• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 4, 2012

After launching its own app store front last year to compete with Apple’s App Store and Google Play, Opera Software is adding new promotional features for developers. The Norway-based company today announced a number of new marketing options in the Opera Mobile Store accessed through its flagship Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers.

The new ad options include sponsored product listings on the home page as well as on major content categories; rich media ads showcasing apps; browser launch page banners in the new Opera Mini 7 software; contextually relevant text ads and App of the Week promos on Opera’s Facebook and Twitter pages, targeted by region.

Pricing is based on volume and countries selected.

Opera says its app store itself draws 40 million monthly users but that the marketing features extend that read up to more than 200 million Opera users worldwide. As part of its monetization push, the company recently launched a self-service app promotion portal that lets developers bid for customer downloads. The pay-per-download (PPD) platform allows targeting by region, platform, handset and other criteria.