Opera (OPRA) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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Date

Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 8 a.m. ET

Call participants

• Co-CEO — Lin Song
• Chief Financial Officer — Frode Jacobsen

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Takeaways

• Revenue -- $176 million, representing 23% year-over-year growth and surpassing the high end of guidance by $4 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $42 million for the quarter, exceeding guidance by $2 million and yielding a 24% margin.
• Advertising revenue -- $117 million, which is 67% of total revenue and grew by 24% year over year, with "momentum and underlying growth was strong enough to more than offset seasonality."
• Query revenue -- $58 million or 33% of revenue, up 23% year over year; within this, "pure search revenue" increased 14%, reaching a level "not seen since 2024."
• Gross margin -- Improved by approximately 60 basis points sequentially; cost of revenue accounted for 36.8% of revenue, down from 37.4% in the prior quarter.
• Operating cash flow -- $42 million, representing 100% conversion of adjusted EBITDA and aided by strong net collections and minimal tax payments.
• Free cash flow -- $35.5 million, equal to 85% of adjusted EBITDA.
• Users -- Added 4 million users, bringing monthly average users to 288 million, including 400,000 new Western users and 1 million new Opera GX users.
• ARPU -- Annualized average revenue per user was $2.43, up 25% year over year.
• AI user engagement -- Users engaging with AI in Opera browsers "spend over an hour more per day in the browser and even perform 50% more traditional searches" than non-AI users in key Western markets.
• MiniPay wallet -- Over 15 million activated wallets and 430 million transactions processed; MiniPay generated approximately $20 million revenue from its broader ecosystem.
• Dividend and buyback -- Paid $0.40 per share ($36 million) in January; repurchased 1.14 million shares in March at $14.88 per share for a total of $17 million, reducing shares outstanding to 89.55 million.
• Guidance raised -- Full-year revenue guidance increased to $727 million-$740 million (18%-20% growth); adjusted EBITDA guidance raised to $170 million-$174 million (23.4% margin at midpoint).
• Q2 guidance -- Revenue expected at $176 million-$178 million (23%-25% growth); adjusted EBITDA projected at $40 million-$42 million (23.2% margin), implying 28% adjusted EBITDA growth at midpoint.
• Operating expenses forecast -- Guidance for full-year pre-adjusted EBITDA OpEx of $562 million and Q2 OpEx of $136 million at the midpoint; other OpEx items pre-adjusted EBITDA expected to grow "just over 20%" year over year due to hosting, scaling, and increased AI usage.
• Cash-based compensation and marketing -- Full-year cash-based compensation to grow just above 10%, slightly below previous expectations; marketing spend to grow ~10% year over year, both declining as a share of revenue to 33% in 2026 from 36% in 2025.
• Shareholder returns -- "We repurchased 1.3% of shares outstanding in the program's first month at an attractive $14.88 per share."
• Rule of 40 -- Q1 marks the 20th consecutive quarter of Rule of 40 compliance; 10-year revenue CAGR stands at 21%.

Summary

Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA) reported revenue and adjusted EBITDA both above the high end of guidance, driven by comprehensive growth in both advertising and query segments. Management introduced Browser Connector and MCP protocol, emphasizing user choice in AI integrations without ecosystem lock-in, and highlighted early evidence that AI engagement accelerates user activity and search volume. Shareholder distributions advanced through a newly initiated $300 million buyback alongside the recurring dividend, and full-year guidance was raised for both revenue and EBITDA as margin expansion modestly outpaces cost growth. The company also showcased MiniPay's accelerating adoption across Africa, and management signaled ongoing resilience through operational outperformance, margin improvement, and clear differentiation from AI platform peers in cost structure and integration approach.

• Management specified that full-year adjusted EBITDA margin outlook has "by about 15 basis points at the midpoint" relative to initial 2026 guidance.
• Opera's CFO stated, "Q1 also marks our 20th consecutive quarter as a Rule of 40 company and we are well on track for 2026 to be the sixth consecutive year where we meet that high bar."
• Annualized ARPU reached $2.43, and management attributed this trend to "users who engage with AI within our browsers, spend over an hour more per day in the browser and even perform 50% more traditional searches."
• Cash-based compensation is projected to increase just above 10%, a moderation from the "low teens" growth previously expected.
• Dividend payout was confirmed at $0.80 per share annually, split into two semiannual installments, with $0.40 already distributed in January.
• Query revenue growth was noted as non-linear, with management commenting that "we don't need to continue a year-over-year growth of over 20% on a query basis to meet our guidance, but it's a bit too soon to discuss specifics for the better parts of the year."
• Management confirmed an ongoing partnership with Google, describing the relationship as "fantastic" and stating, "we don't expect any surprises." regarding upcoming renewal negotiations.

Industry glossary

• Adjusted EBITDA: Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, adjusted for certain non-cash or one-time expenses, used as a proxy for recurring cash profitability.
• ARPU: Average revenue per user, a measure of revenue generated per active user, typically calculated on an annual or monthly basis.
• Rule of 40: A software industry metric where the sum of revenue growth rate and profitability margin (typically EBITDA or free cash flow margin) should meet or exceed 40%.
• Browser Connector: Opera's protocol allowing integration of third-party AI tools into active browser sessions, supporting contextual AI workflows.
• MCP protocol: An open standard developed by Opera to enable secure, real-time connections between browser hosts and AI models.
• MiniPay: Opera’s noncustodial stablecoin wallet product, tailored for emerging markets and supporting decentralized financial transactions.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Lin Song: Sure. Thank you, Matt, and good day, everyone. It's been less than 2 months since we reported our fourth quarter 2025 results with the trajectory for 2026 well ahead of internal expectations. And today, we announced that we surpassed even those recent forecasts. Q1 revenue exceeded the high end of our guidance range by $4 million and adjusted EBITDA exceeded the high end of our guidance range by $2 million. That translated to year-over-year revenue growth of 23% to $176 million with $42 million adjusted EBITDA or a 24% margin.

It is also worth noting that revenue growth was comparable across advertising and query revenue and 24% and 23%, respectively, both contributing to an excellent starting position for the remainder of the year. On the advertising side, fourth quarter revenue was a new all-time high of $117 million. Our momentum and underlying growth was strong enough to more than offset seasonality. Our advertising partners run performance-based campaigns, so we would not see this level of growth if our partners were not also experiencing success. As a result, we are able to continue increasing our share of wallet with a continued focus on scaling our e-commerce partnerships.

As an example, just 2 weeks ago, we were awarded Affiliate of the Year from AliExpress. And in late 2025, we received a similar recognition from Shopee, another key partner. We are humbled by the appreciation shown and operate Opera Ads with their continued success as our North Star. Our partners appreciate the 3 core pillars of Opera Ads. First is a unified media technology ecosystem that combines our own ad inventory augmented with the wider programmatic landscape and advanced targeting algorithms to deliver hyper relevant placements and the precise moment of user intent. Second is consistent execution that delivers daily volume without sacrificing quality.

And finally, a deep collaborative alignment that fosters a transparent, closely aligned working relationship with our partners. Working with such global partners will translate demonstrated performance in active markets to continued regional expansion. And while e-commerce opportunities will only increase as the year progresses, I'm also excited about taking our learnings from that vertical and applying it more broadly. For example, as we enter the travel heavy second and third quarters, we see a clear potential to establish Opera Ads as a source of well-targeted audiences for the travel industry. All in all, there is no shortage of opportunity and it's all about execution to deliver the best results for our partners.

Within the 23% growth of query revenue, search revenue growth continued expanding and reached 14% in the quarter, a level we have not seen since 2024. The remainder of query growth was driven by non-search query revenue, which continues to be multiple times larger than the year ago quarter with underlying growth also offsetting seasonality. In total, query revenue was $58 million in the fourth quarter and representing 33% of our revenue. As we've discussed before, the AI age comes with completely new monetization potentials for our browsers, both from conversation with the native Opera AI assistant and as it relates to the back-end understanding of a user's intentions, presenting relevant products and services natively in the user interface.

The browser is unlike any other app. It's a gateway to almost every service available online. And as the browser gets smarter, the user can more efficiently act on their intentions. For example, if the user starts formulating a query in the URL bar, the browser can understand the intention and expand the interface to present relevant destinations or if a user was interrupted during a session, the browser can organize that history and enable a seamless continuation later on. In fact, AI unlocks both advertising and query revenue opportunities for us.

On the advertising side, deep learning and agentic AI are leading to greater optimization and better targeting of user intent, resulting in greater conversion rates for our advertising partners. On the query side, we are witnessing an evolution in search. Historically, search has been limited to the keywords users are searching for. But over the past few years, we have seen it transform from simple keywords to more complex and longer question-based queries and more recently to chat conversations. As a browser with control of the URL bar and omnibox, we are well positioned as an entry node to search and AI chats.

As these more complex searches and conversations begin to be monetized, we are in an excellent position to benefit. Now turning to our products and recent innovations, [indiscernible] on the key topic of AI potentials for the browser. We recently introduced Browser Connector available both in our subscription-based agentic browser, Opera Neon and in our mainstream browsers, Opera One and GX. Browser Connector allows users to plug their favorite AI tools directly into their live browser sessions via a protocol known as MCP, providing the AI platform of their choice with full real-time context of open tabs and active content. Think of this as bring your own AI.

The MCP protocol is the open standard that enables a secure connection between the browser host and AI models, giving users the freedom to choose their preferred combination of browser and AI back end. With Browser Connector, the user no longer needs to act as the personal secretary of their own online AI tools, copy and pasting links and context. Instead, the browser enables the AI of choice to access and re-page content, understand open tabs and even take screen shots to analyze images of graphs. Beyond the technical upgrade, Browser Connector reinforces Opera's long-standing advocacy for user choice over ecosystem lock-in. Product innovation translates to user appreciation and increased usage of our browsers, which again translates to revenue tailwinds.

Looking at key Western markets, we see users who engage with AI within our browsers, spend over an hour more per day in the browser and even perform 50% more traditional searches than comparable users who are not yet engaging AI, all of which directly contributes to ARPU growth. Our broad approach to monetization puts us in a differentiated position as most companies that are monetizing AI today are either chip and compute providers or those relying exclusively on subscriptions and usage-based models. In terms of our user base, we added 4 million users during the fourth quarter, bringing our total monthly average users to 288 million.

We added 400,000 Western users on top of the seasonally strong fourth quarter and we benefited from both continued Android adoption and PC platform growth and 1 million new Opera GX users globally. In total, our annualized ARPU was $2.43, a 25% increase year-over-year. The final topic I would like to discuss is MiniPay, our noncustodial stablecoin wallet with deep ecosystem roots. MiniPay is the leading stablecoin wallet in Africa, appreciated for its technical ease and seamless integrations. We see great opportunities and real life benefits with access to stablecoins, both within emerging markets and as a global payment framework.

Just last week, we announced a USD 1 million incentive for local developers of mini apps that take advantage of the transaction opportunities of MiniPay and we are using our on the ground presence in Africa and Latin America to provide in-person support. This supports the continued expansion of mini apps available in MiniPay, covering a broad range of services from finance, shopping, entertainment and utility tools. MiniPay has now activated over 15 million wallets and processed over 430 million total transactions. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Frode Jacobsen, our CFO, to discuss our financial results, guidance and capital allocation in greater detail. Frode?

Frode Jacobsen: Thanks, Song. As Song Lin mentioned, we are very pleased with the start of 2026 and the trajectory we are on now well into the second quarter. Yet again, we overperformed our estimates and delivered an incremental $4 million of revenue on top of the guidance range with over 50% conversion to incremental adjusted EBITDA. This level of outperformance is particularly impressive in the face of seasonal headwinds following the holiday heavy fourth quarter. Instead of a seasonal dip, our underlying commercial momentum overpowered those trends and drove sequential advertising revenue higher in the first quarter.

Q1 also marks our 20th consecutive quarter as a Rule of 40 company and we are well on track for 2026 to be the sixth consecutive year where we meet that high bar. In fact, our average annual revenue growth or CAGR stands at 21% over the past 10-year period, a feat few public companies achieve, even more so for companies that have been around for over 30 years like Opera. In these times, filled with innovation and opportunity, we continue to benefit from the resilience and agility of our business model, disciplined execution and our consistency in pairing rapid and organic growth with healthy profitability.

Our outperformance continues to be broad-based with total revenue growth of 23% as opposed to the midpoint guidance of 19% growth. Within our total quarterly revenue of $176 million, advertising was $117 million or 67% of the total and query revenue was $58 million. Advertising revenue grew at 24% and the evolution of our search business into a broader query approach resulted in query revenue growth of 23%, a level we haven't seen since the post-COVID rebound in 2021 as we better monetize high-intent user actions across the browser interface.

In terms of costs, I want to highlight the fact that we scaled the business beyond expectations while also improving gross margin by about 60 basis points versus the prior quarter. Cost of revenue items combined represented 36.8% of revenue, down from the 37.4% we saw in Q4 and according to margin expectations from our prior cost commentary. Also as expected, cash-based compensation ticked slightly down from the Q4 level to $21.5 million. Marketing spend came in just below what we had built into guidance at $38.5 million, while the [Technical Difficulty] of all other OpEx items, pre-adjusted EBITDA came in at $9 million or just above expectations, but still resulting in a slight net benefit.

All in all, our continued cost discipline underpinned our adjusted EBITDA overperformance coming in at $42 million for the quarter [Technical Difficulty] or a 24% margin. Operating cash flow was also $42 million in the quarter, representing a 100% conversion of adjusted EBITDA as strong net collection more than offset the limited tax payments we incurred. Free cash flow from operations was $35.5 million or 85% of adjusted EBITDA.

We continue to expect fluctuations quarter-to-quarter due to the size and timing of tax and bonus payments as well as other working capital movements, though I will reiterate my statement from last quarter that the full year conversion ratio of EBITDA to these cash flow metrics as achieved in 2025 continue to be reasonable expectations also for 2026. Turning to capital allocation and return of cash to our shareholders, where we combine a recurring dividend program of $0.80 per year with our recently launched $300 million buyback program. The dividend is paid out semiannually with $0.40 or $36 million paid out in January.

In terms of the buyback, we repurchased 1.14 million shares in March for a total spend of $17 million pro rata distributed between public buybacks and repurchases from our majority shareholder at the same price per share, $14.88. This reduced the total number of shares outstanding as of 31st March to 89.55 million. You'll see $12.8 million of the spend in our Q1 cash flow with the settlement of the remaining $4.1 million taking place in Q2. Now turning to our guidance. In terms of our full year outlook, our solid start to the year allows us to raise revenue guidance to $727 million to $740 million or 18% to 20% growth for the year as a whole.

With that, we are raising the low end of guidance by $7 million and the high end by $5 million from the range we provided just 2 months ago, adding about 1 percentage point of growth to our expectations. Still, in line with our guidance logic, this range continues to allow for later upside potential in the second half of the year. We let just over 40% of the incremental revenue flow through to our adjusted EBITDA guidance and update our annual range to become $170 million to $174 million or a 23.4% margin at the midpoint. That means that our prior high end of the range has now become the midpoint.

For the second quarter, we guide revenue of $176 million to $178 million or 23% to 25% growth. The quarter is already well underway and both our operational and commercial performance supports the nice step-up versus prior implicit expectations. We guide adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $42 million, representing a 23.2% margin and 28% adjusted EBITDA growth at the midpoint. In terms of costs, we then implicitly guide to a full year OpEx base pre-adjusted EBITDA of $562 million at the midpoint, of which $136 million in Q2.

We continue to expect cost of revenue items combined to represent about 38% of revenue for the year, with midyear coming in around the annual average before we go slightly higher in Q4 with its seasonal advertising peak. As discussed before, Opera Ads has a different gross margin profile compared to our O&O revenue streams, resulting in a greater cost of revenue component in our overall results even as our Opera Ads gross margin is ticking up. Apart from the business mix effect, we continue to see the Opera Ads gross margin expanding as the platform scales and our optimization algorithms evolve in addition to benefiting from low marketing costs and limited OpEx base.

Cash-based compensation expense is expected to grow just above 10% for the year as a whole, which is slightly lower than our earlier expectation of growth in the low teens. We expect costs to increase modestly in Q2 with annual salary adjustments effective as of April. Post Q2, compensation cost is expected to show smaller movements quarter-to-quarter. Full year marketing costs remains expected to grow by about 10% from the 2025 level with Q2 costs quite similar to Q1, followed by a slightly higher spend level in the later quarters. In sum, cash-based compensation and marketing will then decline from representing 36% of revenue in 2025 to representing about 33% of revenue in 2026.

For all other OpEx items, pre-adjusted EBITDA, we increased our full year estimate to represent just over 20% growth year-over-year, up from our earlier expectation at about 15% growth. This is explained by hosting costs and the effects of our rapid business scaling, increased AI usage and pricing impact of constrained supply, while other items included in the total remained stable overall. We expect the cost category to increase quite linearly as the year progresses.

In sum, while we continue to focus on building scale over accelerating margin expansion, as we refresh our estimates, we see a slight further widening of the gap between revenue and cost growth, allowing us to lift our adjusted EBITDA margin by about 15 basis points at the midpoint of full year guidance 2 months after providing the first color on 2026. In light of our performance and outlook, we remain very pleased with having expanded shareholder returns beyond our recurring dividend program to also include our new buyback program. We repurchased 1.3% of shares outstanding in the program's first month at an attractive $14.88 per share, accelerating ROI upside for our shareholders.

While it's only been a couple of months since our last release, we've been excited to share today's updates with you and look forward to keeping you posted on our progress. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator for your questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

Eric Sheridan: Wanted to know if we go a little bit deeper into the learnings you have to date with respect to the adoption of AI tools across your user base and when you look longer term, what do you see as the opportunity set either at the browser level or maybe even for the rise of agentic commerce behavior by users that could bode well for both user growth as well as monetization opportunities?

Lin Song: Sure. So -- it's Song Lin here. I'll try to answer. So yes, so high level, I guess, number one, I would say that I think the -- more like we are always advocate for AI and that's also why we almost try to embed it in many of the aspects within the browser anyway. And as we also talked about in the script that we also have it, for instance, from the URL bar, Omnibar to, of course, also the offer AI assistant that you can engage from sidebar and then further on to allow you to use AI with their own subscription, bring your own AI. So that's consistent with our offerings.

And I would almost say that, number one, in general, we see that once we provide it in the right context in the right moment, users are very happy about it. So that's why we -- I think we also talked about it briefly in the script that whoever use AI, we saw that they almost spend 1 hour more in, say, desktop browsers, which is already a very long hour spend compared with any other thing. And then they also typically search almost long time more, right, than the others or engage with AI in different ways.

So I think in general, we are very positive about it because those basically transfer to better opportunity to capture user intent and also the monetization opportunities as follow-on. So I think that's, in general, where we see that why it's beneficial. And on the other end, though, I think maybe the only thing I will just say that we should, of course, never forget that in the end of the day, user is a first, right? So as Opera, for instance, we never try to push user to something without may not be what they want. So I think #1 priority should always be that you give what user want.

And also, it's also equally important to be aware that, of course, it's not all about efficiency, for instance, because for many of the times, if users just want to kill time, they just want to enjoy what they do and we should also respect that. So I think that's what also we see that people in the longer term, whoever win will be, who respect user behavior, give them the AI and the right context and right time, helping them use their own stuff instead of giving something with the lock-in ecosystem, whatever that is.

And I think that's what we see at least major growth of us, both for the use of all those AI features, but also for how we actually see quite a good growth of user base. And you can see that even though Q1 is actually traditionally almost a bit lower season, it's actually we have been done very well on the user base-wise. And we actually also see one of the highest growth of MAUs on desktop, for instance, likely as a result. So that's -- yes, more like that's some high-level figures.

Operator: We'll move next to Naved Khan with B. Riley Securities.

Naved Khan: So 2 questions from me. One is this metric you shared about users who engage with AI spend an hour more per day and you see 50% increase in searches. I'm curious what percentage of your base is engaging with the AI chat features that you currently have? And what are the levers that you control to drive this higher? And the second question I have is just on the Google renewal that's coming up at the end of the year. How are those conversations going? Are you confident about renewing it? Or just give us your thoughts there.

Lin Song: So yes, it's only I think I also try to answer it. I captured the last question first, I think I'll just revert on that. So yes, I think for Google, I think we also talked about, I believe, 2 months ago in our Q4 release that we are very happy to be one of the first to sign with Google, the renewed, let's say, agreement for the year due to the DOJ requirement, right, with them in the U.S. So very happy. We are very happy. I think they're also very happy that we are one of the first partners to do that. And moving forward, we don't expect any surprises. We have very good dialogue with them.

Hopefully, there will be also some interesting openings of new potentials that we can cooperate with Google, both on the search, but potentially on the AI side and a few other side. And yes, for the renewal, I think we typically have stand on the process of renewing with them by -- yes, more towards the second half of the year. I think we'll continue the right path on that trend and we'll provide an update when such is available. But for now, I think the cooperation is fantastic. And as you also see that we even have one of the highest growth of traditional search parties ever. So I think both sides are very happy.

And hopefully, we can expand that partnership moving forward. Yes. And then I guess also super quickly comment a bit on your questions on AI, right? So yes, I guess in short, for now, we have not disclosed the exact AI usage percent. I think the reason is just because now there are so many touch points and entry points of AI that is almost a bit hard for us to define a particular entry well, what comes as the user use AI or not because that can happen both from Omnibar whenever there is a suggestion, which is, of course, we are always updating. So that's also why you see a good growth of query revenues.

Most of them are actually resulted of the many of the AI features that we are trying to resonate. But of course, it's also possible for user to both access AI from the sidebar with Open AI. But with the latest introduced of browser with own AI, you can actually compute the browser by Browser Connector from your ChatGPT subscription inside the browser directly or from your cloud and other chatbots directly from a webpage.

So I guess it will become harder for us to define particularly what content AI usage because I think that will be almost prolific that almost the majority -- I think we do expect majority of the interactions within the browser will encounter AI in one form or another. And I think our goal basically just to make sure that we are a browser choice. We are a standalone player, we give them all the options available.

And hopefully, for instance, if you have a cloud-based subscription, our goal is just to make sure that Opera is the best place going to use and saying that if you have ChatGPT subscription, but you also want to use [indiscernible] sometimes, we should also be the go-to choice. So I think that's our aim and I think we are actually moving forward to that goal.

Operator: We'll move next to Ron Josey with Citi.

Ronald Josey: I wanted to ask a little bit more on search, specifically with query growth accelerating in the quarter. And Frode, I think you talked about the search evolves and your broader query approach overall. So talk to us about the evolution as search is -- we see accelerating query growth and specifically the tie between, call it, the new browser AI tools and engagement as search revenues growth and query grow, in fact, accelerate. So any insights on the evolution here would be super helpful. And then bigger picture, understood with guidance here, but any insights on the broader advertising environment would be very helpful. Are there any verticals to call out one way or the other?

Frode Jacobsen: Ron, Frode here. I'll start. So I think in the first quarter, we saw the year-over-year search, like pure search revenue was growing at about 14% year-over-year, which was very strong and up from the growth that we saw in all the quarters in 2025. And then on top of that, we have the broadening of the category, including also the non-search query revenues that drove it up to 23% total overall.

So I think we look at that category in an enthusiastic way because as these new tools evolve and as people can engage with the browser in new ways, we have more opportunities to direct people to the things they are looking for in native ways in the browser.

Ronald Josey: And further to that, as engagement ramps, you talked about more opportunity direct. And then we heard in the call earlier, I think, Song, you talked about broader engagement for those who have adopted AI tools. I know we've talked about that on the Q&A section. But any insights on adoption of AI tools to the browser and the user base overall?

Lin Song: Yes. So yes, it's Song Lin here. So I guess I'll just complement a bit on what Frode is saying that on -- I mean, as I said, I think now the way we see it, it's becoming really proliferating that like, for instance, if you just use Opera browser, you can go to ChatGPT by just using the Browser Connector, or you can benefit from there to control the Opera browser. And the same way that, let's say, if you type a regular URL, we will actually use AI to say that, oh, maybe this is Amazon tools -- product that you would like, right, it will pop up, either you click on, they will go through it.

And same as the Booking.com is also a perfect example that now it actually works that way. So I would almost say that I think now we are basically coming to a stage where you could arguably say that majority of the user searches probably have AI involved in one form or the other. And I think we will see that will be the future moving forward. And I think the key is just -- as we also maybe mentioned a bit earlier that I think the key is just maybe find the right design and the combination that it should really facilitate users' browsing behaviors. I think maybe that's also something that people go to that.

At the end of the day, it's always consumer first, is always end user first. It's very important that it's something facilitating. For instance, that's also why we provide this Browser Connector instead of pushing them to force them to use some particular Opera Ad tool, but actually they can use whatever existing tool they like. And I think that's a very important philosophy that we believe in. And we have to feel strongly that, that should be the direction of what a browser should do, right? As an independent player, user can choose whatever AI they like. It can be from existing big players. It can be even from open source if they choose.

And then we just have to make sure that we provide this Browser Connector in MCP protocol that people can access and said great and then they can use whatever to control it. And I think we are basically in the best position to provide it. So maybe perhaps that's also why I would almost say that so far for the browser come up by the particular AI providers, I don't think there's too much acceptance of it. But rather, we actually see very nice growth -- actually we have the higher growth of our users, say, for desktop that we have not seen for years. So I think we are very encouraged by that.

Operator: We'll take our next question from Jim Callahan with Piper Sandler.

James Callahan: Interested on the comments on travel, rolling out the sort of performance-based product there. Would just be curious if -- how much of the pieces are in place to kind of roll that out? Or is that something that's kind of already in the model today?

Frode Jacobsen: So I'll go in terms of the model. So our guidance is always quite bottom up estimates where we look at what we have today. And then we rather leave upside for things to scale better than what we built into guidance in the later parts of the year. And of course, travel is a big opportunity. It's very -- we can use our lessons from the e-commerce opportunity to scale into this vertical. It's also interesting seasonality-wise, but it has a different annual profile with sort of midyear travels, et cetera, whereas e-commerce and shopping tends to be or is definitely strongest around year-end and the holiday season.

James Callahan: Okay. Got it. That is helpful. And then anything in terms of guidance for, I don't know, either 2Q or full year, just relative growth between query and advertising?

Frode Jacobsen: We will be a bit careful to break it down into detail because it evolves as we evolve the opportunity, especially the non-search parts of query is relatively new. And then search as a whole is also quite market-based on top of how we move our user base. And then on the advertising side, of course, we have a baseline and we have a guidance and we also have opportunities that you just touched on. So we -- for now, I would say Q1 was very strong on the query overall.

I think we don't need to continue a year-over-year growth of over 20% on a query basis to meet our guidance, but it's a bit too soon to discuss specifics for the better parts of the year.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We'll move next to Jacob Stephan with Lake Street Capital Markets.

Jacob Stephan: Congrats on a nice quarter. Maybe just to start off for me, I'll ask on the MCP. This kind of positions you as kind of the central call point for several AI tools. But do you think that this kind of risks cannibalizing any of the Opera Neon subscriptions or economics? Or is this kind of a complementary funnel? Curious your thoughts here.

Lin Song: Yes. So yes, that's a very good question. So as like -- yes, it's a very relevant question, right? So I guess, yes, we do have a choice, right? Like any given AI feature, which are quite interesting, we do have a choice of do we only give it to Opera Neon and hopefully, we will push more for subscription revenue? Or do we think that it's more relevant for the broader audience? And as a result, hopefully also attract more users in the generic Opera One or GX product, right?

So -- but I think basically, as also demonstrated by our numbers, I think we are in a bit slightly luxury situation that we are not burning money like all those base model companies. We are quite profitable and we have good revenue. And also because our revenue model is because of advertisement, right, that we do not really have to rely on fixed subscription revenue. And then be aware that typically that subscription revenue is also -- if you are a traditional AI company, that subscription revenue also coupled heavily with burning token cost, which is almost many times not sustainable.

So I would also say that in this particular case you asked, it's a bit easy simple decision because we see it, we saw that there's a great user feedback, people liked it and we calculated that it's economically much better to put it outside really just because remember, this is bring your own AI, right? So we don't even need to use our own tokens, this is tokens from ChatGPT or whatever based on what you already have. And so we don't really have any cost really whatsoever.

But that if that causes a higher retention, how user search, how user use our browser because at the end of the day, if user have to use it inside the browser anyway that we would be able to capture all the intent and monetize if needed anyway. So this particular case is actually a very easy decision that it makes more sense to have it available on the general product and make money by regular browsers, which are already demonstrated to be very profitable anyway.

I'm sure that there will be certain features may be tailored to particular vertical audiences that would only be available in Neon like many of the current Neon features is and those that will be more subscription-based. But yes, for the Browser Connector, it's an obvious choice that it's better to make it widely available.

Jacob Stephan: Okay. Very helpful. Maybe just last one for me on MiniPay. Obviously, nice momentum there. At what point does this kind of become more of a P&L contributor versus just a strategic investment? Do you kind of -- I guess, looking longer term, what are your plans for MiniPay, OPay?

Frode Jacobsen: Yes, I can comment a bit on MiniPay. So MiniPay is already meaningfully contributing. We generate about $20 million of revenue from the broader ecosystem around it. It is a very successful product, as you say, and it does allow people -- we've tailored it initially for emerging markets to have an easy way to access stablecoins and other blockchain types of assets. And we continue to think it has a huge potential ahead and can really scale. Still, this is one of those items that is quite early, still a bit early in terms of how big it can get and what the trajectory looks until that point.

On OPay, which is a separate topic, that's a company that Opera founded back in 2017 and we have a 9.5% stake in that, that we carry on our balance sheet at about $300 million of book value. That company is by now operating completely independently from Opera and is advancing on its own. So while we're not operationally working together, we, of course, share a history and we're very proud to see how that company has scaled and is sort of working towards what we expect will ultimately be an IPO, which we think is also very positive for Opera because it would sort of immediately make visible the market value of that company and Opera's stake in it.

Operator: We'll take our next question from Jonnathan Navarrete with TD Cowen.

Jonnathan Navarrete: How are buybacks going 2Q so far? And how should we think about the phasing through the year?

Frode Jacobsen: So I don't think we'll get into sort of talking ahead beyond sort of the historical period. But overall, we're, of course, very pleased to have that program in place. I guess it's the third or fourth time that we launched a buyback program and by far the biggest one that we have launched. I think we already are -- we reported our March trades essentially since the program became -- was launched in late Feb and we could start trading in March. And already, I think it can contribute to accelerating ROI for our shareholders as we take shares out of the denominator.

And then sort of going ahead, I think we continue to be, as we've always been with buybacks, opportunistic and adjust the program to maximize the value that we can create. I think just the fact that we are in that position, we talked about it a bit on the last quarter as well, we are growing fast and we are self-funded in the sense that the business is generating very healthy cash flows. And our CapEx model that Song touched on, on the AI side is very limited compared to other companies that you would think about in that space. So we don't have like a massive investment need to drive our business.

It's a software layer, it's a service and we -- that is what we are good at. So we don't want to compete in a hardware race. And that also means that the cash we generate, we can actually return it to shareholders. We like the recurring dividend and the buyback just helps us drive incremental upside.

Jonnathan Navarrete: Great. And just one more question. There were some reports this morning that OpenAI missed some internal sales targets. And just wondering what could be the read-through, if any, for you guys?

Frode Jacobsen: Hard...

Lin Song: OpenAI? It's not open...

Frode Jacobsen: I think -- okay, it's actually convenient that you asked the question immediately after my prior response because I think we do -- we are quite distinguished. If you think about companies that have an, let's say, AI opportunity, then of course, we have the major platforms like OpenAI, et cetera, but you also have Opera, right? And -- but we do it as a service in a browser. We don't try to compete against the big LLMs out there, whether it's ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude or any of the other ones.

But we are very good at providing an interface for LLMs to exist very close to the user to control the browser, to take into account context of the user and to enable it to be as productive as possible, right? So for example, as we talked about with the Browser Connector, our own Open Opera AI in the browser, like as a human, you don't have to sit and be like the personal secretary of an AI model and copy paste links and text, right? You can just -- you can operate these tools in the browser with the context included. So I think comparing us to OpenAI in some ways, flattering that you ask.

But at the same time, I think our cost and capital need structure is completely different.

Lin Song: Yes. Maybe I'll just add, right, that I just -- I think in general, I think, hopefully, as we also demonstrated that like both Opera and the potential our users are already demonstrated to be very AI-savvy, I would say. Otherwise, it probably like -- unlike some other maybe old-fashioned browser companies, people who use AI tend -- whoever use Opera tends to be AI-savvy, they tend to be very interested. So I would almost say that I think, of course, 300 million MAU, that is a very attractive partners that we will want to grow AI is I think we must be a very attractive partners that they can work with.

For instance, if you compare with many other, we call it similar big player like even Claude or X or whatever, I think I believe their MAU are in the range of almost 1/10 of our MAUs, right? I'm sure OpenAI has a bit more, but at least 300 million, there must be a very interested partnership opportunities. So I guess that will also be our -- hopefully, with the year moving on, we can see what can be done there.

Operator: And it does appear that there are no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back to Song Lin for any additional or closing remarks.

Lin Song: Sure. So yes, I guess thank you to everyone for joining us today. 2026 is off, again, to a great start. Our continued momentum and truly exciting landscape has already resulted in a solid foundation for continued strength through the remainder of the year and well beyond. Have a good day, everyone.

Operator: Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

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