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| Opera accused of providing exploitative loans through Android applications |
The revenue loss from Opera's web browser has resulted in the creation of multiple loan applications with short payment terms and interest rates ranging from 365% to 876%, in violation of the new Google Play rules. Google store last August. To the Hindenburg Institute Report.
Soon after a group of Chinese investors took over the opera, it was transformed into a public limited company in mid-2018. Since then, its market share in the browser industry has continued to decline due to the dominance of Google Chrome.
As a result, Opera decided to focus on four short-term development loan requests in Africa and Asia: OKash and OPesa in Kenya, CashBean in India and OPay in Nigeria.
These apps appear to be already available on the Google Play Store (except OPesa, which appears to be completed) by setting the loan interest rate that differs from the interest rate for the loan the user received in the loan description. Application.
The claims claim to offer a maximum annual interest rate of 33% or less, but the real interest rate is much higher, rising to 438% in the case of OPesa, and a one-day delay in payment can raise the annual interest rate to 876%.
For example, OKash’s list states that the loan period is between 91 and 365 days, but the company’s email reply clearly indicates that the loan period is only 15 to 29 days, which is much lower than that set by Google’s 60-day minimum.
According to reports from the Google Store, OKash and OPesa sent text messages or phone calls to people in their contacts when users delay and threaten borrowers' claims or blacklists.
Deceiving low-income people clearly doesn't help Oprah. Since all applications violate Google Play Store guidelines, Oprah's main source of income may have disappeared, and the Hindenburg Research Report found this evidence of investing money in other companies and individuals:
1. $ 9.5 million in cash was transferred to a company that appears to be 100% owned by the president and CEO of Oprah, although the company has revealed the opposite.
2. A few days before the arrest of the main trading partners, $ 30 million in cash was distributed to Oprah's karaoke companies.
3. Paying $ 31 million in cash to an anti-virus software company controlled by the Opera director and affected by the president and CEO of Oprah Marketing and Prepayment.
According to this report, short-term loans granted by Oprah now account for more than 42% of the company's revenue and are responsible for the company's main growth. However, Oprah was closed because of her deteriorating financial condition, which is likely if Google blocks loan requests. Development will accelerate.