From translating global ambitions into local growth to building relevance through culture, partnerships, and product, this conversation explores what it takes to grow Opera in Türkiye and turn awareness into lasting user habits.

Q: Can you start by telling us a little about your role as Country Growth Director for Turkiye and what your day-to-day looks like at Opera? 

A: My role is essentially to make Opera’s global ambitions work in the reality of the Turkish market. I’m responsible for driving growth in Türkiye, which means looking at the whole picture rather than just one marketing channel. That includes user acquisition, partnerships and distribution, local campaigns, influencer and social activity, PR, and understanding how people actually discover and use Opera here.

No two days are really the same. One day I might be looking at acquisition data and distribution performance, the next working on a local campaign or negotiating with a potential partner, and another looking at what Turkish users are saying about our native AI or how the local gaming community is interacting with Opera GX.

The interesting part is connecting all of those pieces and deciding where we can create the greatest impact. Growth is not just about getting more users. It’s about understanding why people choose you, why they stay, and how you become relevant enough to become part of their habits.

Q:  Before Opera, you built your career across global consumer tech and social discovery products. What did those experiences teach you about growing international products in local markets? 

A: I spent many years working with global products in categories where culture has a huge influence on user behaviour. Dating is an extreme example because something that works beautifully in one market can feel completely wrong in another.

It taught me that localization is not translation. You have to understand the local consumer, but you also have to understand the global product well enough to know what should remain consistent.

You don’t want to turn a global brand into a completely different local brand. You want to find the local insight that makes the global product feel like it was made with people here in mind.

Q: In one of your LinkedIn posts, you described joining Opera as a new chapter after years in dating-app marketing. What made Opera the right next challenge for you?

A: After a decade in dating and social discovery, I wanted to work on something that was both broader and more foundational to people’s digital lives.

A browser is one of the few products that can sit at the centre of almost everything you do online. You use it to work, search, watch, shop, communicate, learn and, increasingly, interact with AI. That made Opera particularly interesting to me.

I also liked the fact that Opera is an established global technology company, but still thinks like a challenger. Especially now, as AI has completely reignited the browser space, there is room to experiment, move quickly and build things differently.

For me, it felt less like leaving one industry and more like taking everything I had learned about consumer behaviour, growth and culture into a much bigger playground.

Q: You’ve worked with brands that became much more recognizable in Turkiye over time. What does it take to build local relevance for a global tech product?

A: You have to earn relevance rather than announce it.

A global brand can arrive in a market with a great product and a large international reputation, but Turkish consumers still need a reason to care about it specifically. That comes from understanding local culture, habits, media and conversations.

A good example was the launch of Opera Air. The browser features a digital cat mascot, Inara, so bringing the global launch to Istanbul, the city of cats, felt natural. Instead of simply running traditional ads, we partnered with HAÇİKO and the local municipality to create Kedi Mahallesi, or “Cat Neighborhood.” We placed cat houses inspired by our mascot on the streets, where people could scan QR codes to discover Opera Air while also supporting shelter for local street cats.

What I like about that example is that we didn't just translate a global campaign. We found a reason for it to belong in Istanbul.

That’s what local relevance means to me. You have to let the market influence the brand. Localization shouldn’t be a one-way process where headquarters tells the market what to say. The market should also tell the global organization what people actually need and care about.

And relevance requires consistency. One campaign rarely changes perception. You need to show up in multiple places and in multiple ways through the product, partnerships, creators, PR, social media and sometimes simply by participating in conversations people are already having.

Q: Your LinkedIn presence is very strong and personal. What do you think about storytelling, authenticity, and professional visibility as part of modern marketing leadership? 

A: I think people increasingly want to know the person behind the job title.

Especially in marketing, we spend our careers telling stories about brands. It would be strange if we didn't understand the value of telling our own stories too.

For me, LinkedIn isn't about creating a perfectly polished professional persona. I try to share what I'm actually thinking about: things I've learned, things I've worked on, observations about technology and culture, and sometimes things that simply made me laugh or think.

Authenticity doesn't mean sharing everything. It means that what you choose to share is genuinely yours.

And professional visibility matters because expertise that nobody can see has limited reach. Your reputation becomes part of your professional capital. For leaders in particular, visibility can also make the company more human. People don't only connect with logos, they connect with people and perspectives.

Q: Turkiye is a dynamic, highly social, and fast-moving digital market. What do Turkish users expect from technology brands today, and how does that shape Opera’s growth strategy? 

A: Turkish users adopt new technologies very quickly, but they are also demanding. They expect technology to be useful, fast and intuitive. We also have large, highly engaged youth and gaming audiences, which creates a natural fit for specialized products like Opera GX.

There is also a very strong social layer to digital behaviour in Türkiye. People don't just discover products through traditional advertising. They discover them through creators, communities, friends, social platforms and conversations.

That means our growth strategy has to go beyond performance marketing. We need to build distribution, create cultural relevance, work with the right partners and communicate the benefits of Opera in a way that feels native to the Turkish internet.

Ultimately, the most interesting growth question isn't “How do we get someone to download Opera?” It’s “Why would they choose Opera again tomorrow?”

Q: Looking ahead, what kind of impact would make you feel that Opera has truly become part of everyday digital life in Turkiye? 

A: For me, the real sign is actually about how I introduce myself.

In my previous roles at apps like Tinder, there was an early phase when I would say, “I work for an app called Tinder, maybe you know it.” Eventually, we reached a point where everyone just knew it. The explanation disappeared.

I want to experience that same moment with Opera in Türkiye.

Right now, if I say “I work at Opera,” the tech-savvy crowd immediately says, “Of course, I know it.” My ambition is to reach the mass-market tipping point where I never have to add “a browser called Opera.” Opera is simply Opera.

But awareness alone isn't enough. The more meaningful measure is habit. Downloads matter, but habitual usage tells you something much deeper.

When people naturally think of Opera when they want a better way to browse, use AI or protect their privacy and Opera becomes part of their everyday digital routine, that's when I'll feel we've really made it.