Opera wants to earn money with its own cashback solution
No time right now?
Browser manufacturer Opera has presented a new extension called Dify, which is intended to provide users with cashbacks when shopping online. Fintech and banking offers are also planned, such as a separate account.
Opera is now also involved in the fintech scene. That makes perfect sense for the browser provider who has been looking for viable business models for years. With DifyAs the project is called, the browser provider with around 380 million active monthly users across Europe is now planning to offer a browser cashback service. This is supposed to pay the users a commission for the corresponding online shopping offers.
The whole thing is reminiscent of cashback services such as bargain portals Shoop or banks like that DKB or offer Comdirect. In addition to the Dify Wallet, a current account with a free virtual debit card based on Mastercard, which supports Google Pay, is to be added in the future.
The Opera Dify app will initially start on the Spanish market. The first version of the Dify app enables consumers to receive e-commerce cashback for purchases on partner websites accessed through the Opera browser. Users who pay with the Dify card receive an additional cashback. Opera users are also offered a new smart shopping mode in the Opera browser, which allows access to the cashback service and shopping-related tabs and at the same time protects the privacy of the buyer by deactivating third-party extensions. Of course, this deactivation of third-party shopping extensions also has the purpose of preventing another company from tapping the lead that is important for the affiliate. In the past there were quite a few shopping apps – but ironically, they also had a big ad blocker – simply complaining about corresponding leads, mostly without the knowledge or consent of the user.
With Dify, Opera becomes a shopping browser
Turning the Opera browser into a shopping browser sounds logical, because it can be an additional source of income that the user accepts, unlike many others. Because the battle of browsers is also getting tighter for Opera. In Germany, based on figures from Statcounter, Opera is far behind Chrome, Firefox, Safari and even Microsoft Edge with a market share of around five to percent.
For the Dify cashback program, Opera names “top e-commerce retailers such as Nike, Asos and eDreams” as partners who tend to be in the second row. This is not surprising – because for partners like Amazon, Otto or, in Spain, El Corte Ingles, Carrefour or Mercadona, it will certainly remain more attractive to promote their own shopping apps, especially in view of the aforementioned market shares of the Opera browser.
The checking account function of the Dify app is also interesting. In January of last year, Opera announced the takeover of the Estonian banking-as-a-service startup Pocosys and announced in July that an agreement had been reached to take over Fjord-Bank. Opera joined the Emerging Payments Association EU in September 2020. So it looks like Opera has discovered the cooperation around payment and the fintech scene as a crucial business area. In the future, the company plans to offer additional wallet services such as the management of savings, loans, investment opportunities and instant cashback.
