Opera Software on Tuesday launched a new version of the Opera Mini browser for Android phones, hoping to more than double its smartphone user base by the end of 2017. With the launch of Mini 8, Opera aims to lift its smartphone user base to 275 million by 2017 from the current 130 million, increasing the total to 350 million when including around 75 million users of less advanced feature phones.

Mini has become particularly popular in many developing countries, since it offers speed and low-cost online surfing, through its data compression technique.

Google's Android is the most widely used operating system among mobile phone makers.