OSLO, Norway -- From humble offices above a car dealership, privately owned Opera Software's Internet browser has quietly grown into the world's third-largest.
It's admittedly like a gnat among bulls compared to the leading browser, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and No. 2 Netscape. But there's an important distinction: While the two leaders are free, devotees of Opera pay $39 for this browser -- and Opera has done no marketing.
''If we do things that keep our customers satisfied, they act as a marketing force for us,'' says the company's 32-year-old co-founder and chief executive Jon S. von Tetzchner.
Analysts don't believe Opera will ever pose a serious challenge on PCs, but techies love the browser's speed and compactness. And it is positioning itself to gain a serious foothold in a market highly touted as the future of the Internet -- wireless appliances.
Since users pay for Opera, there is no advertising to slow the browser. It can run several windows within one browser frame. It also can zoom Web pages, an aid to the visually impaired, and run using a keyboard, a boon for those unable to use a mouse.
Opera is offered in 10 languages, including Afrikaans.
''We feel the software should be adapted to the user and not the other way around,'' Tetzchner said.
Opera already has contracts with some major players in the growing market to put Internet browsers on wireless devices including mobile phones and palm-sized computers. Those clients like the upstart browser for its stingy memory requirements and elegance.
''It does without a lot of the additional frills that no one uses,'' said Dave Wilby, technical editor of Internet magazine, by telephone from London.
Opera is also popular because some of its users -- the majority of whom are young, male Internet experts -- object to the dominance of Microsoft and Netscape, which is now owned by America Online.
Speed is key to the tall, eloquent, Iceland-born Tetzchner and head programmer Geir Ivarsoey, a Norwegian, in their assault on bigger rivals.
''Our focus has always been what people complain about most concerning the Internet, and that is that it goes too slowly,'' Tetzchner said. ''We make it go faster.'' Opera now has about 1.5 million users, 95 percent outside Norway, he said.
The browser was born of a project by Telenor ASA, the government-owned phone company in this nation of 4.5 million people.
In 1994, Telenor asked Tetzchner and Ivarsoey to write an Internet browser without using software owned by others. They had a version running by the end of that year.
The phone company subsequently abandoned the project, giving rights to the browser to Tetzchner and Ivarsoey, who created Opera Software in 1995. Their browser was available for download on the Internet the next year. It drew users as word spread via Internet newsgroups, and by 1997, Opera Software had 500,000 users and a small profit.
Tetzchner and Ivarsoey own 70 percent of the company. The rest is held by a few outside investors and the Opera staff.
In early July, the company released Opera 3.62 for EPOC, a standard for wireless Internet devices backed by Symbian, a joint venture between Psion, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Matsushita.
''That consortium was made so Microsoft couldn't take over the (wireless) market,'' Tetzchner said. A U.S. court order to split Microsoft is also giving others the courage to challenge the giant, he said.
Despite strong growth, Opera's market share is microscopic.
In June, Opera had a 0.01 percent share, Internet Explorer had 86.08 percent, and Netscape 13.9 percent, according to WebSideStory's Statmarket, a U.S. company that monitors Internet use.
That was before the June 28 launch of Opera 4.0, an updated version Tetzchner said roughly 70,000 people downloaded in the first three days.
''Things have been moving fast,'' Tetzchner saidover construction noise from Opera's third office expansion in two years.
Opera is so low-key that its headquarters are marked only by ''Opera Software'' in tiny letters in a doorbell. Inside, the offices are pleasant, airy and without frills.
''That may reflect a little of the Scandinavian culture. Minimalism. You see that in the browser. The program has what it needs and nothing more,'' said Haakon W. Lie, Opera's chief technology officer. The browser requires just two to three megabytes of hard disk space on PCs, compared to more than 20 for its two main rivals.
Opera's 60-member staff -- it hopes to reach 100 employees this year -- relishes competing with 36,000-employee Microsoft, and the company is shooting for 2001 to triple last year's $825,000 in sales. But it won't be an easy battle, said Johan Montelius, an analyst for Jupiter Communications.
''I think they will have a very hard time competing on the PC browser market, but may have much more of a chance on the small devices,'' he said by telephone from Stockholm, Sweden.
The first Operas were made for Microsoft's Windows operating systems, which are used on most of the world's computers. Now versions for Linux, Apple, Be and OS/2 and other non-Microsoft systems are being released, vastly expanding the browser's potential market.
''This opens new opportunities for us to be the king of the hill,'' said Tetzchner. ''First, we have to beat Microsoft.''
To visit Opera's site, go to Jacksonville.com, keyword: Opera.
