The beta version of Opera Mini 5 recently launched, letting users have a more Web-like browsing experience on their mobile devices.

Mobile Marketer?s Chris Harnick spoke with Jon S. von Tetzchner, cofounder/CEO of Opera, Oslo, Norway. Here is what he had to say:

Mini 5 was just released, can you tell me about that?
Mini 5 is a big release for us. It is a powerful browser with Web usability, look and feel on the mobile phone.

We?ve been gradually improving the Mini starting with first versions with an emphasis on functionality. It makes for appealing browsing with tabs and speed dial ? it is really a nice browser.

What are the most visited sites on the Opera Mini in the United States?
We?ve been finding social networking sites dominate most of the traffic in the U.S. and worldwide. Google, Facebook, MySpace, CNN, YouTube, the New York Times and Weather.com top our list.

And what about worldwide?
Worldwide in some ways doesn?t make as much sense, the rationale being there are so many differences from country to country. Our numbers are skewed based on users and it gives a wrong picture overall.

We think the information country by country is more accurate than worldwide stats because it depends on where our users are. You?ll find Russian sites high on the list because we have lots of Russian users ? it gives skewed pictures for the world.

What is the current reach of the mobile Web worldwide?
We have more than 30 million active users. Opera Mini is the most used mobile Web browser around world to access the Internet.

We are big in Europe, growing fast in Asia and seeing high numbers in the U.S., but we?re being held back by the need for phones in the U.S. to have a data plan to get on the Internet. Most users who use Opera in the U.S. have Research In Motion phones. BlackBerry devices have data plans and that is skewing the numbers a bit.

There are 4.5 billion mobile phones and 3 billion can run Opera Mini. We are growing 10 percent every month, and we are past 30 million users now. Our growth is worldwide in markets like the U.S. and Western Europe.

The greatest benefits are coming to users where Internet penetration is lower on PCs. With Internet penetration at 23 percent, users who can?t access the PC Internet can access on the Web on mobile phones.

How can brand advertising agencies and marketers take advantage of Opera?s platform to reach consumers?
So far we?ve been doing things on a simple level to provide a way for people to include services in-screen. Over time there is a lot of potential in what we are doing, because as far as the reach that we have, there is nobody who has our reach worldwide.

What are some tactics that Opera uses to spread the word about its platform and increase its user base?
In some ways it spreads itself using a lot of different channels. OEM [original equipment manufacturers] are preinstalling Opera and a lot of operators are doing deals where we customize versions for the operators.

We see a lot of downloads. Some of this is coming from third-party sites and people just hearing about us. It is a product that sells itself. People tell their friends and when you have a good product like the Opera Mini, people want to tell each other.

The browser works and feels well. It works on slow network and it still gives decent speed. Opera compresses data, so many people are paying per megabite and they are saving money. There is a lot of value creation for users and operators and we?re providing it for free.

The important thing is things are moving to full Internet on mobile phones leading the way to open a lot of marketing opportunities over time.

Getting payment methods in operators' wireless networks will provide a playground for marketing people so they can generate revenue readily, allowing more advertising models over time.