Opera Web Pass platform announced, rewards users that watch advertisements

A month and a half ago, Micromax launched its 'Mad About Ads' campaign along with the Micromax Advertising Application (MAd) and the Micromax A94. The idea behind the application was simple. Users who saw advertisements via the app on the Micromax A94, were eligible to earn points which would then be redeemed as credit balance on their postpaid or prepaid devices, no matter their telecom operator.

Micromax offered balance credit, and now Opera is doing something similar, but for more than just one phone. It is now coming up with an advertisement supported version of the Web Pass platform. The Web Pass platform allows users to purchase short term data access from their respective mobile telephone carriers. It allows users to buy specific passes, for example unlimited browsing for a day or the likes. Mobile operators can offer these passes to users who watch advertisements on the browser. Users can even use the web-compression technology offered by Opera to save data traffic on cellphones.

On the Opera software webpage, the company has described Web Pass as, "Opera Web Pass allows operators to package mobile internet offerings in flexible, easy-to-understand and marketable ways to the customers." It allows operators to create mobile internet offerings that are user-friendly and can be time-based, content-based or a combination of both.

It further describes the Sponsored Web Pass as, "Sponsored Web Pass enables operators to easily team up with advertisers to sponsor the cost of customers' mobile internet access, providing users with free mobile data. All the user has to do is to is watch a short advertisement from the sponsor before continuing to the content, similar to the way an ad from a sponsor airs before the start of a TV programme. Users are then free to engage with the content in the Web Pass for its entire duration."

What it does mean is Opera is offering operators an option to increase the revenue from data services by making use of ads. Opera, in addition, on Wednesday announced the launch of pre-registrations for the limited public-beta version of its data saving app Opera Max for Android-based cellphones.