Browser manufacturer Opera has introduced Dify, a new extension that 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. This makes perfect sense for the browser provider who has been looking for viable business models for years. With Dify, the name of the project, 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 corresponding online shopping offers.

The whole thing is reminiscent of cashback services like they offer bargain portals with shoop or banks such as the DKB or Comdirect. In addition to the Dify Wallet, a current account with a free virtual debit card based on Mastercard will also be added in the future, which supports Google Pay.

Opera’s Dify app will initially be launched 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, quite a few shopping apps – but ironically enough, also had a large ad blocker – simply complained about corresponding leads for themselves, usually without the knowledge or consent of the user.

With Dify, Opera becomes a shopping browser

Expanding the Opera browser into a shopping browser sounds logical, because that would be an additional source of income that the user accepts in contrast to numerous others. Because the battle between the 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 around five to one percent market share.

Opera names “top e-commerce retailers such as Nike, Asos and eDreams” as partners who tend to be in the second row for the Dify Cashback program. 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 your 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 in July announced that an agreement had been reached to take over Fjord-Bank. Opera joined the Emerging Payments Association EU in September 2020. So it actually looks as if 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.

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