewards program (formerly known as Dify cashback rewards program) in February 2021, the GX.games gaming portal in November 2021 and a crypto enthusiast browser, namely Opera Crypto Browser, in January 2022. While we view our new products as extensions of Opera’s existing product portfolio, adding new products and services subjects us to additional competition and new competitors.

Many of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater resources and broader global recognition and occupy better competitive positions in certain markets or on certain platforms than we do. These factors may allow our competitors to respond to new or emerging technologies and changes in market requirements better than we can. Our competitors may also develop products, features or services that are similar to ours or that achieve greater market acceptance. These products, features and services may undertake more far-reaching and successful product development efforts or marketing campaigns, or may adopt more aggressive pricing policies. In addition, our partners may use information that we share with them to develop or work with competitors to develop products or features that compete with us. Certain competitors, including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung and Google, could use strong or dominant positions on their respective platforms or in one or more markets to gain competitive advantages against us in areas where we operate, including by:

As a result, our competitors may acquire and engage users at the expense of our user base or engagement, which may seriously harm our business.

We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends on a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

If we cannot effectively compete, our user engagement may decrease, which could make us less attractive to users, advertisers and partners and seriously harm our business.

We may fail to keep up with rapid changes in technologies and mobile devices.

The PC and mobile internet industry is characterized by rapid technological changes. Our future success will depend on our ability to respond to rapidly changing technologies, adapt our services to evolving industry standards and improve the performance and reliability of our products and services. Our failure to adapt to such changes could harm our business. In addition, changes in mobile devices resulting from technological development may also adversely affect our business. If we are slow to develop new products and services for the latest mobile devices, or if the products and services we develop are not widely accepted and used by mobile device users, we may not be able to capture a significant share of this increasingly important market. In addition, the widespread adoption of new internet, mobile, networking or telecommunications technologies or other technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our products, services or infrastructure. If we fail to keep up with rapid technological changes to remain competitive, our future success may be adversely affected.

We may not succeed in managing or expanding our business across the expansive and diverse markets that we operate in.

Our business has become increasingly complex as we have expanded the markets in which we operate, the variety of products and services we offer and the overall scale of our operations. We have expanded and expect to continue to expand our headcount, office facilities and infrastructure. As our operations continue to expand, our technology infrastructure systems and corporate functions will need to be scaled to support our operations, and if they fail to do so, it could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, and our ability to provide accurate and timely information.

The markets where we operate are diverse and fragmented, with varying levels of economic and infrastructure development and distinct legal and regulatory systems, and do not operate seamlessly across borders as a single or common market. Managing our growing businesses across these emerging markets requires considerable management attention and resources. Entering into new markets also involves various legal and regulatory risks and requires us to obtain various licenses and permits. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain, renew or obtain such licenses or permits on commercially reasonable terms or at all. We may incur additional compliance costs and may be subject to regulatory action or be ordered to cease our operations in certain markets if we fail to maintain, renew or obtain any material license or permit. Should we choose to expand into additional markets, these complexities and challenges could further increase. Because each market presents its own unique challenges, the scalability of our business is dependent on our ability to tailor our content and services to this diversity.

Our growing multi-market operations also require that we incur certain additional costs, including costs relating to staffing, logistics, intellectual property licensing or protection, tariffs and other trade barriers. Moreover, we may become subject to risks associated with:

Any of the foregoing could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The impact of worldwide economic conditions may adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our financial performance is subject to worldwide economic conditions, including adverse economic conditions caused by the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation and interest rates, the continued war in Ukraine, and supply chain disruptions, and their impact on levels of advertising spending. Advertiser expenditures are negatively impacted by overall economic conditions, and reductions in advertising spending could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We are currently operating during a period of economic uncertainty and cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of economic downturns. To the extent general macroeconomic conditions remain uncertain or worsen, our business may be harmed. Inflation has the potential to adversely affect our liquidity, business, operating results, and financial condition by increasing our overall cost structure, particularly if we are unable to achieve commensurate increases in the prices, we charge our customers. The existence of inflation in the economy has resulted in, and may continue to result in, higher interest rates and capital costs, increased costs of labor, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, and other similar effects. As a result of inflation, we have experienced, and may continue to experience, cost increases, which could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We plan to continue expanding our operations globally to markets where we have limited operating experience, which may subject us to increased business, economic and regulatory risks.

We plan to continue expanding our business operations globally, entering into new markets where we have limited or no experience in marketing, selling and deploying current and future products and services. If we fail to deploy or manage our operations in international markets successfully, our business may suffer. In the future, as our international operations increase, or more of our revenue and expenses are generated or denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, our operating results may become more sensitive to fluctuations in the exchange rates of various currencies relative to the U.S. dollar. In addition, we are subject to a variety of risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:

If we are unable to expand internationally and manage the complexity of our global operations successfully, our business could be seriously harmed.

Direct and indirect impacts of the war in Ukraine are highly unpredictable, could be significant, and may have an adverse effect on our business, operations and our future financial performance.

The Russian Federation initiated a military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, precipitating a humanitarian crisis. This ongoing military conflict has provoked strong reactions from the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and various other countries around the world, including the imposition of export control, control on distribution of online content and other broad financial and economic sanctions against Russia, which may have far-reaching effects on the global economy. While the precise effects of the ongoing military conflict and the retaliatory measures that have been taken, or could be taken in the future, remain uncertain, they have already resulted in significant volatility in financial markets, a rise in energy and commodity prices globally, and created worldwide security concerns that could have a lasting impact on regional and global economies.

The macroeconomic impacts on our business continue to evolve and be unpredictable and may continue to adversely affect our business, operations and financial performance. Examples of potential impacts of the war in Ukraine on our business include changes in our user base or inability to operate our products in affected countries, reduced advertiser demand affecting our search and advertising revenues, increased compliance costs and business limitations from export controls or economic sanctions, as well as broader fluctuations in exchange rates that may directly and indirectly affect our global revenue and costs as presented in U.S. Dollars. For example, on December 16, 2022, the European Union adopted new economic sanctions, or the December 2022 EU Sanctions, prohibiting the provision of “advertising services” to legal persons, entities or bodies established in Russia, and therefore we have subsequently terminated all advertising contracts with customers in Russia among other actions. For additional details, see “Item 4. Information on the Company — B. Business Overview – Regulations – European Economic Sanctions.”

Revenue generated from customers and monetization partners domiciled in Russia accounted for 6.4%, or US$16.2 million, of our revenue in 2021 and 6.1%, or US$20.3 million, of our revenue in 2022. A substantial portion of these amounts in both 2021 and 2022 were search revenues from our business partner, Yandex LLC, or Yandex. With respect to these search revenues, Yandex generates advertising revenues primarily in Russian Rubles, and pays us a revenue share converted at prevailing exchange rates to U.S. Dollars. In 2022, we recorded a significant increase in our advertising revenues generated from customers and monetization partners domiciled in Russia due to development of Opera Ads platform following the launch of audience extension services. Although our transactions with Yandex relating to search distribution are not at present subject to any export control or economic sanction against Russia, and we have terminated all advertising contracts with customers in Russia in response to the December 2022 EU Sanctions, there is no assurance that broader sanctions will not be in place in the future, which may adversely affect our relationship with our business partners as well as our revenue related to Russia. We estimate that approximately 9.9% of our revenue in 2022 was generated based on monetizing the portion of our user base which is in Russia. As a result of the scale of the ongoing crisis and the speed at which the global community has been impacted, our revenue growth rate and expense as a percentage of our revenues, and our operating results, may fall below expectations in future periods.

We may need additional capital to expand our businesses but may not be able to obtain it on favorable terms or at all.

While we believe we have sufficient capital to fund our current growth plans, we may require additional capital in order to fund future plans for the additional growth and development of our businesses and any additional investments or acquisitions we may decide to pursue. If our cash resources are insufficient to satisfy our cash requirements, we may seek to issue additional equity or debt securities or obtain new or expanded credit facilities. Our ability to obtain external financing in the future is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including our future financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, share price performance, liquidity of international capital and lending markets and governmental regulations in the markets that we operate in. In addition, incurring indebtedness would subject us to increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations. There can be no assurance that financing will be available in a timely manner or in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, or at all. Any failure to raise needed funds on terms favorable to us, or at all, could severely restrict our liquidity as well as have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, any issuance of equity or equity-linked securities could result in significant dilution to our existing shareholders.

Our business depends on a strong brand and reputation, and we may not be able to maintain and enhance our brand or reputation or there may be negative publicity against us.

We believe that our “Opera” brand and our reputation have contributed significantly to the success of our business. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing the “Opera” brand and our reputation are critical to our success in the future. As our markets become increasingly competitive, our success in maintaining and enhancing our brand and reputation will depend largely on our ability to remain a leading provider of browsers, AI-powered news feeds, gaming solutions and other products and services, which may become more expensive and challenging.

We consistently conduct marketing and brand promotion efforts and over the years have increased related spending. However, we cannot assure you that our marketing and brand promotion activities in the future will achieve the expected brand promotion effect to acquire users in a cost-effective way. If we fail to maintain and further promote the “Opera” brand or our reputation, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We are subject to risks related to litigation, including intellectual property claims and regulatory disputes.

We may be, and in some instances have been, subject to claims, lawsuits (including class actions and individual lawsuits), government investigations and other proceedings relating to intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy, labor and employment, import and export practices, competition, securities, tax, marketing and communications practices, commercial disputes and other matters. For example, we and certain of our directors and officers were named as defendants in a putative class action filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York: Brown v. Opera Limited et al., Case No. 20 cv 674 (S.D.N.Y.), which was dismissed with prejudice in April 2021. We are also currently subject to a patent troll case which we consider to be without substantive merits. The number and significance of our legal disputes and inquiries have increased as our products and services have grown in complexity and as our business has expanded in scope and geographic reach.

As a public company, we have an elevated public profile, which may result in increased litigation and public awareness of such litigation. Further, there is substantial uncertainty regarding the scope and application of many of the laws and regulations to which we are subject, which increases the risk that we will be subject to claims alleging violations of those laws and regulations. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations and declines in our user base, retention or engagement, any of which could seriously harm our business. In the future, we may also be accused of having, or be found to have, infringed or violated third party intellectual property rights.

Regardless of the outcome, legal proceedings can have a material and adverse impact on us due to their costs, diversion of our resources and other factors. We may decide to settle legal disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. Furthermore, if any litigation to which we are a party is resolved adversely, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment that we may not choose to appeal or that may not be reversed upon appeal. We may have to seek a license to continue practices found to be in violation of a third party’s rights. If we are required, or choose to enter into, royalty or licensing arrangements, such arrangements may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses. As a result, we may also be required to develop or procure alternative non-infringing technology or discontinue the use of technology, and doing so could require significant effort and expense, or may not be feasible. In addition, the terms of any settlement or judgment in connection with any legal claims, lawsuits or proceedings may require us to cease some or all of our operations, or pay substantial amounts to the other party and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our investments in companies, new businesses and new products, services and technologies are inherently risky and could disrupt our ongoing businesses.

We have invested and expect to continue to invest in new businesses, products, services and technologies. For example, we launched the Opera cashback rewards program in February 2021 which we have continued to expand into new markets in 2022, the GX.games gaming portal in November 2021, a dedicated browser tailored for crypto industry enthusiasts, namely Opera Crypto Browser, in January 2022, a premium VPN offering, namely Opera VPN Pro, in April 2022, and the DegenKnows NFT analysis and exploration tool in November 2022. We may pursue additional opportunities in or relating to Web3 and blockchain technologies in the future. We have limited historical experience in most aspects of the operation of our new initiatives, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects. We intend to promote our new product and service offerings to our existing user base, and the success of such cross promotional efforts is uncertain. Moreover, we may not be able to obtain the regulatory approvals, permits or licenses as may be required for all of our desired initiatives. Failure to manage or grow our initiatives may have material adverse effects on our overall financial position and results of operations.

We have also invested in promising companies. Since 2017, we have invested in OPay, a leading mobile wallet and payment services company that first launched in Nigeria. In 2018 and 2020, we acquired minority interests in Star Group Interactive Inc., or Star X (formerly known as StarMaker), and NanoCred Cayman Co. Limited, or Nanobank, respectively, and sold all of our equity interests in these two companies in 2022 to focus on our core businesses. Our investments and acquired assets or businesses may not generate the financial results we expect. They could result in occurrence of significant investments and goodwill impairment charges, amortization expenses for other intangible assets and credit losses on trade and other receivables. See "— We may be required to recognize impairment charges." Changes to the valuation of our remaining investee, OPay, may also impact our financial results, depending on the way in which we account for our investment. Should the fair value decrease, our financial results will be adversely affected. Moreover, general operational risks, such as inadequate or failing internal control of an investee, may also expose our investments to risks beyond our control. See “Item 4. Information on the Company — B. Business Overview – Our Investments,” “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects —A. Operating Results—Major Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations— Our Ability to Conduct and Manage Strategic Investments and Acquisitions” and Note 13 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for additional information regarding our investments. 

We may fail to attract, motivate and retain the key members of our management team or other experienced and capable employees.

Our future success is significantly dependent upon the continued service of our executives and other key employees. If we lose the services of a key member of management or any key personnel, we may not be able to locate a suitable or qualified replacement and we may incur additional expenses to recruit and train a replacement, which could severely disrupt our business and growth.

To maintain and grow our business, we will need to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly skilled employees. Identifying, recruiting, training, integrating and retaining qualified individuals requires significant time, expense and attention. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our management team that may be disruptive to our business. We may also be subject to local hiring restrictions in certain markets, particularly in connection with the hiring of foreign employees, which may affect the flexibility of our management team. If our management team, including any new hires that we make, fail to work together effectively and execute our plans and strategies, or if we are not able to recruit and retain employees effectively, our ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely affected and our business and growth prospects will be harmed.

Competition for highly skilled personnel is intense, including in the markets where our business operations are located. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees and we may not be able to realize returns on these investments.

We may be the subject of anti-competitive, harassing or other detrimental conduct that could harm our reputation and cause us to lose users and customers.

In the future, we may be the target of anti-competitive, harassing, or other detrimental conduct by third parties. Allegations, directly or indirectly against us or any of our executive officers, may be posted in internet chatrooms or on blogs or websites by anyone, whether or not related to us, on an anonymous basis. The availability of information on social media platforms and devices is virtually immediate, as is its impact. Social media platforms and devices immediately publish the content their subscribers and participants post, often without filters or checks on the accuracy of the content posted. Information posted may be inaccurate and adverse to us, and it may harm our business, prospects or financial performance. The harm may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction. In addition, such conduct may include complaints, anonymous or otherwise, to regulatory agencies. We may be subject to regulatory investigations as a result of such third party conduct and may be required to expend significant time and incur substantial costs to address such third party conduct, and there is no assurance that we will be able to conclusively refute each of the allegations within a reasonable period of time, or at all. Additionally, our reputation could be harmed as a result of the public dissemination of anonymous allegations or malicious statements about our business, which in turn may cause us to lose users and customers and adversely affect the price of our ADSs.

If we fail to detect click-through fraud, we could lose the confidence of our advertisers and our revenues could decline.

Our business is exposed to the risk of click-through fraud on our partners’ advertisements. Click-through fraud occurs when a person clicks advertisements for a reason other than to view the underlying content of advertisements. If our advertising partners fail to detect significant fraudulent clicks or otherwise are unable to prevent significant fraudulent activity, the affected search advertisers may experience a reduced return on their investment in advertising on our platform and lose confidence in the integrity of our search partners’ pay-for-click service systems. If this happens, our revenues from our monetization partners may decline.

We face risks related to natural disasters, health epidemics or terrorist attacks, which could significantly disrupt our operations.

Our business could be adversely affected by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, tsunamis, outbreaks of health epidemics such as an outbreak of COVID-19, avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Zika virus, or Ebola virus, as well as terrorist attacks, other acts of violence or war or social instability. If any of these occurs, we may be required to temporarily or permanently close and our business operations may be suspended or terminated. For example, since early 2020, COVID-19 has impacted market and economic conditions globally, resulting in the implementation of significant governmental measures to control the spread of COVID-19 as well as changes in our user behavior and the businesses of our monetization partners. While currently many countries are in the process of returning to normal and preparing to live with COVID-19 as a lesser threat to public health, the full impact of COVID-19 on our business, financial condition, and the results of operations will depend on numerous evolving factors that we may not be able to accurately predict and that will vary by market, including the duration and scope of the pandemic, including any resurgences, the impact of the pandemic on economic activity, and actions taken by governments, businesses, and individuals in response. See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospectus – A. Operating Results – Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic.” Thus, our future operating and financial results may fluctuate substantially or fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. In such events, the trading price of our ADSs may fluctuate significantly. If any such situation persists, the global economy may be severely harmed and disrupted, which could adversely affect our results of operation.

We have limited business insurance coverage.

Our business insurance is limited. Any uninsured damage to our platforms, technology infrastructures or disruption of our business operations could require us to incur substantial costs and divert our resources, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our results of operations are subject to seasonal fluctuations due to a number of factors.

We are subject to seasonality and other fluctuations in our business. For example, revenues from our e-commerce and travel partners are typically affected by seasonality due to various holidays that may result in higher than usual e-commerce transactions and travel-related activities, and similar seasonal trends may affect revenues from our search partners. We may not yet have sufficient historical information to accurately anticipate seasonal or other fluctuations in our newer business areas. Historical patterns of seasonality may in any case be less relevant under current macroeconomic conditions as the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine may alter seasonal trends.

Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates will affect our financial results, which we report in U.S. Dollars.

We operate in multiple jurisdictions, which exposes us to the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Most of our revenue is denominated in the U.S. Dollar and Euro, while operating expenses are incurred in a wider specter of currencies, including the Norwegian krone, Chinese renminbi, Polish zloty, Swedish krona, British pound, and the Euro. The functional currency of revenue-generating entities in the Group is primarily the U.S. dollar. We typically have currency exchange exposure also in cases of global partners, even as such partners typically make payments to us in a major international currency like the U.S. Dollar, as the underlying activity upon which our revenue is calculated, may be based on such local currencies as observed and collected by our partners prior to converting to the currency in which we are paid, and in many cases this currency exposure is less visible to us. Fluctuations in the exchange rates between the various currencies that we use or are exposed to could result in expenses being higher and revenue being lower than would be the case if exchange rates were stable. We cannot assure you that movements in foreign currency exchange rates will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations in future periods. We do not generally enter into hedging contracts to limit our exposure to fluctuations in the value of the currencies that our businesses use.

We may not achieve the intended tax efficiencies of our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements, which could increase our worldwide effective tax rate.

Our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements, including the manner in which we conduct our intercompany and related party transactions, are intended to provide us with worldwide tax efficiencies. The application of tax laws of various jurisdictions to our business activities is subject to interpretation and also depends on our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. The tax authorities of jurisdictions where we operate may challenge our methodologies for intercompany and related party arrangements, including transfer pricing, or determine that the manner in which we operate does not achieve the intended tax consequences, which could increase our worldwide effective tax rate and adversely affect our financial position and results of operations.

A certain degree of judgment is required in evaluating our tax positions and determining our provision for income taxes. In the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. For example, our effective tax rate, expressed as the percentage of income tax expenses to profit before income taxes, was 37.0% in 2022, as compared to negative 0.1% in 2021. Our effective tax rate could be adversely affected by lower than anticipated earnings in markets where we have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated earnings in markets where we have higher statutory rates, inability to fully utilize tax assets recognized on our balance sheet, by changes in foreign currency exchange rates or by changes in the relevant tax, accounting and other laws, regulations, principles and interpretations. Any of these factors could materially and adversely affect our financial position and results of operations.

We may be required to recognize impairment charges.

Our goodwill and other intangible assets totaled US$429.4 million and US$100.0 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2022, predominantly relating to our acquisition of Opera Norway AS and its subsidiaries in 2016. We also had property and equipment with a carrying amount of US$14.6 million as of December 31, 2022. Intangible assets, including goodwill, and property and equipment, are tested for impairment when there are indicators that the assets might be impaired. In assessing whether there are indicators of impairment, we consider both external and internal sources of information, including losses of key customers, unfavorable changes in technology or competition and unfavorable changes in user base or user testes. Irrespective of any indicators, intangible assets with indefinite useful lives and goodwill are tested annually for impairment. In 2022, we recognized an impairment loss of US$3.2 million related to certain non-core intangible assets, while in 2021, we recognized an impairment loss of US$3.1 million for our goodwill and US$2.5 million for our other intangible assets. These impairment losses were caused by changes to our strategic priorities.

We also have investments in ordinary and preferred shares in OPay and ordinary shares in Fjord Bank. The shares are measured at fair value through profit or loss. While we recognized an unrealized gain in 2022 of US$1.5 million on our shares in OPay, we may recognize losses in future periods if the fair value of the shares decreases. Moreover, since estimates of fair value are based on significant unobservable inputs, they are subject to estimation uncertainty, as disclosed in Notes 2 and 12 to the annual consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report. Furthermore, we have committed to the pro-rata return of Series C shares in OPay that we received in early 2023 in connection with OPay’s acquisition of Nanobank’s Asian business in the event such business falls short of certain financial targets for 2023 and 2024, as disclosed in Note 18 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report. In the first quarter of 2023, the estimated fair value of the shares subject to these provisions was US$77.4 million.

Based upon future economic and financial market conditions, the operating performance of our reporting units and other factors, including those listed above, future impairment charges could be incurred. It is possible that such impairment, if required, could be material. Any future impairment charges that we are required to record could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Technology and Intellectual Property

We may fail to maintain or improve our technology infrastructure.

We are constantly upgrading our technology to provide improved performance, increased scale and better integration among our platforms. Adopting new technologies, upgrading our internet ecosystem infrastructure, as well as maintaining and improving our technology infrastructure require significant investments of time and resources, including adding new hardware, updating software and recruiting and training new engineering personnel. Adverse consequences for the failure to do so may include unanticipated system disruptions, security breaches, computer virus attacks, slower response times, decreased user satisfaction and delays in reporting accurate operating and financial information. In addition, many of the software and interfaces we use are internally developed and proprietary technology. If we experience problems with the functionality and effectiveness of our software or platforms, or are unable to maintain and constantly improve our technology infrastructure to handle our business needs and ensure a consistent and acceptable level of service for our users, our business, financial condition, results of operation and prospects, as well as our reputation, could be materially and adversely affected.

We may not be able to prevent others from unauthorized use of our intellectual property or brands.

We regard our patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property as critical to our business. Unauthorized use of our intellectual property by third parties may adversely affect our business and reputation. We rely on a combination of intellectual property laws and contractual arrangements to protect our proprietary rights. It is often difficult to register, maintain and enforce intellectual property rights in the markets where we operate. For example, statutory laws and regulations are subject to judicial interpretation and enforcement and may not be applied consistently due to the lack of clear guidance on statutory interpretation in certain countries in which we operate. In addition, contractual agreements may be breached by counterparties and there may not be adequate remedies available to us for any such breach. Accordingly, we may not be able to effectively protect our intellectual property rights or to enforce our contractual rights. Policing any unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly and the steps we have taken may be inadequate to prevent the misappropriation of our intellectual property. In the event that we resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, such litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our managerial and financial resources. We can provide no assurance that we will prevail in such litigation. In addition, our trade secrets may be leaked or otherwise become available to, or be independently discovered by, our competitors.

Some of our applications contain open source software, which may pose increased risk to our proprietary software.

We use open source software in some of our applications, including our Opera browsers which incorporate Chromium browser technology, and we will use open source software in the future. We are supportive of the open source community, and we regularly support open source software communities and release internal software projects under open source licenses and anticipate continuing to do so in the future. The terms of many open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to sell or distribute our applications. Additionally, we may from time to time face threats or claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the alleged open source software or derivative works we developed using such software, which could include our proprietary source code, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These threats or claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated applications unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid the alleged infringement. Such a re-engineering process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete it successfully. In addition to risks related to license requirements, our use of certain open source software may lead to greater risks than use of third party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Additionally, because any software source code we contribute to open source projects is publicly available, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights with respect to such software source code may be limited or lost entirely, and we are unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage and, if not addressed, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have been and expect to continue to be subject to intellectual property infringement claims, which could be time consuming and costly to defend, and may require us to pay significant damages or cease offering any of our products or key features of our products.

We cannot be certain that the products, services and intellectual property used in the ordinary course of our business do not or will not infringe valid patents, copyrights or other intellectual property rights held by third parties. We operate platforms, in particular Opera News, which display third party content and through which third party content providers may distribute their content. We cannot assure you that we or such content providers have sufficient rights in all content distributed via our platforms. We have been and expect to continue to be subject to claims or legal proceedings relating to the intellectual property of others in the ordinary course of our business and may in the future be required to pay damages or license fees, or to agree to restrict our activities. In particular, if we are found to have violated the intellectual property rights of others, we may be enjoined from using such intellectual property, may be ordered to pay damages and may incur licensing fees or be forced to develop alternatives. We may incur substantial expense in defending against third party infringement claims, regardless of their merit. Successful infringement claims against us may result in substantial monetary liability or may materially disrupt the conduct of our business by restricting or prohibiting our use of the intellectual property in question.

We do not have exclusive rights to certain technology, trademarks and designs that are crucial to our business.

We have applied for various patents relating to our business. While we have succeeded in obtaining some patents, some of our patent applications are still under examination by the various regulatory authorities in the markets that we operate in. Approvals of our patent applications are subject to determinations by the relevant local authorities that there are no prior rights in the applicable territory. In addition, we have also applied for initial registrations and/or changes in registrations relating to transfers of our Opera logos and other of our key trademarks to establish and protect our exclusive rights to these trademarks. While we have succeeded in registering the trademarks for most of these marks in our major markets under certain classes, the applications for initial registration, and/or changes in registrations relating to transfers, of some marks and/or of some of trademarks under other classes are still under examination by the relevant local authorities. Approvals of our initial trademark registration applications, and/or of changes in registrations relating to such transfers, are subject to determinations by the relevant local authorities that there are no prior rights in the applicable territories. We cannot assure you that these patent and trademark applications will be approved. Any rejection of these applications could adversely affect our rights to the affected technology, marks and designs. In addition, even if these applications are approved, we cannot assure you that any issued patents or registered trademarks will be sufficient in scope to provide adequate protection of our rights.

Privacy concerns relating to our services and the use of user information could negatively impact our user base or user engagement, or subject us to governmental regulation and other legal obligations.

We collect certain user profile, user location and other data from our users for various purposes including to better understand our users and their needs and to support our advertising business as well as our AI-powered content discovery and recommendation platform and big data analytical capabilities for more targeted services such as personalized news, videos and other online content recommendations. Concerns about the collection, use, disclosure or security of personal information and data or other privacy-related matters, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation, cause us to lose users and subject us to regulatory investigations, all of which may adversely affect our business. While we strive to comply with applicable data protection laws and regulations, as well as our privacy policies and other obligations we may have with respect to privacy and data protection, any failure or perceived failure to comply with these laws, regulations or policies may result in inquiries and other proceedings or actions against us by government agencies or others, as well as negative publicity and damage to our reputation and brands, each of which could cause us to lose users and have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.

We are exposed to cyber-attacks, data breaches, internal employee and other insider misconduct, computer viruses, physical and electronic break-ins and similar disruptions that may adversely impact our ability to protect the confidential information of our users and borrowers.

We collect, store and process certain personal and other sensitive data from our users during our daily business operations. The data that we have processed and stored makes us and our external service providers a target and potentially vulnerable to cyber-attacks, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins or similar disruptions. While we have taken measures to protect the confidential information that we have access to, our security measures could be breached. Moreover, the techniques used to obtain unauthorized, improper or illegal access to our and our external service providers’ systems, our data or customers’ data, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems are constantly evolving, may be difficult to detect quickly, and often are not recognized until after they have been launched against a target. Unauthorized parties can and have attempted to gain access to our systems and facilities through various means, including, among others, hacking into the systems or facilities of us or our partners or customers, or attempting to fraudulently induce our employees, partners, customers or others into disclosing usernames, passwords, or other sensitive information, which may in turn be used to access our information technology systems. Certain efforts may be state-sponsored and supported by significant financial and technological resources, making them even more difficult to detect. Although to date we have not suffered any material costs or disruption to our business caused by any such incident, any future security breach could have a material adverse impact on our users’ willingness to use our services, and our reputation and brands, business operations and financial performance.

Because we store, process and use data, some of which contains personal information, we are subject to complex and evolving laws and regulations across multiple jurisdictions regarding privacy, data protection and other matters.

We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations that involve matters central to our business, including user privacy, rights of publicity, data protection, content, intellectual property, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, taxation and online-payment services. These laws can be particularly restrictive in certain countries, particularly in the European Economic Area, where courts and regulators applying the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, have generally favored a strict application of the law, especially where international data transfers or internet advertising are at issue. Further, such laws and regulations constantly evolve and many jurisdictions that are significant to our businesses, including China, Nigeria, Kenya, and Brazil have enacted or updated privacy laws, while similar developments are under consideration in India and several US states. The application and interpretation of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations and declines in user growth, retention or engagement, any of which could seriously harm our business.

Mobile malware, viruses, hacking and phishing attacks, spamming and improper or illegal use of our products or services could seriously harm our business and reputation.

Mobile malware, viruses, hacking and phishing attacks have become more prevalent in our industry, have occurred on our systems in the past and may occur on our systems in the future. Because of our prominence, we believe that we are an attractive target for these sorts of attacks. In some of our businesses we rely on mobile money providers and payment processors to conclude transactions. Such suppliers may hold funds on our behalf and may themselves be attractive targets for these sorts of attacks. Although it is difficult to determine what, if any, harm may directly result from an interruption or attack, any failure to maintain performance, reliability, security and availability of our products and technical infrastructure to the satisfaction of our users may seriously harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing users and attract new users. If these activities increase on our platform, our reputation, user growth and engagement, and operational cost structure could be seriously harmed. Likewise, such failures with respect to our suppliers may harm our reputation or result in a financial loss.

Our business may be adversely affected by third party software applications or practices that interfere with our receipt of information from, or provision of information to, our users, which may impair the user experience on our platform.

Our business may be adversely affected by third party software applications, which may be unintentional or malicious, that make changes to our users’ PCs or mobile devices and interfere with our products and services. These software applications may change the user experience on our platform by hijacking queries, altering or replacing the search results provided by our search engine partners to our users or otherwise interfering with our ability to connect with our users. Such interference can occur without disclosure to or consent from users, and users may associate any resulting negative experience with our products and services. Such software applications are often designed to be difficult to remove, block or disable. Further, software loaded on or added to mobile devices on which our software applications are pre-installed may be incompatible with or interfere with or prevent the operation of such applications, which might deter the owners of such devices from using our services. If we are unable to successfully prevent or limit any such applications or systems that interfere with our products and services, our ability to deliver a high-quality experience or recommend relevant content to our users may be adversely affected.

Interruption or failure of our information technology and communications systems may result in reduced user traffic and harm to our reputation and business.

Interruption or failure of any of our information technology and communications systems or those of the operators of third party internet properties that we collaborate with could impede or prevent our ability to provide our services. In addition, our operations could be interrupted by natural disasters and other events. Our disaster recovery plan for our servers cannot fully ensure safety in the event of damage from fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, hacking and similar events. If any of the foregoing occurs, we may experience a partial or complete system shutdown. Furthermore, our servers, which are hosted at third party internet data centers, are also vulnerable to break-ins, sabotage and vandalism. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning does not account for all possible scenarios. The occurrence of a natural disaster or a closure of an internet data center by a third-party provider without adequate notice could result in lengthy service interruptions. Any system failure or inadequacy that causes interruptions in the availability of our services, or increases the response time of our services, could have an adverse impact on our user experience and satisfaction, our attractiveness to users and advertisers and future user traffic and advertising on our platform. To improve performance and to prevent disruption of our services, we may have to make substantial investments to deploy additional servers or one or more copies of our internet platforms to mirror our online resources.

Risks Related to Our Suppliers and Partners

A small number of business partners contribute a significant portion of our revenues.

A small number of business partners contribute a significant portion of our revenues. For example, our largest business partner, Google, contributed approximately 44.9% of our revenues in 2022, compared to 51.3% in 2021 and 46.1% in 2020. Although we continue efforts to diversify our partner base, we cannot assure you that a limited number of partners will not continue to contribute a significant portion of our revenues for the near future. Consequently, any of the following events may materially and adversely impact our business, results of operations and growth prospects:

Revenue generated from customers and monetization partners domiciled in Ireland accounted for 48.4%, 50.5% and 44.1% in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. This geographic concentration is not necessarily an indication of where user activity occurs as our end users are located across the world but is affected by the geographic concentration of domicile among certain of our primary monetization partners. We are especially exposed to risks related to the economic conditions, regional specific legislation and tax law of the identified countries.

We rely on our users’ web searches within Opera browsers for a substantial portion of our revenues.

We share in the revenue generated by search partners when our users conduct searches initiated within the URL bar or search boxes embedded in our PC and mobile browsers. Revenue generated from users’ search activity accounted for 51.0%, 48.6% and 42.3% of our total revenue in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. Traditional search business models may, for example, evolve if AI chatbot powered search experiences become widely adopted. Moreover, our revenue sharing and fee arrangements with these search partners are subject to change. If our search partners reduce or discontinue their spending with us or see reduced monetization, or if we fail to attract new search or advertising partners, or the fees we receive for the traffic we refer to our search partners significantly decrease, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Our existing business and our expansion strategy depend on certain key collaborative arrangements, and we may be unable to maintain or develop these relationships.

Our existing business, and our strategy for developing our business, involve maintaining and developing various types of collaborations with third parties, which provide us with access to additional user traffic, search services, products and technology. For example, our collaboration with Google allows us to provide our global users with high quality search services. We also work with leading device manufacturers and mobile software storefront providers, to ensure cost-efficient and reliable distribution of our products and services. Moreover, as part of our focus on expanding our AI capabilities, we formed strong relationships with high profile media and independent content providers to obtain comprehensive news and other content that we can make available to users on our platform.

We consider these collaborations to be important to our ability to deliver attractive services, products and content offerings to our users, in order to maintain and expand our user and advertiser bases, and we believe that it will continue to be important for us to develop similar partnerships in the future. Our inability to maintain and grow such relationships could have an adverse impact on our existing business and our growth prospects. In addition, our competitors may establish the same relationships that we have, which would diminish any advantage we might otherwise gain from these relationships.

We may fail to maintain and expand our collaborations with third party operators of internet properties.

We place promotional links to some of our search engine providers and other partners on our browsers, thereby providing easy access to premier search and other online services for our users and increasing our associated revenues. Moreover, we rely on third party operators of internet properties for auxiliary services. For example, we use a third-party service to store and analyze most of our system data including number of active users, clicks-per-user, impressions, comments, likes, visits, etc. If these third parties decide to stop collaborating with us, our revenues and growth and operations may be adversely affected.

We operate platforms, products and services that include third parties over whose actions we have no control.

We operate a number of online platforms and portals that collect the digital content or offers of a wide variety of third parties over which we do not exercise control. For example, our AI-powered Opera News content discovery platform integrates the services of third-party content providers and offers a platform for independent bloggers and journalists to publish their work. In addition, in certain markets we integrate locally relevant third-party content aggregators into our platform. We cannot control the actions of these third parties and our ability to identify and remove content that may be deemed inaccurate, misleading, offensive, socially unacceptable or otherwise violates applicable laws in relevant jurisdictions may be insufficient, such that if they were to upload any such content, or they do not perform their functions to our satisfaction or the satisfaction of our users, even if we may not be legally responsible for their actions, it may damage the reputation of our platform.

Our browsers integrate online search capabilities from leading international and regional search companies. We cannot be certain that our search partners will provide our users with the search results that they are looking for. Our browsers also contain short-cuts to third party coupons, e-commerce, travel and other businesses and we cannot be certain that the products and services that these third parties provide will all be legitimate, of a sufficiently high quality or that they will accurately represent the products and services in their postings. Further, while we have agreements with each of these parties, any legal protections we might have in our agreements could be insufficient to compensate us for our losses and may not be able to repair the damage to our reputation.

We rely upon third party channels and partners in distributing our products and services.

We rely upon a number of third parties for distribution of our products and services to end users. For example, we rely on mobile software application storefronts, including Google Play and Apple’s App Store, as well as various mobile manufacturer app stores, to enable users to download our mobile software applications, and on key mobile manufacturers to pre-install our mobile software applications on mobile phones prior to sale. The promotion, distribution and operation of our software applications are subject to the standard terms and conditions of these distribution channel providers, which may be broad, poorly tailored to local conditions, and subject to frequent unilateral changes and interpretation by the channel providers. If one or more channel providers halt the distribution of certain of our products and services on their platforms, as they have temporarily done in the past, our business may suffer. There is no guarantee that these distribution channel providers will distribute or continue to support or feature our product offerings. Furthermore, these channel providers may not enforce their standard terms and conditions for application developers consistently or uniformly across all applications and with all application developers, in part because such terms and conditions may not be practical or otherwise appropriate in certain markets. We will continue to be dependent on distribution channel providers, and any changes, bugs, technical or regulatory issues relating to such channel providers, our relationships with these channel providers, or the requirements or interpretation of their terms and conditions or pricing that is to our detriment could adversely impact our business. These may include any changes that degrade the functionality of our offerings, reduce or eliminate our ability to distribute our offerings, give preferential treatment to competitive products, limit our ability to deliver high quality offerings, or impose fees or other charges related to delivering our offerings. Further, if a channel provider believes that we have violated the terms and conditions of its platform, regardless of whether such terms and conditions have a legitimate basis or are practical in a given market, this could result in the channel provider restricting our ability to use their services and adversely affect our product usage and monetization. Furthermore, if any of these distribution channel providers delivers unsatisfactory services, engages in fraudulent action, or is unable or refuses to continue to provide its services to us and our users for any reason, it may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely upon the internet infrastructure, data center providers and telecommunications networks in the markets where we operate.

Our business depends on the performance and reliability of the internet infrastructure and contracted data center providers in the markets where we operate. We may not have access to alternative networks or data servers in the event of disruptions or failures of, or other problems with, the relevant internet infrastructure. In addition, the internet infrastructure, especially in the emerging markets where we operate, may not support the demands associated with continued growth in internet usage.

We use third party data center providers for the storing of data related to our business. We do not control the operation of these facilities and rely on contracted agreements to employ their use. The owners of the data center facilities have no obligation to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to renew these agreements on commercially reasonable terms, or if one of our data center providers is acquired by another party, we may be required to transfer our servers and other infrastructure to new data center facilities, and we may incur significant costs and possible lengthy service interruptions in connection with doing so. Any changes in third party service levels at our data centers or any errors, defects, disruptions or other performance problems with our browsers or other services could adversely affect our reputation and adversely affect the online browsing experience. If navigation through our browsers is slower than our users expect, users may use our services less, if at all. Interruptions in our services might reduce our revenue, subject us to potential liability or adversely affect our ability to attract advertisers.

We also rely on major telecommunications operators in the markets where we operate to provide us with data communications capacity primarily through local telecommunications lines and data centers to host our servers. We and our users may not have access to alternative services in the event of disruptions or failures of, or other problems with, the fixed telecommunications networks of these telecommunications operators, or if such operators otherwise fail to provide such services. Any service interruption could disrupt our operations, damage our reputation and result in a decrease in our revenue. Furthermore, we have no control over the costs of the services provided by the telecommunications operators to us and our users. If the prices that we pay for telecommunications and internet services rise significantly, our margins could be reduced. In addition, if internet access fees or other charges to internet users increase, our user traffic may decrease, which in turn may cause our revenue to decline.

Our business depends on continued and unimpeded access to the internet by us and our users. Internet access providers may be able to restrict, block, degrade or charge for access to certain of our products and services, which could lead to additional expenses and the loss of users and advertisers.

Our products and services depend on the ability of our users to access the internet. Currently, this access is provided by companies that have significant market power in the broadband and internet access marketplace, including incumbent telephone companies, cable companies, mobile communications companies and government-owned service providers. Some of these providers have taken, or have stated that they may take measures, including legal actions, that could degrade, disrupt or increase the cost of user access to certain of our products by restricting or prohibiting the use of their infrastructure to support or facilitate our offerings, or by charging increased fees to us or our users to provide our offerings.

In addition, in some markets, our products and services may be subject to government-initiated restrictions or blockages. Such interference could result in a loss of existing users and advertisers, and increased costs, and could impair our ability to attract new users and advertisers, thereby harming our revenues and growth.

Risks Related to Our Internal Controls & Reporting

Our user metrics and other estimates are subject to inherent challenges in measuring our operations.

We regularly review metrics, including our MAUs, to evaluate growth trends, measure our performance and make strategic decisions. These metrics are calculated using internal company data and have not been validated by an independent third party. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reliable data, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our platforms are used across large populations throughout the regions that we operate in. For example, we typically are not able to distinguish individual users who use multiple applications. Our user metrics are also affected by technology on certain mobile devices that automatically runs in the background of our applications when another phone function is used, and this activity can cause our system to miscount the user metrics associated with such applications.

Errors or inaccuracies in our metrics or data could result in incorrect business decisions and inefficiencies. For instance, if a significant understatement or overstatement of active users were to occur, we may expend resources to implement unnecessary business measures or fail to take required actions to remedy an unfavorable trend. Moreover, during the process of upgrading our platform in the past, we have lost certain historical metrics, such as the number of search queries, that we rely on to manage our operations. If partners or investors do not perceive our user, geographic or other operating metrics as accurately representing our user base, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our user, geographic or other operating metrics, our reputation may be seriously harmed.

If we fail to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, we may be unable to accurately report our results of operations, meet our reporting obligations or prevent fraud.

As a public company in the United States, we are subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we include a report from management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our annual report on Form 20-F. In connection with the preparation of this annual report, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022, was not effective due to the presence of certain control deficiencies that in the aggregate represented a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. These deficiencies were related to us not maintaining effective internal control over certain accounting transactions. Specifically, we did not perform all controls that were designed and implemented to address the identified risks of misstatements, including sufficiently analyzing and assessing transactions and complex accounting matters based on the accounting requirements, and preparing and reviewing contemporaneous accounting documentation. Moreover, we did not sufficiently assess and address the IT dependencies related to business process controls. To our knowledge, the deficiencies did not result in a material misstatement in the consolidated financial statements. While there have been improvements throughout the year, there continued to be insufficient capacity to perform all controls at a sufficiently detailed level and in a timely manner. Although we are in the process of taking remedial measures to fully implement our framework of internal controls, we cannot assure you that the material weakness will be cured in a timely manner. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures —B. Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting.”

Moreover, if we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal control over financial reporting due to our failure to attract and retain sufficiently qualified personnel with competence in internal control over financial reporting, or due to other reasons, we may identify additional control deficiencies and we may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. If we fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment, we could suffer material misstatements in our financial statements and may fail to meet our reporting obligations, which would likely cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information. This could in turn limit our access to capital markets, harm our results of operations, and lead to a decline in the trading price of our ADSs. Additionally, ineffective internal control over financial reporting could expose us to increased risk of fraud or misuse of corporate assets and subject us to potential delisting from the stock exchange on which we list, regulatory investigations and civil or criminal sanctions. We may also be required to restate our financial statements from prior periods.

We have incurred and anticipate that we will continue to incur considerable costs, management time and other resources in an effort to comply with Section 404 and other requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In particular, with effect from the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023, we will no longer be an “emerging growth company” as such term is defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. A consequence of this is that our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023. Therefore, after we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management time and effort toward ensuring compliance with all requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other applicable rules and regulations of the SEC.

The requirements of being both a public company and a Kunlun subsidiary may strain our resources and divert our management’s attention.

We have been a public company since 2018. In 2021, Kunlun, a Chinese public company and our largest investor, increased its ownership stake in us beyond 50%, and as a result we became a consolidated subsidiary of Kunlun. As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act and the listing standards of Nasdaq as applicable to a foreign private issuer, which are different in some material respects from those applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. Similarly, as a subsidiary of Kunlun, we are additionally subject to certain of the listing rules of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Chinese corporate governance standards. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will increase, both in isolation and in combination, elevating our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, making some activities more difficult, time consuming and costly, and placing additional requirements on our personnel, systems and resources. As a result, or for other reasons, we may experience threatened or actual litigation, including by customers, suppliers, competitors, shareholders or other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and operating results could be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and harm our business and operating results.

Industry data, projections and estimates contained in this annual report are inherently uncertain and subject to interpretation. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on such information.

Certain facts, forecasts and other statistics relating to the industries in which we compete contained in this annual report have been derived from various public data sources and third party industry reports. In deriving the market size of the aforementioned industries and regions, these industry consultants may have adopted different assumptions and estimates, such as the number of internet users. While we generally believe such reports are reliable, we have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of such information. Such reports may not be prepared on a comparable basis or may not be consistent with other sources.

Industry data, projections and estimates are subject to inherent uncertainty as they necessarily require certain assumptions and judgments. Our industry data and market share data should be interpreted in light of the defined geographic markets and defined industries we operate in. Any discrepancy in the interpretation thereof could lead to different industry data, measurements, projections and estimates and result in errors and inaccuracies.

Risks Related to Our ADSs

The trading price of ADSs has been and may continue to be volatile, which could result in substantial losses to investors.

The trading price of ADSs can be volatile and fluctuate widely due to factors beyond our control. This may happen because of broad market and industry factors such as but not limited to concerns over the health of the global economy and geopolitical concerns.

In addition to market and industry factors, the price and trading volume for the ADSs may be highly volatile for factors specific to our own operations, including the following:

Any of these factors may result in large and sudden changes in the volume and price at which the ADSs will trade.

In the past, class action lawyers have often sought to bring securities class action suits against those companies following periods of instability in the market price of their securities. Such class action suits may divert a significant amount of our management’s attention and other resources from our business and operations and may require us to incur significant expenses to defend the suit, which could harm our results of operations. Any such class action suit, whether or not successful, could harm our reputation and restrict our ability to raise capital in the future. In addition, if a claim is successfully made against us, we may be required to pay significant damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding the ADSs, the market price for the ADSs and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for the ADSs will be influenced by research or reports that industry or securities analysts publish about our business. If one or more analysts who cover us downgrade the ADSs, the market price for the ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the market price or trading volume for the ADSs to decline.

We currently do not have any committed plan to pay dividends in the foreseeable future, and you may therefore have to rely on price appreciation of the ADSs for return on your investment.

In February 2023, we paid a special cash dividend of US$0.80 per ADS, or US$0.40 per ordinary share, to all of our shareholders of record as of the close of business on January 30, 2023. Other than this dividend payment, we have not paid any cash dividends to our shareholders since our initial public offering, and we do not have any committed plan to pay regular cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Therefore, you should not rely on an investment in the ADSs as a source for any future dividend income and you may have to rely on price appreciation of the ADSs for return on your investment. There is no guarantee that the ADSs will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which you purchased the ADSs. You may not realize a return on your investment in the ADSs and you may even lose your entire investment in the ADSs.

Our board of directors has complete discretion as to whether to distribute dividends subject to our memorandum and articles of association and certain restrictions under Cayman Islands law. In addition, our shareholders may by ordinary resolution declare a dividend, but no dividend may exceed the amount recommended by our directors. Even if our board of directors decides to declare and pay future dividends, the timing, amount and form of future dividends, if any, will depend on, among other things, our future results of operations and cash flow, our capital requirements and surplus, our financial condition, contractual restrictions and other factors deemed relevant by our board of directors.

Any dividends paid will be subject to fees charged by our depositary bank, payable by the recipient.

Kunlun, our parent company, and Yahui Zhou, our chairman of the board and chief executive officer, have control over our company and their interests may not be aligned with the interests of our other shareholders.

As of the date of this annual report, Kunlun, a Chinese public company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, indirectly owns 71.2% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares. As such, we are a consolidated subsidiary of Kunlun. In addition, Mr. Zhou, our chairman of the board and chief executive officer, directly owns an additional 10.9% of our shares and is also a controlling shareholder of Kunlun. With his own holdings, as well as those of Kunlun, Mr. Zhou then may be in a position to effectively control 82.1% of our voting power.

As a result of the foregoing, Kunlun and Mr. Zhou have the ability to control or exert significant influence over important corporate matters and investors may be prevented from affecting important corporate matters involving our company that require approval of shareholders, including:

These actions may be taken even if they are opposed by our other shareholders, including the holders of the ADSs. Furthermore, this concentration of ownership may also discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, which could have the dual effect of depriving our shareholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares as part of a sale of our company and reducing the price of the ADSs. As a result of the foregoing, the value of your investment could be materially reduced.

In addition, the significant concentration of share ownership may adversely affect the trading price of the ADSs due to investors’ perception that conflicts of interest may exist or arise. For more information regarding our principal shareholders and their affiliated entities, see “Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees—E. Share Ownership.” We have in the past, and likely will continue to enter into related party transactions involving entities directly or indirectly controlled by Kunlun or Mr. Zhou. See “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions — B. Related Party Transactions” for details. Such related party transactions, while reviewed and approved by our Board’s Audit Committee consisting solely of independent directors, may indirectly benefit Kunlun or Mr. Zhou personally, by virtue of their interest in the related party.

As a “controlled company” under the rules of the Nasdaq, we may be exempt from certain corporate governance requirements that could adversely affect our public shareholders.

Due to the shareholding of our chairman and chief executive officer, Yahui Zhou, and because Kunlun is the beneficial owner of a majority of the voting power of our issued and outstanding share capital, we are qualified as a “controlled company” under the rules of the Nasdaq. Under these rules a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a controlled company and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirement that a majority of our directors be independent, as defined in the Nasdaq rules, and the requirement that our compensation and corporate governance and nominating committees consist entirely of independent directors. We rely on certain corporate governance exemptions as described in Item 16G (Corporate Governance) of this annual report. So long as we remain a controlled company relying on any of such exemptions and during any transition period following the time when we are no longer a controlled company, you would not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of the Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.

If a United States person is treated as owning at least 10% of our ADSs or ordinary shares, such person may be subject to adverse United States federal income tax consequences.

If a United States person is treated as owning (directly, indirectly or constructively) at least 10% of the value or voting power of our ADSs or ordinary shares, such person may be treated as a “United States shareholder” with respect to each “controlled foreign corporation,” or CFC, in our group. Because our group includes one or more United States subsidiaries, that are corporations for United States federal income tax purposes, in certain circumstances we could be treated as a CFC and certain of our non-United States subsidiary corporations could be treated as CFCs (regardless of whether or not we are treated as a CFC).

A United States shareholder of a CFC may be required to annually report and include in its United States taxable income its pro rata share of “subpart F income,” “global intangible low-taxed income” and investments in United States property by CFCs, whether or not we make any distributions. An individual who is a United States shareholder with respect to a CFC generally would not be allowed certain tax deductions or foreign tax credits that would be allowed to a corporation that is a United States shareholder. A failure to comply with these reporting obligations may subject a United States shareholder to significant monetary penalties and may prevent starting of the statute of limitations with respect to such shareholder’s United States federal income tax return for the year for which reporting was due. We do not intend to monitor whether we are or any of our non-United States subsidiaries is treated as a CFC or whether any investor is treated as a United States shareholder with respect to us or any of our CFC subsidiaries or to furnish to any United States shareholders information that may be necessary to comply with the aforementioned reporting and tax paying obligations. A United States investor should consult its tax advisor regarding the potential application of these rules in its particular circumstances.

We may be classified as a passive foreign investment company, which could result in adverse United States federal income tax consequences to United States Holders of our ADSs or ordinary shares.

We will be a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for United States federal income tax purposes for any taxable year if, applying applicable look-through rules, either (i) at least 75% of our gross income for such year is passive income or (ii) at least 50% of the value of our assets (generally determined based on an average of the quarterly values of the assets) during such year is attributable to assets that produce or are held for the production of passive income. A separate determination must be made after the close of each taxable year as to whether we are a PFIC for that year and involves extensive factual investigation, including ascertaining the fair market value of all of our assets on a quarterly basis and the character of each item of income that we earn, and is subject to uncertainty in several respects. Based on the market price of our ADSs, the value of our assets and the nature and composition of our income and assets, we do not believe that we were a PFIC for United States federal income tax purposes for our taxable year ended December 31, 2022, and we do not expect to become a PFIC for our current taxable year, although there can be no assurances in this regard. Moreover, we cannot assure you that the United States Internal Revenue Service, or the IRS, will agree with any position that we take. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will not be treated as a PFIC for any taxable year or that the IRS will not take a position contrary to any position that we take.

Changes in the nature or composition of our income or assets, including as a result of our investment in new businesses, products, services and technologies, may cause us to be or become a PFIC. In addition, the determination of whether we will be a PFIC for any taxable year may also depend in part upon the value of our goodwill and other unrecorded intangibles not reflected on our balance sheet (which may depend upon the market price of our ADSs or ordinary shares from time to time, which may fluctuate significantly) and also may be affected by if, how, and how quickly, we spend our liquid assets and the cash we generate from our operations and raise in any offering. In estimating the value of our goodwill and other unrecorded intangibles, we have taken into account our market capitalization. Among other matters, if our market capitalization declines, we may be or become a PFIC for the current or future taxable years because our liquid assets and cash (which are for this purpose considered assets that produce passive income) may then represent a greater percentage of the value of our overall assets. Further, while we believe our classification methodology and valuation approach are reasonable, it is possible that the IRS may challenge our classification or valuation of our goodwill and other unrecorded intangibles, which may result in our being or becoming a PFIC for our taxable year ended December 31, 2022, the current taxable year or one or more future taxable years.

If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a United States Holder (as defined in “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations”) holds our ADSs or ordinary shares, certain adverse United States federal income tax consequences would generally apply to such United States Holder. See “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations—Passive Foreign Investment Company.”

Our memorandum and articles of association contain anti-takeover provisions that could have a material adverse effect on the rights of holders of our ordinary shares and the ADSs.

Our memorandum and articles of association contain provisions to limit the ability of others to acquire control of our company or cause us to engage in change-of-control transactions. These provisions could have the effect of depriving our shareholders of an opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over prevailing market prices by discouraging third parties from seeking to obtain control of our company in a tender offer or similar transaction. For example, our board of directors has the authority, without further action by our shareholders, to issue preferred shares in one or more series and to fix their designations, powers, preferences, privileges and relative participating, optional or special rights and the qualifications, limitations or restrictions, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may be greater than the rights associated with our ordinary shares, in the form of ADSs or otherwise. Preferred shares could be issued quickly with terms calculated to delay or prevent a change in control of our company or make removal of management more difficult. If our board of directors decides to issue preferred shares, the price of the ADSs may fall and the voting and other rights of the holders of our ordinary shares and the ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

You may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through U.S. courts may be limited, because we are incorporated under Cayman Islands law.

We are an exempted company limited by shares incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties owed by our directors under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States. Some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States.

Shareholders of Cayman Islands exempted companies like us have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records (other than such companies’ memorandum and articles of association, any special resolutions and the register of mortgages and charges) or to obtain copies of lists of shareholders of these companies. Under Cayman Islands law, the names of our current directors can be obtained from a search conducted at the Registrar of Companies. Our directors have discretion under our memorandum and articles of association to determine whether or not, and under what conditions, our corporate records may be inspected by our shareholders, but are not obliged to make them available to our shareholders. This may make it more difficult for you to obtain the information needed to establish any facts necessary for a shareholder resolution or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest.

Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, differ significantly from requirements for companies incorporated in other jurisdictions such as the United States. We rely on certain corporate governance exemptions as described in Item 16G (Corporate Governance) of this annual report which permit us to follow our home country practices. Consequently, our shareholders may be afforded less or different protections than they otherwise would under the rules and regulations applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the United States.

Certain judgments obtained against us by our shareholders may not be enforceable.

We are a Cayman Islands company, and the majority of our assets are located, and the majority of our operations are conducted outside of the United States. In addition, a majority of our current directors and officers are nationals and residents of countries other than the United States. Substantially all of the assets of these persons are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for you to bring an action against us or against these individuals in the United States in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under the U.S. federal securities laws or otherwise. Even if you are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands and of Norway may render you unable to enforce a judgment against our assets or the assets of our directors and officers.

Once we cease to be an emerging growth company, we will not be entitled to the exemptions provided by the JOBS Act.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, most significantly, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for so long as we are an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (a) the last day of the fiscal year during which we have total annual gross revenue of at least US$1.07 billion; (b) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of our initial public offering in July 2018; (c) the date on which we have, during the preceding three-year period, issued more than US$1.07 billion in non-convertible debt; or (d) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under the Exchange Act, which would occur if the market value of the ADSs that are held by non-affiliates exceeds US$700 million as of the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter. As a result of our current status as an emerging growth company, our investors may not have access to certain information that they may deem important. Once we cease to be an emerging growth company, we will not be entitled to the exemptions provided by the JOBS Act.

As an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, we are permitted to adopt certain home country practices for corporate governance matters that differ significantly from the Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards; these practices may afford less protection to shareholders than they would enjoy if we complied fully with the corporate governance listing standards.

As a Cayman Islands exempted company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, we are subject to Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards which permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, may differ significantly from the Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards. For instance, we are not required to: (i) have a majority of the board be independent; or (ii) have a compensation committee consisting entirely of independent directors. We rely on certain corporate governance exemptions as described in Item 16G (Corporate Governance) of this annual report. To the extent we choose to follow home country practice in the future, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they would otherwise enjoy under the Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

We are a foreign private issuer within the meaning of the rules under the Exchange Act, and as such we are exempt from certain provisions applicable to United States domestic public companies.

Because we are a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain provisions of the securities rules and regulations in the United States that are applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, including:

We are required to file an annual report on Form 20-F within four months of the end of each fiscal year. In addition, we intend to continue to publish our results on a quarterly basis through press releases, distributed pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Nasdaq. Press releases relating to financial results and material events will also be furnished to the SEC on Form 6-K. However, the information we are required to file with or furnish to the SEC is less extensive and less timely compared to that required to be filed with the SEC by U.S. domestic issuers. As a result, you may not be afforded the same protections or information, which would be made available to you, were you investing in a U.S. domestic issuer.

The voting rights of holders of ADSs are limited by the terms of the deposit agreement, and you may not be able to exercise your right to vote with respect to the ordinary shares.

As a holder of ADSs, you will only be able to exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying ordinary shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under the deposit agreement, you must vote by giving voting instructions to the depositary. Upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try to vote the underlying ordinary shares in accordance with these instructions. You will not be able to directly exercise your right to vote with respect to the underlying shares unless you withdraw the shares. Under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the minimum notice period required for convening a general meeting is seven days. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice to withdraw the shares underlying your ADSs to allow you to vote with respect to any specific matter. If we ask for your instructions, the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your shares. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out your voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to vote and you may have no legal remedy if the shares underlying your ADSs are not voted as you requested.

ADSs holders may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to claims arising under the deposit agreement, which could result in less favorable outcomes to the plaintiff(s) in any such action.

The deposit agreement governing the ADSs representing our ordinary shares provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, ADS holders waive the right to a jury trial for any claim they may have against us or the depositary arising out of or relating to our shares, the ADSs or the deposit agreement, including any claim under the U.S. federal securities laws.

If we or the depositary were to oppose a jury trial based on this waiver, the court would have to determine whether the waiver was enforceable based on the facts and circumstances of the case in accordance with applicable state and federal law. To our knowledge, the enforceability of a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver in connection with claims arising under the federal securities laws has not been finally adjudicated by the United States Supreme Court. However, we believe that a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver provision is generally enforceable, including under the laws of the State of New York, which govern the deposit agreement, or by a federal or state court in the City of New York, which has non-exclusive jurisdiction over matters arising under the deposit agreement. In determining whether to enforce a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver, courts will generally consider whether a party knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived the right to a jury trial. We believe that this would be the case with respect to the deposit agreement and the ADSs. It is advisable that you consult legal counsel regarding the jury waiver provision before investing in the ADSs.

If you or any other holders or beneficial owners of ADSs bring a claim against us or the depositary in connection with matters arising under the deposit agreement or the ADSs, including claims under federal securities laws, you or such other holder or beneficial owner may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to such claims, which may have the effect of limiting and discouraging lawsuits against us or the depositary. If a lawsuit is brought against us or the depositary under the deposit agreement, it may be heard only by a judge or justice of the applicable trial court, which would be conducted according to different civil procedures and may result in different outcomes than a trial by jury would have, including outcomes that could be less favorable to the plaintiff(s) in any such action.

Nevertheless, if this jury trial waiver is not permitted by applicable law, an action could proceed under the terms of the deposit agreement with a jury trial. No condition, stipulation or provision of the deposit agreement or the ADSs serves as a waiver by any holder or beneficial owner of ADSs or by us or the depositary of compliance with any substantive provision of the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

You may not receive dividends or other distributions on our ordinary shares, and you may not receive any value for them if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to you.

The depositary has agreed to pay to you the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian receives on the ordinary shares or other deposited securities underlying your ADSs, after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of ordinary shares your ADSs represent. However, the depositary is not responsible if it decides that it is unlawful or impractical to make a distribution available to any holders of ADSs. For example, it would be unlawful to make a distribution to a holder of ADSs if it consists of securities that require registration under the Securities Act but that are not properly registered or distributed under an applicable exemption from registration. The depositary may also determine that it is not feasible to distribute certain property through the mail. Additionally, the value of certain distributions may be less than the cost of mailing them. In these cases, the depositary may determine not to distribute such property. We have no obligation to register under U.S. securities laws any ADSs, ordinary shares, rights or other securities received through such distributions. We also have no obligation to take any other action to permit the distribution of ADSs, ordinary shares, rights or anything else to holders of ADSs. This means that you may not receive distributions we make on our ordinary shares or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical for us to make them available to you. These restrictions may cause a material decline in the value of the ADSs.

You may experience dilution of your holdings due to inability to participate in rights offerings.

We may, from time to time, distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire securities. Under the deposit agreement, the depositary will not distribute rights to holders of ADSs unless the distribution and sale of rights and the securities to which these rights relate are either exempt from registration under the Securities Act with respect to all holders of ADSs, or are registered under the provisions of the Securities Act. The depositary may, but is not required to, attempt to sell these undistributed rights to third parties, and may allow the rights to lapse. We may be unable to establish an exemption from registration under the Securities Act, and we are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to these rights or underlying securities or to endeavor to have a registration statement declared effective. Accordingly, holders of ADSs may be unable to participate in our rights offerings and may experience dilution of their holdings as a result.

Item 4. Information on the Company

We trace our history back to 1996 and the launch of the first version of our “Opera” branded browser software. We have since been a pioneer in redefining the web browsing experience, providing personalized content discovery platforms and offering gaming services for hundreds of millions of global internet users.

Opera Limited is an exempted company with limited liability incorporated in March 2018 in the Cayman Islands. We conduct our business mainly through our operating companies, including in particular Opera Norway AS, a private limited liability company incorporated under the laws of Norway. We acquired Opera Norway AS and its subsidiaries on November 3, 2016, for a consideration of US$575.0 million, less working capital adjustments. This acquisition included the business of providing Opera’s mobile and PC web browsers, as well as certain related products and services.

We listed our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “OPRA” on July 27, 2018. One ADS corresponds to two underlying shares in Opera Limited. On August 9, 2018, we completed the initial public offering of 9,600,000 ADSs, and the underwriters exercised their over-allotment option on the same date for the purchase of an additional 334,672 ADSs. We also sold 9,999,998 shares, equivalent to 4,999,999 ADSs, in a concurrent private placement. Our pre-IPO shareholders held 190,250,000 shares, equivalent to 95,125,000 ADSs. Combined, following the IPO, Opera Limited had 220,119,342 shares outstanding, corresponding to 110,059,671 ADSs. On September 24, 2019, we completed a follow-on public offering of an additional 7,500,000 ADSs, and the underwriters later exercised their over-allotment option for the purchase of an additional 1,125,000 ADSs, which was completed on October 16, 2020. As of the date of this annual report, net of separately announced repurchases of our own shares and the exercise of employee equity grants, a total of 179,684,494 shares are outstanding, equivalent to 89,842,247 ADSs.

Our company is a holding company that does not have substantive operations. We conduct our principal activities through our subsidiaries. Our principal executive offices are located at Vitaminveien 4, 0485 Oslo, Norway. Our telephone number at this address is +47 23 69 24 00. Our principal website is www.opera.com. The information contained on our website is not a part of this annual report.

Overview

Opera is a leading global internet brand with a large, engaged and growing base reaching over 324 million average MAUs in 2022. Building on over 27 years of innovation, starting with our browser products, we are increasingly leveraging our brand as well as our massive and engaged user base in order to expand our offerings and our business. Today, we offer users around the globe a range of products and services that include a variety of PC and mobile browsers, our Opera Gaming portals and development tools, our Opera News content recommendation products, our audience extension product (namely Opera Ads platform) and a number of Web3 and e-commerce products and services.

Opera launched one of the first PC browsers in 1996 and introduced the world’s first full web browser for mobile phones in 2002. Since then, Opera has remained an innovator in the browser space, launching features including tabbed browsing, data savings, PC/mobile sync, and numerous features focused on privacy and security, including ad blocking and a built-in VPN. Today, our browser products include Opera Mini, Opera Browser for Android and iOS, Opera for Computers, Opera GX and Opera GX Mobile, separate browsers tailored for gamers. The newest addition to our family of browsers is Web3-centric browser for PC and mobile, namely Opera Crypto Browser, which is tailored for crypto enthusiasts. The development of features for the Opera Crypto Browser allows us to determine which Web3 features might be desirable for all of our users and implemented in other Opera Browsers. Our browsers had approximately 290 million average MAUs in 2022.

The browser is an increasingly strategic application—often serving as an access point for content, e-commerce, gaming and fintech activities on the internet, and Opera is utilizing this strategic position to launch and scale new offerings.

Opera Gaming, our emerging video game focused division, started with Opera GX, a browser tailored for gamers. We launched our GX Browser for PCs in the second quarter of 2019 followed by a mobile version in May 2021. In early 2021, we purchased GameMaker Studio, which allows anyone to develop a video game in a low-code environment. Building on the strength of our GX browser user base and the community of developers using GameMaker Studio, in September 2021, we launched GX.games, a gaming portal which allows gamers to find and play games developed using GameMaker Studio. In 2022, Opera GX reached over 17 million MAUs and GX Mobile reached over 3 million MAUs.

Opera News, our AI-driven content platform enabled by big data technologies, was launched in 2017, initially as part of our browser and later as a stand-alone app, leveraging our large user base and well-known brand in order to deliver a personalized and relevant content experience at scale. To ensure access to compelling content, Opera News Hub was launched to enable local content creators to publish exclusive content on our platform, which has helped grow engagement on the service by increasing page views and time spent. Since the initial launch of Opera News, we have expanded the platform to offer customized experiences for certain particular verticals, such as football (soccer). Today, Opera News is offered in a number of customizations and under a variety of brands, most notably Apex News, which collectively make it one of the most downloaded and used global news applications. In 2022, Opera News had an average of 172 million MAUs, which included 31 million MAUs from standalone news apps.

Opera Ads platform, our audience extension product, was launched in 2021 as an online marketing platform that allows our advertising partners to reach an even larger audience than the ones offered by Opera’s owned and operated apps and websites.

Since 2021, we have begun to launch Web3 and e-commerce products including a premium VPN and the Opera cashback rewards program that allows browser users to reap rewards from their online shopping.

We intend to continue to leverage our brand as well as our large and engaged user base to launch additional consumer facing products in the future.

Our Products and Users

Our products include: (i) Opera Browsers – the web browsers Opera Mini, Opera Browser for Android and iOS, Opera for Computers, the Opera GX and Opera Crypto Browser for PCs and mobile; (ii) Opera Gaming – which builds on the success of Opera GX with the GX.games gaming portal and the GameMaker Studio 2 video game development engine; (iii) the personalized Opera News content aggregation and recommendation platform; (iv) the intelligent online marketing platform – Opera Ads; and (v) our Web3 and e-commerce offerings.

Our cloud-based technologies enable hundreds of millions of users to discover and interact with the content and services that matter most to them. The application of leading AI-powered technologies and advanced data analytics and the recommendation engine built into our browsers and news apps, and other products and services, give our users a better, faster and more personalized online experience and enable advertisers to target relevant users in a more precise way.

Opera Browsers

Our PC browsers: Opera for Computers and Opera GX

Opera for Computers is one of the most innovative and differentiated PC browsers on the market, catering to the high-end user segment that requires performance and features beyond those offered by the default system browsers on Windows, macOS and variants of Linux. Opera for Computers uses an Opera-tuned version of the Chromium browsing engine carefully optimized for performance metrics such as speed and laptop battery consumption. In addition, we provide users with unique features that are not found in other major web browsers, including a free, built-in VPN service that enhances user privacy and security, especially for laptops on public networks, subject to compliance with relevant local regulatory requirements. The browser also includes a native ad block feature that increases page loading speeds by up to five times as compared to when the ad block feature is disabled or not present as in certain other browsers. Our PC browser makes it easier to shop online with built-in currency and foreign unit conversion and makes communication easier by embedding social network services such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and Twitter in the browser’s sidebar. In November 2022, we became the first browser to add a built-in TikTok feature to the sidebar of our desktop browser. In 2022, we continued to add features and functionality to our Opera for Computers offering.

Opera GX, which launched in the second quarter of 2019, is a web browser tailored for gamers. Opera GX allows PC gamers to customize and tune their browsers to improve their gaming experience. In September 2019, Opera GX won the Red Dot Award in the Interface and User Experience Design category. Features, such as GX Control and embedding Twitch in the browser, differentiates Opera GX from Opera for Computers. In December 2022, we announced that Opera GX had exceeded 20 million MAUs across the desktop and mobile versions.

We have a large and active global PC browser user base with 74.8 million average MAUs in 2022. Our PC browser user base has historically been prominent in regions that value our innovations in browser technology and more recently in regions where gaming is particularly popular, such as Europe and the Americas.

Our Mobile Browsers: Opera Browser for Android, Opera Browser for iOS, Opera GX Mobile and Opera Mini and Opera Crypto Browser

Our mobile browser products currently include Opera Browser for Android and iOS, Opera GX Mobile and Opera Mini, as well as an early access version of a Web3-centric mobile browser, namely Opera Crypto Browser. Our mobile browser products are fast and optimized for mobile browsing. All mobile browsers come with native ad blockers, which provide users with the option to further increase browser speed by blocking ads that are often slow and intrusive.

Launched in 2013, the Opera Browser for Android is our flagship Android smartphone browser. It comes with a full browser engine, based on the Chromium project, and a user-friendly interface designed to give users a fast browsing experience on high-end smartphones. Opera for Android is a powerful and feature-rich browser, optimized for mobile phones with larger screens and tablets. In December 2018, Opera for Android became the first browser to feature an integrated Crypto Wallet, making it easy to use Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies and blockchain powered web applications. The browser also enables users to block annoying cookie dialogs, and in March 2019, the browser became the first major mobile browser to ship with an integrated VPN solution.

We launched the iOS version of the Opera Browser in the fourth quarter of 2018, at the time branded as Opera Touch. Opera Browser for iOS is designed for mobile phone users to engage with the browser with one hand while they are on the move. The browser has won both the Red Dot Award in Communication Design 2018 and the iF DESIGN AWARD 2019 for its unique design and usability. Opera for iOS offers a rich feature set including a native ad-blocker, a Crypto Wallet and the Flow syncing feature that enables users to continue browsing across their devices. In March 2021, we rebranded our award-winning browser Opera Touch on iOS and changed its name to Opera. This rebranding marks a new milestone for us; unifying our brand and products across all platforms to offer users a seamless browsing experience on all their devices.

In May 2021, we announced the launch of Opera GX Mobile – the world’s first mobile browser designed specifically for gamers. Opera GX Mobile users enjoy custom navigation with the Fast Action Button, or FAB, using vibration and haptic feedback. This browser won two Red Dot Awards in 2021 in the Mobile UIs category. Users are also getting the ability to sync mobile and PC experiences through the Flow feature, which enables gamers to share walkthroughs, tutorials and character builds between devices, and getting instant access to GX corner – a unique space on GX Mobile’s home screen featuring the latest gaming news, deals and a game release calendar. Opera GX Mobile also distinguishes itself with a unique gaming-inspired design supporting different color themes.

First launched in 2006, Opera Mini is a mobile browser that provides a faster browser experience on practically any Android smartphone or feature phone. Through the application of advanced data compression and savings technologies, Opera Mini has enabled hundreds of millions of users around the world to access the internet through their mobile devices, providing a reliable browsing experience regardless of their network conditions. Opera Mini is a cloud-based browser that is fast to install and takes up very little space on a user’s mobile phone. When browsing with Opera Mini, the data traffic can go through Opera servers, which compress web pages, including text and images, towards only 10% of their original size, reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent over mobile networks that are often congested. Moreover, the reduced data traffic consumption can provide users with a significantly lower data cost compared to the default browsers found on their phones. Opera Mini averaged 152 million users worldwide during 2022, with over 98 million MAU in its Android version alone. In addition, Opera is one of the most widely used mobile browsers in emerging markets in 2022 according to Statcounter.

Building on our tradition of creating bespoke browsing experiences, in January 2022, we launched a public beta of browsers for PC and mobile that are tailored to provide crypto enthusiasts a gateway to web3 and crypto, namely Opera Crypto Browser. While we believe it is early in the adoption of web3, Opera is positioning itself for the adoption of such services.

Our mobile browser user base reached 215 million average MAUs in 2022, of which 161.9 million were smartphone users and 53.6 million were feature phone users. In 2022, we continued to reduce acquisition spend in South Asia, a low ARPU region, while reallocating our resources to growing our users in high ARPU markets such as North America and Western Europe.

Our Gaming Initiative: Opera Gaming

Building on the success of Opera GX, Opera is developing a community of gamers and game creators. This included creating the Opera Gaming division that provides GameMaker, a 2D gaming development platform. The focus of Opera Gaming will be to grow the user base of Opera GX and build increased functionality within and outside the Opera GX browser, using GameMaker.

GameMaker provides game creators with a complete set of tools to create games for any platform. In the third quarter of 2021, Opera made it free for creators to develop games with GameMaker and publish those games to Opera GX. In 2022, GameMaker started monthly game releases, as compared to quarterly releases previously. Numerous product updates throughout the year brought long-awaited Long Term Support (promise of long-term updates important for console development), shaders, graphics filters, audio filters, and initial multiplayer support, to the platform. In November 2021, we launched GX Games, a portal connecting our Opera GX browser users with the games created by developers using our GameMaker development platform. Developers can publish their games to GX Games directly from GameMaker with a single click. GX Games gives users instant access to over 3,000 games directly from Opera GX. By bringing Opera GX and GameMaker together, the GX Games portal seeks to make creating, sharing and playing games as quick and easy as posting on social media. Even though it’s currently limited to Opera GX audience, the services’ early adopters spent over 1.5 million hours playing games in December 2022.

Our AI-powered News and Content Recommendations Service: Opera News

Leveraging our massive user base and innovation capability, we launched the Opera News service in January 2017. Opera News is our AI-powered personalized news discovery and aggregation service. The service is both featured prominently as part of our browsers, and also made available as a standalone app and website. These apps operate under both the Opera News and Apex News brands. By providing AI-powered news and content recommendations, we have increased both user activity and the amount of time users spend in our online ecosystem.

We use our proprietary AI technologies to curate and intelligently recommend news, articles, videos and other online content that may be of interest to our users. Users can conveniently access this content through real-time intelligent ranking, top news and push notification features. Moreover, Opera News utilizes natural language processing and other technologies to quickly process linguistic differences and nuances to assess and recommend online content across different languages and cultures. When using an Opera product powered by our AI recommendation engine, people can efficiently discover and share online content that appeals to them.

We continue to improve Opera News, adding new features and functions for our users as well as improving the attractiveness of the platform for content creators and publishers. In September 2019, we launched Opera News Hub in Nigeria and then expanded to additional markets in 2020 and 2021. The Opera News Hub platform enables content creators to self-publish and monetize their content through our Opera News channels, which has enabled us to attract increasingly local content. At the same time, we have sought to increase the number of mainstream news publishers distributing content on the Opera News platform. To enable publishers to build audience loyalty, we have added features for users to follow specific publishers and receive notifications when they submit new content. Users can also create custom feeds to receive content from their preferred publishers and content categories.

Building upon the success of Opera News, we rolled out Apex Football (formerly known as Opera Football) in 2021. This website and related apps use the AI technology developed for Opera News, with a filter in place to highlight only the news about a specific vertical, in this case football (soccer). In addition to the filter, Apex Football is given a design aesthetic that gives the apps and website a unique look. In 2022, we introduced additional sports verticals including Cricket, Basketball and general sporting news. Furthermore, in 2022, Opera embedded a live score feature into our Android browsers allowing users to subscribe and follow their favorite matches and teams from the browser start page. We believe there are opportunities for additional sports and other verticals that Opera can offer, leveraging the already developed Opera News AI technology.

Our Opera News user base reached 172 million average MAUs in 2022 across those users that accessed Opera News from Opera browsers and those that accessed it from dedicated Opera News apps or websites. The Opera News apps reached an average of 36 million in MAUs in 2022. In light of the strong adoption of Opera News in emerging markets, in 2021, we entered into additional markets including the United States, France and Germany, and we have seen initial success in these markets in terms of revenue. Generally speaking, users in these markets monetize at a significantly higher rate than those in the initial Opera News markets in Africa.

Our Intelligent Online Marketing Platforms: Opera Ads

Opera Ads is our in-house advertising platform optimized for serving our owned and operated inventory targeting digital agencies, advertisers and brands to connect and engage directly with Opera users through both programmatic and traditional advertising solutions. The Opera Ads offering is an important part of our monetization strategy aimed at growing our ARPU and it builds on top of our existing search monetization partnerships with third-party companies, such as Google, and partnerships with other monetization partners, such as Amazon. 

The Opera Ads platform was extended in 2021 with our audience extension service, which connects with partner inventories via real-time bidding, offering our advertising partners an audience extension and incremental reach for their campaigns. In 2022, Opera Ads platform was the fastest growing contributor to our advertising revenue, which surpassed our search revenue for the first time, and outperformed our expectations throughout the year.

Our Web3 and E-Commerce Initiatives

Our Web3 Initiatives

In 2018, we introduced a Crypto Wallet inside our browsers, enabling access to a new generation of blockchain-based Web3 applications. This allows users to interact with these applications, send or receive various kinds of cryptocurrencies to sites and users, as well as identify themselves to sites and hold unique digital items from blockchain-based games. As of December 31, 2022, Opera supports the most relevant blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon and Solana. In addition, we re-built our non-custodial Web3 wallet into a standalone SDK, which is embedded into Opera browser applications. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we had 0.6 million average MAUs of our Web3 wallet across smartphone and PC platforms. 

In November 2022, we introduced DegenKnows, an NFT analysis and exploration tool that helps users seamlessly discover and verify digital collectibles through social signals, on-chain analysis and wallet tracking. DegenKnows API service helps platforms, institutions, communities and other business partners retrieve, manage and analyze both on-chain and social real-time data with deep market insights.

Our E-commerce Initiatives

We launched a browser-based cashback offering that provides financial rewards to Opera users for certain online transactions. The Opera cashback rewards program aims to provide Opera’s users with an integrated, seamless, non-intrusive cashback experience inside their browser. The cashback service was initially offered in Spain and then rolled out to Polish users in October 2021. Opera cashback features hundreds of shops including brands such as PC Componentes, AliExpress, and Shein.

In 2022, we rolled out Opera cashback to Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Mexico with further plans on expanding into Brazil, where Opera browsers’ market share has been consistently growing. In 2023, we plan to focus on scaling the business, adding web3 based differentiators to the cashback product along with further expansion in Latin America.

In 2022, we also rolled out Opera VPN Pro, a subscription-based VPN service, white labeled and operated by a leading VPN brand, and integrated payment/subscription options within Opera account, enabling Opera to offer more paid services for its users in the future.

Our Partners

We partner with companies that benefit from our online marketing and advertising services, including search engines, e-commerce and travel providers and digital advertising platforms. Through placement of shortcuts, or “Speed Dials”, and advertisements in our browsers and apps, we have the ability to direct traffic to the websites of both global and local partners that provide services to our users. These companies pay us either for referring traffic to them or for displaying their advertisements.

Search Providers

We partner with internet search providers like Google and Yandex and have worked closely with them for over 20 and 15 years, respectively. These partnerships make available best-in-class search technology to our users and enhance the visibility of our brand. We share the revenue generated by our search partners when our users conduct searches initiated within the URL bar, default search page or search boxes embedded in our PC and mobile browsers.

We have had a search distribution agreement with Google since 2001. We entered into our current search distribution agreement with Google in 2012 and have extended the term of that agreement until December 31, 2024. Google may also extend the term by an additional 12-month period by providing 30 days written notice to us. We have had a search partner agreement with Yandex since 2007. We entered into our current partner agreement with Yandex in 2012. The initial term of this agreement has been extended several times and now extends until December 2024. Following the initial term, the partner agreement automatically renews for additional two-year periods unless written notice is given by either party at least 30 days prior to the automatic renewal. Our agreements with Google and Yandex are subject to customary events of default, including failure to make payments, material breach, liquidation, as well as other termination trigger events as provided therein.

E-commerce and Online Travel Agencies

We work closely with large, global e-commerce and online travel agencies, such as Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress, and Booking.com, as well as strong local brands like Flipkart, Lazada and others. The value of these partnerships continues to rise through increased user engagement with such popular services within our browsers, as well as our audience extension offering.

We earn revenue from transactions initiated by our directed users via links provided on our Speed Dial homepage and other advertisements, typically in the form of a defined share of the revenue generated by these service providers.

Digital Advertising Platforms

We have established relationships with leading digital advertising platforms such as Google AdSense, AdMob by Google, Meta Audience Network and others.

We allow these digital advertising platforms to display their advertising demand on our browsers, content apps and websites where we recognize revenue based on the amounts we are entitled to receive from such advertising partners. We also sell selected premium advertising placements, such as Roadblock banners, interstitials, videos, sponsored articles and notifications to global and local advertisers.

Content Providers

In addition to monetization partners, we have formed strong relationships with high profile media companies, while also focusing on regional and local content providers in key markets in Africa, Europe and the United States. These relationships enable us to obtain comprehensive news and other content that we can make available to users on our platform, provide more publicity for our content provider partners and generate revenues through the placement of advertising within our news service. Further, we are increasingly focused on the creation of exclusive local content through Opera News Hub. We also analyze users’ behavior to improve the relevance of the news stories and advertisements that we show to each user based on their preferences.

Marketing & Distribution

We also partner with device manufacturers and mobile network operators to promote and distribute our products. We have long-term relationships with device manufacturers to ensure cost-efficient and reliable distribution benefitting both these distribution partners and us. In addition, we partner with mobile network operators in Africa for joint marketing campaigns. These campaigns promote the data saving features of our mobile browsers on our operator partner’s network, while providing free or reduced cost browsing to the consumer for a limited time.

Technology

Technology is key to our success as it enables us to innovate, improve our users’ experience and operate our business more efficiently. Our technology team is composed of highly skilled engineers, computer scientists and technicians whose expertise spans a wide range of areas. As of December 31, 2022, we employed a team of approximately 450 engineering and data analytics personnel, mainly located in Poland, China, Sweden and the United Kingdom engaging in building our technology platform and developing new Opera products and services in our core businesses as well as newer initiatives such as gaming, Web3 and e-commerce.

Artificial Intelligence

Through AI technologies, we have transformed our browsers and other products and services into an AI-powered content discovery and recommendation platform that provides our users with personalized news, videos and other online content. We leverage data from our existing user base and technologies, such as natural language processing, computer visioning and image recognition, deep learning and collaborative filtering, to develop our AI-powered content discovery and recommendation platform that we integrate into a variety of our products and services. Our AI platform evaluates billions of potentially correlated data points between each item of online content and each individual user to provide personalized content recommendations of high interest to our users.

Our key AI technologies implement the following powerful features:

Cloud Compression Technologies

Our compression technologies, Turbo and Opera Binary Markup Language, or OBML, are advanced compression technologies that are built into our apps to optimize data traffic and connection times for our users. These technologies allow our browsers to load web pages faster by downloading less data. Today, Turbo is our standard compression mode for high-end smartphones and computers, while OBML, adapted exclusively for Opera Mini, provides an extreme compression mode, which compresses web content by up to 90%, providing a good web browsing experience even on the most limited mobile data networks.

Network Infrastructure

We have built a reliable and secure network infrastructure that fully supports our operations. Our physical network infrastructure utilizes our data centers that are linked with high-speed networking. We have developed our architecture to work effectively in a flexible cloud environment that has a high degree of elasticity. Our automatic provisioning tools have enabled us to increase our storage and computing capacity in a short period of time in response to increasing demand for our services. Our proprietary network application protocols ensure fast and reliable mobile communications under different network conditions in the various markets where we operate. We aim to provide a consistent user experience across different devices, operating systems, carriers and network environments.

As of December 31, 2022, we owned approximately 6,000 servers in nine internet data centers located in the Netherlands (two locations), the United States (two locations), Singapore, Canada, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. As of December 31, 2022, our data centers had a total connectivity bandwidth of 1.18 Tbps max throughput, 300 Gbps daily peak.

Our Investments

Our business includes non-controlling investments in other companies.

OPay Limited, or OPay, an investee in which we currently hold a 9.5% ownership interest, is a mobile payment fintech company that focuses on emerging markets, with Nigeria and Egypt as initial key markets. OPay provides online and offline payments, and digital wallet services leveraging AI, big data and other fintech innovations, thus helping countries in emerging markets transform into cashless societies. As of December 31, 2022, our investment in OPay is treated as held for sale pursuant to a divestment plan authorized by the board of directors of the Company.

nHorizon Innovation (Beijing) Software Ltd., or nHorizon, a joint venture in which we have a 29.1% ownership interest, operates an Opera browser in China. nHorizon’s monetization partners include Baidu, Sogou and others. nHorizon consists of nHorizon Innovation (Beijing) Software Limited and nHorizon Infinite (Beijing) Software Limited.

AB “Fjord Bank”, or Fjord Bank, an investee in which we invested EUR0.8 million in January 2021 in exchange for shares representing an ownership interest of 6.1% as of December 31, 2022, operates as a licensed specialized bank and has launched operations with an online offering which includes fixed deposits and consumer lending business in the Lithuanian market.

Historically we held a 19.4% ownership interest in Star Group Interactive Inc., or Star X (formerly known as StarMaker). Star X is a technology-driven company focused on audio-centric social networking, which is popular in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and the Middle East. On April 21, 2022, we announced the sale of our entire ownership interest in Star X to Kunlun Tech Limited for US$83.5 million in cash, of which US$28.4 million was received in May 2022 while the remaining consideration is due in two equal installments by December 31 of 2023 and 2024 with no contingencies.

In addition, we owned a 42.4% ownership interest in NanoCred Cayman Co. Limited, or Nanobank. Nanobank offered microlending and other services in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia. On March 22, 2022, we announced the sale of our entire ownership interest in Nanobank to an undisclosed third-party buyer for US$127.1 million in cash, payable in eight equal quarterly installments over the next two years. In August 2022, we and the buyer agreed to make certain modifications to the sales agreement, including to the total purchase price, payment period and installment amounts. The adjusted purchase price was US$131.7 million, payable in 16 quarterly installments, the first of which had been made at the time the restated share transfer agreement was entered into. The restated share transfer agreement also introduced certain provisions which would potentially reduce the purchase price and cause the immediate settlement of the receivable following a sale or merger in which Nanobank is the target entity sold or merged. In February 2023, Nanobank sold the majority of its business in Asia to OPay in exchange for shares in OPay. In connection with this, we and the buyer of our shares in Nanobank agreed to treat the transaction as a full sale of Nanobank, triggering an immediate settlement of Opera’s receivable in the form of shares in OPay in lieu of quarterly cash installments. The settlement was based on the valuation applied in the transaction as well as an estimate for the value of Nanobank’s remaining business. We entered into a final share transfer agreement mirroring relevant provisions of the sales agreement between Nanobank and OPay, which includes certain financial targets for the Nanobank business acquired and a provision for the sellers to pro-rata return up to all Series C preferred shares received as consideration in the transaction, after 2024, if the cumulative performance over 2023 and 2024 falls short of such targets. Following the settlement of the receivable, our ownership interest in OPay increased from 6.4% to 9.5%.

User Privacy and Safety

The vitality and integrity of our user base is the cornerstone of our business. We dedicate significant resources to the goal of strengthening our user base through developing and implementing programs designed to protect user privacy, promote a safe environment, and ensure the security of user data. We also implement unique features in our products and services to protect users’ online digital presence, such as a free, no-log VPN service, a premium, paid VPN service for enhanced protection, native ad blocking and anti-tracking options.

Our privacy statements seek to describe our data use practices and how privacy works on our platforms in a user-friendly manner. We provide users with adequate notice as to what data is being collected and undertake to manage and use the data collected in accordance with applicable laws. We consider the protection of the personal privacy of each of our users to be of paramount importance.

We continuously strive to prevent unauthorized use, loss or leak of user data. In addition, we use a variety of technical and organizational measures to protect the data with which we are entrusted, including encryption of personal data at rest and in transit, and, for our external interfaces, we also utilize demilitarized zones and firewalls to protect against potential attacks or unauthorized access. We have privacy and security teams dedicated to the ongoing review and monitoring of data protection practices, including penetration testing, auditing, and carrying out data privacy impact assessments.

Product Marketing and Distribution

For the majority of our products and services, the main source of marketing is “word-of-mouth” from our large user base. The trust and reliance that our users place in us is a key growth driver of our business, since prospective users that hear positive feedback from their friends and colleagues about our products and services are more likely to try them. We have run influencer marketing campaigns to gain trust and mind-share among key target demographics. We also run promotional campaigns around global events, such as the World Cup tournament, to further engage users and drive adoption.

In 2022, organic installs were our most important channel for new user acquisition, representing approximately 75% of our new smartphone users. In parallel, we cooperate with industry partners to promote our products. See “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—B. Related Party Transactions.” In 2022, approximately 7% of new smartphone users originated from our paid online promotions.

Our products are available through our official website, www.opera.com, as well as Google Play, Apple’s App Store, and other online app marketplaces.

Competition

We face intense competition with regard to all of the products and services we offer. In the browser space, we generally compete with other global browser developers, including companies such as Google (Chrome), Apple (Safari), Microsoft (Edge) and Samsung that distribute their browsers via proprietary operating systems and devices. We also compete with other regional internet companies that have strong positions in particular countries. From time to time, we have to compete with smaller, independent browser companies such as Mozilla Firefox, Brave, Avast, Yandex, DuckDuckGo and UC Web as well for those users who want to choose an alternative browser for their devices in addition to their respective default browsers. In the advertising space, we compete with other global internet companies which operate advertising platforms and audience extension products, such as those offered by Meta and Alphabet for both inventory and advertisers. In the content space, we have faced significant competition from other internet companies promoting their own content products and services globally, including Google, Apple and Facebook, and traditional media such as local and global newspapers and magazines. Unlike some other large competitors in the content space, we have historically focused on emerging markets, which enables us to integrate unique content to users via our evolving AI-powered content discovery, recommendation platform. However, we expect to increasingly compete with digital media properties and other AI based news offerings as we continue to expand into developed markets. In addition, we compete with all major internet companies for user attention and advertising spend. Moreover, in emerging international markets, where certain mobile devices lack large storage capabilities, we may compete with other applications for the limited space available on a user's mobile device. As we introduce new products, as our existing products evolve, or as other companies introduce new products and services, we may become subject to additional competition. 

See “Item 3. Key Information —D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We face intense competition in a number of spaces and industries and if we do not continue to innovate and provide products and services that meet the needs of our users, we may not remain competitive.”

Seasonality

See “Item 3. Key Information —D. Risk Factors— Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Our results of operations are subject to seasonal fluctuations due to a number of factors.”

Intellectual Property

We regard our patents, copyrights, service marks, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual properties as critical to our success. We rely on patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secret protection, as well as non-competition, confidentiality, and license agreements with our employees, customers, partners and others to protect our intellectual property rights. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for third parties to obtain and use our intellectual properties without authorization. Furthermore, the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights in internet-related industries are uncertain and still evolving.

As of December 31, 2022, we had over 300 active registrations or pending applications for the OPERA, Opera with Red O (both old and new versions) and OPERA SOFTWARE trademarks in over 90 countries, and for our red “O” logo in over 80 countries. We are also seeking trademark protections for certain of our other brands. Opera has a patent portfolio that includes more than 20 patents issued in the United States as well as certain international patent registrations. In addition, as of December 31, 2022, we had hundreds of registered domain names related to our businesses.

Regulations

Norwegian Regulations on Intellectual Property Rights

Norway adheres to key international agreements for the protection of intellectual property rights, hereunder the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Berne Convention, Universal Copyright Convention of 1952, the Rome Convention and the TRIPS agreement.

The main acts governing intellectual property rights in Norway are the Patents Act of December 15, 1967, Designs Act of March 14, 2003, Trademarks Act of March 26, 2010, Copyrights Act of June 15, 2018, and Marketing Act of January 9, 2009. The latter also protects trade secrets.

Trademarks, designs and patents shall be registered upon application to the Norwegian Industrial Property Office, or the NIPO, in order to be valid in Norway. Patent applications which have been granted at the European Patent Office can be validated in Norway upon application to the NIPO.

Regulations on Data Protection and Information Security

The principal data protection legislation in Norway is the Personal Data Act of June 15, 2018, no. 38. The Personal Data Act implements 2016/679/EU - General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in its entirety. The purpose of the act is to protect natural persons from violation of their right to privacy through the processing of personal data. Broadly speaking, the GDPR applies to the processing of personal data conducted by companies established in the European Economic Area, or EEA, and to the processing of personal data of data subjects in the EEA, where the processing is linked to offering services to such data subjects or monitoring their behavior.

A significant number of the users of our products are in the EEA and we also serve our browser users and others from our business establishment in Norway, and consequently our processing of the personal data of such users is subject to the GDPR. Since the Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, handed down its judgment in Schrems II in 2020, data protection authorities in Norway, Ireland, France, Germany, and elsewhere have levied significant fines against various technology companies for GDPR violations. Decisions by such authorities, as well as guidance from the European Data Protection Board have repeatedly emphasized that international transfers of personal data should be subject to heightened scrutiny . Furthermore, regulatory decisions and related litigation (such as the so-called IAB Decision, currently on appeal to the CJEU) underscore that the internet advertising industry is an area of special concern for privacy authorities. Lastly, a new E-Privacy Regulation (replacing the 2002 E-Privacy Directive) is still being debated in the European Union. As a result, we anticipate that on-going developments in European data protection and privacy laws and practices will continue to affect our business and impact our products.

In the last few years, many additional jurisdictions, including Brazil, Nigeria, and China, have enacted or updated data privacy or data localization laws. Similarly, new privacy acts are under consideration in India and several states in the United States. For example, the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation of 2019, which was adopted based on the GDPR, requires that entities collecting the personal data of Nigerians must register with Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency and submit to the agency the results of annual data privacy audits conducted by registered data privacy auditors. Likewise, Brazil has also implemented a robust privacy law similar to the GDPR in many respects, and also includes strict localization requirements. We anticipate continued developments in data protection, privacy and data localization rules in various countries, which will continue to affect our business and impact our products and services.

Regulations Relating to Content Recommendation

Our Opera News content discovery and recommendation platform is available in a wide variety of markets worldwide. In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on the veracity of online news reports, with the increasing social expectation that content platforms and aggregators will take steps to prevent the dissemination of “fake news.” Moreover, a number of countries have adopted regulatory regimes for news aggregation services requiring local registration or licensing, in some cases enabling more effective governmental restrictions on their citizens’ access to certain categories of information. Other countries have adopted legislation expanding publishers’ copyright entitlements on digital platforms including search engines, social media and content recommendation platforms. Australia and France, for example, have adopted laws which afford publishers of digital media the right to receive payment for use of their content in search results or content recommendations. The European Union has adopted Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, which gives press publications more direct control over the re-use of their content and also tasks online content sharing platforms, which host user-generated content, with certain duties related to preventing their users from violating copyright of others. In short, content aggregation is becoming increasingly regulated, and we anticipate that we will be subject to an increasingly diverse and fragmented regulatory environment over time.

European Economic Sanctions

The European Union adopted certain economic sanctions following the 2014 invasion and purported annexation of Crimea in Council Regulation (EU) 833/2014 of 31 July 2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, or the EU Regulation. Norway, as a member of the EEA, has incorporated the EU Regulation’s economic sanctions into its domestic law in the Norwegian Sanctions Act. Since 2014 and in light of Russia’s continuing aggression in Ukraine, the European Union has amended the EU Regulation with various additional packages of economic sanctions and accordingly additional sanctions have in due course likewise been incorporated into Norwegian domestic law. Consequently, the EU’s economic sanctions, either directly or as incorporated into Norwegian law, apply to the Opera Group’s companies, personnel and operations in Europe. For example, on December 16, 2022, the European Union adopted the December 2022 EU Sanctions, prohibiting the provision of "advertising services" to legal persons, entities or bodies established in Russia, and therefore we have subsequently terminated all advertising contracts with customers in Russia among other actions.

C.           Organizational Structure

The chart below summarizes our corporate structure and identifies all our principal subsidiaries and their places of incorporation as of the date of this annual report:

Notes:

D.           Property, Plants and Equipment

Our corporate headquarters is located in Oslo, Norway. Our principal technical development facilities are located in Wroclaw, Poland, Dundee, Scotland, Beijing, China and both Linköping and Gothenburg, Sweden. We also have offices in Nigeria, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, England, South Africa and Kenya among other countries.

Our servers are hosted in leased data centers, primarily in the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Singapore. The data centers in our network are owned and maintained for us by major domestic and international data center providers. We generally enter into leasing and hosting service agreements with renewal terms that range from one to three years.

Item 4A. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this annual report. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results and the timing of selected events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this annual report.

For discussion related to our financial condition, changes in financial condition, and results of operations for 2021 compared to 2020, see “Item 5.A. - Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, which was filed with the SEC on April 26, 2022, and amended on June 28, 2022.

A.           Operating Results

Executive Overview of Full Year 2022 results

The 32% increase in revenue from 2021 to 2022, corresponding to an increase of US$80.0 million in absolute amount, was driven by increased monetization on a per-user basis, a result of both underlying advertising demand and pricing factors as well as the growth of our browser and news user bases in higher revenue-per-user Western markets. In addition, advertising revenue, which in 2021 surpassed search revenue for the first time, continued to grow at a higher rate than search revenue, in large part driven by our Opera Ads audience extension platform.

Expenses and other items that are included in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA increased by US$41.0 million, or 18%, primarily a result of the US$41.1 million, or 747%, increase in cost of inventory sold, which includes the cost of advertising inventory sold on our Opera Ads platform. Marketing and distribution expenses remained the most significant cost item at US$115.0 million, a reduction of US$6.0 million, or 5% since 2021, while we continued to invest heavily in the user growth of our products in Western markets to accelerate our revenue growth. Personnel expenses excluding share-based remuneration increased by 2% from 2021 to US$65.3 million. As a result, our adjusted EBITDA was US$68.1 million in 2022, marking an increase of 135% compared to US$29.0 million in 2021.

Net income was US$15.0 million in 2022, an improvement compared to the net loss of US$44.0 million in 2021. Net finance expense of US$19.4 million in 2022 was the results of a net loss of US$35.4 million on our receivable due from the sale of our former investment in Nanobank, partially offset by a net gain of US$15.9 million on our investment program whereby we invested excess cash in listed equity securities. Depreciation and amortization decreased by US$5.7 million, or 29% since 2021, to US$13.9 million primarily as a result of certain intangible assets previously acquired in a business combination being fully amortized at the beginning of the year. Share-based remuneration decreased by 11% to US$9.3 million in 2022. Tax and all other items not included in adjusted EBITDA had a combined negative contribution of US$10.4 million to our 2022 net income.

Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments in marketable securities totaled US$118.7 million as of December 31, 2022, a decrease from US$181.0 million as of December 31, 2021. The US$62.3 million decrease was caused by our stock repurchases from private placement with our pre-IPO shareholder, Qifei International Development Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of 360 Security Technology Inc., as well as open market transactions pursuant to our share repurchase program, totaling US$146.1 million in 2022 and reducing our outstanding share count by 26.7 million ADS equivalents, which was partially offset by the underlying cash generation of our operating activities, in the amount of US$56.7 million, as well as proceeds from sale of shares in former associates in the amount of US$36.9 million. Capital expenditure on fixed and intangible assets totaled US$10.0 million in 2022. In early 2023, we issued a dividend of US$0.80 per ADS to all our shareholders, representing an aggregate dividend of US$71.3 million. We continue to believe that our liquidity is sufficient to successfully navigate an extended period of uncertainty.

Key Metrics

We use certain key non-financial metrics to monitor and manage our business, most importantly our product adoption as measured by MAUs and the ARPU. We use these indicators to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions. We believe these indicators provide useful information to investors in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner we do.

The following table presents certain of our user metrics for the periods indicated:

Our total smartphone average MAUs in the three months ended December 31, 2022, was 196.6 million. This figure comprises approximately 164 million smartphone browser users, and approximately 33 million users of the dedicated Opera News apps.

Our strategy has been to focus on and expand our marketing and distribution activities in Western markets while reducing our spending in certain emerging markets. From the fourth quarter of 2021 to the same quarter of 2022, this strategy led to a 16% increase in our total overall user base in Western markets and an 11% decrease in emerging markets, for an approximate 5% reduction in our overall global user base. As can be shown in our annualized ARPU metric, the monetization increases on a per-user basis resulting from this shift to Western markets reached 42% over the fourth quarter of 2021, fueling our strong growth in search and advertising revenues for the same quarter in 2022.

Macroeconomic Conditions

The prevailing global economic climate, the war in Ukraine and other macroeconomic conditions, including but not limited to slower growth or economic recession, high inflation, changes to fiscal and monetary policy and exchange rate fluctuations have adversely affected and may continue to adversely impact our business. The increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve and overall market conditions have led to significant strengthening of the U.S. dollar against other global currencies in 2022. We continuously monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these circumstances on our business and financial results. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—The impact of worldwide economic conditions may adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.”

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

Since early 2020, COVID-19 has impacted market and economic conditions globally, resulting in the implementation of significant governmental measures to control the spread of COVID-19 as well as changes in our user behavior and the businesses of our monetization partners. The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, financial condition, and results of operations will depend on numerous evolving factors that we may not be able to accurately predict and that will vary by market, including the duration and scope of the pandemic, including any resurgences, the impact of the pandemic on economic activity, and actions taken by governments, businesses, and individuals in response. We will continue to actively monitor and respond accordingly to the changing conditions created by the pandemic. See “Item 3. Key Information –D. Risk Factors–Risks Related to Our Business and Industry–We face risks related to natural disasters, health epidemics or terrorist attacks, which could significantly disrupt our operations.”

Major Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

Our Ability to Maintain and Expand Our User Base, and Maintain and Enhance User Engagement

Our user base is important for our revenue generation, both in terms of its attractiveness to our search and advertising partners and in terms of its direct impact on our user-generated revenues. We have elected to prioritize our user growth efforts on geographies and segments that are most monetizable. This has led to a directional shift in our user base and revenue mix towards more developed markets, with a decline in total MAUs that has been well offset by the increase in ARPU.

Our ability to continue to effectively maintain and grow our user base in regions and segments with attractive monetization potential will affect the growth of our business and our revenues going forward. We generate revenues from our business partners, including search providers and advertisers, who are drawn to our platform in part because of the size of our user base, our attractive demographics, and our level of user engagement. Our ability to maintain and enhance user engagement depends on, among other things, the effectiveness of our marketing and distribution spend, our ability to continuously offer comprehensive and effective products and services, recommend personalized content through technological innovation and provide a superior content discovery experience.

Our Ability to Monetize

We have long and deep relationships with many of our major monetization partners. Changes in the revenue sharing or fee arrangements with our key monetization partners may materially affect our revenues, although we have not seen such material impacts to our revenues over the 2020 to 2022 period. However, for example, a change in the revenue sharing percentage paid by certain of our major partners such as Google or Yandex, or a change in their payment policies or other contractual arrangements, could impact our revenues, either positively or negatively. Likewise, with respect to certain major advertising partners, changes in the fee rate we receive per click or per sale may affect our revenues.

The growth, seasonality and strength of our major advertising partners’ businesses may also materially affect our revenues, positively or negatively. This has been illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic where, for example, we have seen revenue decline from monetization partners in travel related businesses from 2020 to 2022, presumably due to pandemic related travel restrictions. At the same time, we have seen revenue increase from monetization partners with e-commerce businesses as more people buy online. Revenues from monetization partners in sports related businesses had been temporarily down when sporting events were suspended, and later on have recovered with even stronger demand as more people follow sporting events digitally. Such digital adoption was presumably accelerated due to pandemic related restrictions on attending live sporting events. Once the pandemic comes to an end, we may observe further unpredictable effects, positive or negative, on the businesses of some of our major advertising partners and by extension on our revenues.

Further, our revenue generation is affected by our ability to promote and improve our users’ experience with our partners’ services, and our ability to open advertising inventory. In 2022, we had approximately 571 monetization partners. We intend to maintain and deepen our relationships with current partners and attract more partners to increase and diversify our revenue sources. Our ability to further increase the number of partners primarily depends on whether we can provide integrated marketing services and help them more precisely reach their targeted users through our AI-powered content discovery platform.

Our Brand Recognition and Market Leadership

We believe that the strong brand recognition of “Opera” is a key element of our success. Our ability to maintain our massive user base and brand recognition as a leading independent browser and content discovery platform is key to our ability to maintain and enhance relationships with our users, monetization partners, content partners and distribution partners. In addition, the reputation and attractiveness of our platform among internet users also serves as a highly efficient marketing channel for our new products and services.

Our Ability to Conduct and Manage Strategic Investments and Acquisitions

We have invested and expect to continue to invest in new businesses, products, services and technologies, and we have also invested in promising companies. Our financial results could be adversely affected by our investments or acquisitions. The investments and acquired assets or businesses may not generate the financial results we expect. They could result in occurrence of significant investments and goodwill impairment charges, amortization expenses for other intangible assets and credit losses on trade and other receivables. We may continue to incur impairment charges in connection with our investments or acquisitions, which could depress our profitability and have a material adverse impact on our financial results. See "Item 3. Key Information –D. Risk Factors–Risks Related to Our Business and Industry – Our investments in companies, new businesses and new products, services and technologies are inherently risky and could disrupt our ongoing businesses."

Key Components and Results of Operations

Results of Operations

The following table set forth our consolidated statement of operations data for each of the periods presented, in absolute terms and as percentage of revenue.

Revenue

We operate and manage our business in two reportable segments—Browser and News, and Other. We identify our reportable segments based on our products and services as used by the chief operating decision maker to monitor performance and make operating decisions. See Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for additional information regarding our reportable segments. The following table sets forth our revenue by segment.

Browser and News

The Browser and News segment includes our PC and mobile browsers, Opera Gaming as well as the Opera News platform, which is integrated in our browsers and available as standalone apps. The segment also includes our Opera Ads platform.

The main categories of revenue in the Browser and News segment are search and advertising. Search revenue is generated when a user conducts a qualified search using a search partner, such as Google or Yandex, through the built-in combined address and search bar provided in our PC and mobile browsers, or when otherwise redirected to the search partner via browser functionality. Advertising revenue is generated by delivering advertising on our PC and mobile browsers, such as predefined bookmarks (Speed Dials), on Opera News, and on Opera network partners’ properties. Advertising revenue also includes income from all other user-generated activities other than search revenue, such as subscriptions to services that are provided by Opera or its partners.

Our search revenue increased to US$140.2 million in 2022 from US$122.0 million in 2021, representing an increase of 15%. The increase represents both underlying monetization improvements by our search partners and the growth of our browser user base in Western markets where advertisers typically pay more to be promoted. As our search revenue is based on revenue share arrangements with our search partners, these factors together have a direct positive impact on our search revenue. Search revenue accounted for 48.6% and 42.3 % of our total revenue in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Our advertising revenue in the Browser and News segment increased to US$187.4 million in 2022 from US$123.9 million in 2021, representing an increase of 51.3%. This growth was primarily fueled by the growth of our Opera Ads platform where we leveraged third party inventories to meet the demand we sourced from advertisers. Advertising revenue in the segment accounted for 49.4 and 56.6% of our total revenue in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Technology licensing and other revenue include income from the sale of software and licenses to GameMaker Studio, a platform for developing games. Following our decision in 2021 to make GameMaker Studio free to use while continuing to offer paid subscriptions with premium features, the amount of revenue from GameMaker Studio has been declining. From 2021 to 2022, technology and other revenue within the Browser and News segment declined from US$2.2 million to US$0.8 million.

Other

The Other segment includes licensing of our proprietary technology to third parties, and provisions of related maintenance, support and hosting services, provision of professional services, and provision of customized browser configurations to mobile operators.

Our technology licensing and other revenue in the Other segment decreased to US$2.7 million in 2022 from US$2.9 million in 2021.

Other Operating Income

Other operating income includes items of income that are not generated from our ordinary activities. For example, other operating income includes gains on disposals of property, equipment, intangible assets and subsidiaries. Other operating income also includes government grants related to income.

Our other operating income remained stable at US$0.5 million from 2021 to 2022. Similar to 2021, other operating income in 2022 primarily included various individually immaterial items of incidental income that were not generated from our ordinary activities.

Technology and Platform Fees

Technology and platform fees primarily comprise of (i) costs of any platform or collection service used to facilitate subscription services where we are the principal in the transaction, and (ii) transaction and communication platform expenses. We expect such individual components within this cost category to stay relatively stable as a percentage of the related revenue streams.

Our technology and platform fees decreased from US$4.5 million in 2021 to US$4.1 million in 2022. The main reason for the decrease was that we reduced the use of external platforms for compliance-related services required in our former European fintech business.

Content Cost

Content cost mainly consists of revenue shares to content creators on our platforms such as Opera News Hub, and payments to publishers and monetization partners related to our Browser and News segment. We continue our efforts to increase the amount of content available on our applications by onboarding more European and American publishers. Another significant part of content cost is cashback cost where we share part of the cashback with our customers. We expect this cost category to stay relatively stable as a percentage of the related revenue streams, although given its limited relative size we may see continued fluctuations as observed in prior periods.

Our content cost was relatively stable from 2021 to 2022, increasing by US$0.1 million to US$3.8 million.

Cost of Inventory Sold

Cost of inventory sold consists primarily of the cost for third party advertising inventory that is sold to our customers along with Opera owned inventory to better serve our advertisers’ demand. We expect this cost category to grow as a percentage of the advertising revenue stream as we see it driving incremental profitability of our advertising efforts.

In 2022, the cost of inventory sold increased by 747.2% to US$46.7 million, or 24.9% of advertising revenue within the Browser and News segment. This growth was driven mainly by the development of Opera Ads platform, our audience extension product.

Personnel Expenses Including Share-based Remuneration

Our personnel expenses including share-based remuneration primarily consist of salaries and bonuses with applicable social security costs, external temporary hire costs and other personnel-related expenses, as well as share-based remuneration, including related social security costs. Personnel expenses are net of capitalized development expenses. We expect our personnel expenses to increase in absolute amounts in the foreseeable future due to the anticipated growth of business and expansion of our global operations, as well as periodic salary adjustments.

In 2022, Kunlun, our parent company, enrolled certain of our employees in its share incentive plan under which these employees have received options issued by Kunlun as a compensation for services provided to us. We do not have any obligation to settle the awards granted by Kunlun but grants from Kunlun to our employees are accounted for as equity-settled share-based payments in our consolidated financial statements, similar to those grants awarded under our own share incentive plan.

Our personnel expenses including share-based remuneration was relatively stable from 2021 to 2022, increasing by US$0.1 million to US$74.6 million. Cash-based compensation expenses increased by 2.0%, from US$64.0 million in 2021 to US$65.3 million in 2022. This was caused by an increase in the average number of staff in 2022 as compared to 2021, and salary adjustments, partially offset by the strengthening of the U.S. Dollar. Share-based remuneration expenses decreased by 11.1%, from US$10.5 million in 2021 to US$9.3 million in 2022, primarily due to granting and vesting schedules of the underlying share awards. For additional details of our personnel expenses in 2022, including share-based remuneration, see Note 5 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report.

Marketing and Distribution Expenses

Marketing and distribution expenses primarily consist of performance-based campaigns associated with our browser and news businesses. We expect our marketing and distribution expenses to remain consistent or possibly increase slightly relative to 2022 as measured in absolute terms, while decreasing as a percent of total revenue following increased scale and completion of the initial launch of our initiatives to grow our user base in Western markets.

Our marketing and distribution expenses decreased to US$115.0 million in 2022 from US$120.9 million in 2021, representing a decrease of 4.9%. Marketing and distribution expenses related to Opera News declined from US$59.0 million in 2021 to US$26.0 million in 2022, partly offset by increases in marketing and distribution expenses for our other products and services, such as for Opera GX, which increased by US$18.0 million to US$29.0 million in 2022.

Credit Loss Expense

Our credit loss expense is mainly related to provisions for expected credit losses on trade receivables and consists of specific provisions where risk of credit loss has been determined by management as well as general provisions determined based on the aging of the trade receivables. Changes in credit loss expense is affected by our ability to collect our trade receivables, the credit risk of the markets in which we operate as well as general market conditions affecting our trade partners.

Our credit loss expense was US$1.4 million in 2022, as compared to US$0.6 million in 2021. The increase is largely a result of increase in provisions in line with our revenue growth and higher provisions in emerging markets compared to 2021.

In 2020, we incurred significant credit losses on trade and other receivables due from a former joint venture, which we divested from during that year. Due to the significance and specific circumstances related to the expected credit losses on those receivables, we determined that it was appropriate to include the expense on a separate line item in our statement of operations.

See Note 13 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more information about our credit loss expense, including credit loss expense related to the divested joint venture.

Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation cost primarily relates to purchased equipment and servers as well as leasehold improvements. Amortization cost primarily relates to intangible assets such as technology and customer relationships as well as capitalized development. Depreciation and amortization are driven by the amounts of assets we acquire and intangible assets we develop, and the expected useful lives of these assets.

We had depreciation and amortization of US$13.9 million in 2022 compared to US$19.6 million in 2021, representing a decrease of 28.9%. This decrease was primarily due to certain intangible assets formerly acquired in a business combination being fully amortized at the beginning of 2022. See Notes 10 and 11 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more information.

Impairment of Non-financial Assets

Impairment of non-financial assets include impairment losses on our fixed and intangible assets. Impairment losses arise when the recoverable amount of the individual asset or the cash-generating unit to which it belongs is less than the carrying amount of the asset or group of assets.

The impairment of non-financial assets in 2022 was US$3.2 million as we fully impaired certain non-core intangible assets. See Note 11 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more information.

Other Operating Expenses

Our other operating expenses primarily consist of hosting expenses, audit and advisory fees, software license fees, rent and other office expenses, and travel expenses. We expect our other operating expenses to increase in absolute amounts in the foreseeable future due to the anticipated growth of our business as well as public company costs.

Our other operating expenses increased by 18.5% in 2022 compared to 2021, from US$22.8 million to US$27.0 million. All categories of other operating expenses increased in 2022 compared to 2021, with the biggest increase being hosting, which increased by US$1.6 million followed by travel with an increase of US$1.0 million. See Note 6 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more information.

Share of Net Income (Loss) of Equity-accounted Investees

Our share of net income (loss) of equity-accounted investees includes the income or loss recognized from our associates and joint venture. In early 2022, we sold all our shares in Nanobank, an associate which we classified as held for sale as of December 31, 2021. Subsequent to that sale, our only remaining equity-accounted investee is nHorizon, a joint venture. In 2022, our share of losses of nHorizon exceeded our interest in the company, which resulted in us discontinuing to recognize our share of further losses. If nHorizon subsequently reports profits, we will resume to recognize our share of those profits only after our share of the profits equals the share of losses not recognized. We do not expect to recognize a material amount of net profits from our investment in nHorizon.

Our share of net loss of equity-accounted investees was US$0 million in 2022 compared to a share of net loss of US$29.4 million in 2021. Our share of net loss in 2021 predominantly arose due to Nanobank recognizing the impacts of impairments and provisions related to its halting of operations in India. See Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more information.

Impairment of Equity-accounted Investee

When an equity-accounted investee is classified as held for sale, we recognize impairment losses if its fair value less costs to sell is less than its carrying amount. We also recognize impairment loss for an equity-accounted investee when the recoverable amount of our investment is less than the carrying amount. Following the sale of our shares in Nanobank in March 2022, we do not hold material investments in equity-accounted investees.

At the end of 2021, we classified our investments in Nanobank, OPay and Star X as held for sale. Of these, only the investment in Nanobank was historically accounted for in accordance with the equity method. We determined that the estimate for fair value less costs to sell for our investment in Nanobank was less than its carrying value and consequently we recognized an impairment loss of US$115.5 million. The fair value less costs to sell was determined to be the same amount as the fair value of the consideration Opera received in March 2022 when the shares in Nanobank were sold. See Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more information.

Fair Value Gain on Investments

We hold investments in ordinary and preferred shares in OPay, ordinary shares in Fjord Bank and we held preferred shares in Star X in 2022, all of which were accounted for at fair value through profit or loss. Changes in the fair value of these shares are recognized as fair value gains (or losses) on investments. While Star X was classified as an associate of Opera, our investment in preferred shares in this company was accounted for at fair value because they gave access to returns that are not only associated with the underlying ownership interest.

In 2022, we recognized an unrealized fair value gain of US$1.5 million on our shares in OPay. In 2021, we recognized a total fair value gain of US$116.6 million, of which US$88.1 million represented both realized and unrealized gains related to the shares in OPay and US$28.5 million was related to the shares in Star X, which was disposed of in April 2022. See Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more details on the value of the preferred and ordinary shares.

Net Finance Income (Expense)

Our finance income primarily includes interest income on deposits of cash with financial institutions and the net gain on investments in marketable securities. Our finance expense primarily includes losses on our receivables from the sale of Nanobank and Star X, interest expense on our leases and interest-bearing loans, and the net loss on investments in marketable securities.

Since 2018, we have adopted an investment program under which up to US$70 million of our capital may be used for investments in listed equity securities. The maximum amount allocated to the investment program varied over time based on accumulated gains or losses. The objective of the investment program was to preserve capital while generating long-term capital growth by achieving the highest possible return on invested capital relative to the risk taken. We engaged Kunlun Group Limited, a subsidiary of Kunlun, to be the manager of the investment program, while our chairman and chief executive officer had oversight of the program. In February 2023, the investment program was terminated after the remaining portfolio of marketable securities was sold in the market. See Note 3 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more information on our capital management. 

The net finance income (expense) also includes our net foreign exchange gain or loss, which is the net gain or loss arising from settlement or translation of monetary items denominated in currencies other than the functional currency is recognized as foreign exchange gain (loss) in our statement of operations. While we do not use derivatives for hedging purposes, we seek to minimize the exposure to foreign currency risk by holding our cash in U.S. Dollar to the greatest extent practically possible, however our cash inflows and outflows as measured in the U.S. Dollar are exposed to the strengthening and weakening of the U.S. Dollar versus other currencies in which our revenue is ultimately generated or cost ultimately incurred.

We recorded a net finance expense of US$19.4 million in 2022, compared to a net finance expense of US$8.6 million in 2021.

Our receivable from the sale of Nanobank was measured at fair value through profit or loss. As of December 31, 2022, we estimated the fair value of the receivable to be US$76.3 million based on the present value of future expected cash flows, which resulted in a net loss in 2022 of US$35.4 million, comprising of interest income of US$2.4 million recognized as finance income and fair value loss of US$37.9 million recognized as a finance expense.

In 2022 we generated a net gain of US$15.9 million from our investment program whereby we invest excess cash in listed equity securities. The gain was recognized as finance income. In 2021, the investment program resulted in a loss of US$4.9 million.

Income Tax Expense

Our income tax expense or credit for the period is the tax payable on the current period’s taxable income, based on the applicable income tax rate for each jurisdiction, adjusted by changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities attributable to temporary differences and to unused tax losses.

The vast majority of our revenue and operating profit is generated in countries with stable and transparent tax regimes, such as Norway and Ireland, where the applicable tax rates were 22.0% and 12.5%, respectively. We do not expect significant exposure to tax regimes in non-European countries over the foreseeable future.

Certain intra-group funding of subsidiaries of the Company has resulted in tax benefits on interest charged between these subsidiaries. We expect that such tax benefits will not be of significant importance in future periods, in isolation resulting in a marginal increase of our expected future effective tax rate. However, our investments in unconsolidated companies are not taxed at Opera’s level, but within such separate companies. These investments represent a significant factor in our historically low effective tax rate. As these investments are further expected to provide financial gains to us in the future, either in terms of our share of profit, and/or realized or unrealized gains on the shares held, we expect a continuation of this factor to our effective tax rate as well in future periods.

We recorded an income tax expense of US$8.8 million in 2022, as compared to an income tax expense of US$0.0 million in 2021. The effective tax rate, expressed as the percentage of income tax expenses to profit before income taxes, was 37.0% in 2022, as compared to an effective tax rate of negative 0.1% in 2021. Variance versus statutory tax rates is mainly driven by non-taxable finance expenses and changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities. See Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report for more detail.

Profit (Loss) From Discontinued Operations

A discontinued operation is a component of Opera that has been disposed of or is classified as held for sale and that represents a separate major line of business or geographical area of operations, is part of a single coordinated plan to dispose of such a line of business or area of operations, or is a subsidiary acquired exclusively with a view to resale. The net results of discontinued operations are presented separately in the statement of operations.