Smartphone Use 5 Hours a Day... 'Manjijak' in 4 Countries Including Korea

Q1 App Usage Time
Focus on Social Distancing

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Since the COVID-19 pandemic, smartphone usage time has increased explosively. It has been found that four countries worldwide, including Korea, use smartphones for more than 5 hours a day on average, indicating that smartphones are used during work and meal times, excluding sleeping hours.

According to data from app analytics company Data.ai (formerly App Annie) on the 16th, the country with the longest average daily smartphone usage worldwide in the first quarter of this year was Indonesia. The survey was based on smartphone app usage time. Indonesia, which used smartphones for an average of 4.7 hours per day in the first quarter of 2019, increased its daily usage by one hour to 5.7 hours in the first quarter of this year. If this trend continues, Indonesia is expected to be the first country in the world to exceed 6 hours of average daily smartphone usage within this year.

As of the first quarter of this year, besides Indonesia, the countries with an average daily smartphone usage of more than 5 hours worldwide were Brazil, Korea, and Mexico, in that order. Korea recorded 5.2 hours of usage in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 0.1 hours compared to a year ago, ranking third in the world for longest smartphone usage time. Korea surpassed 5 hours of average daily smartphone usage for the first time last year.

The increase in smartphone usage is attributed to social distancing policies implemented by each country due to COVID-19. Singapore, Russia, and Australia saw about a 35% increase in smartphone usage time in the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of 2019, maintaining high usage rates even after transitioning to an endemic phase. On the other hand, China experienced a decline of more than 10% in smartphone usage time since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, due to its domestic control measures.

Despite the explosive increase in smartphone usage worldwide, the top four apps in the download charts showed no change in ranking. Following the fourth quarter of last year, the first quarter of this year also saw Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and WhatsApp as the most downloaded apps in that order. In Korea, due to the exponential increase in COVID-19 cases in the first quarter of this year, the electronic vaccination certificate app KUBU recorded the highest number of downloads. Following it were Coupang Play, Danggeun Market, Zoom, and Disney Plus, highlighting the remarkable rise of online video service (OTT) apps.