The App Most Used by Koreans... 'This' Used Longer and More Often Than Naver

Instagram Widens Gap with Naver
Short-Form Service 'Reels' Drives Popularity

Social networking service (SNS) application Instagram is widening the gap after surpassing Naver in the categories of mobile apps used the longest and most frequently by Koreans.

Photo by Pixabay

On the 9th, WiseApp, a service analyzing apps, retail, and goods, surveyed smartphone users and found that Instagram's usage time in May was 389,937,341 hours, ranking third in the 'apps used the longest' category after YouTube (1,802,108,742 hours) and KakaoTalk (565,877,442 hours).

Instagram's usage time was fourth in March, following Naver, but increased by 3.3% in April to 347,873,865 hours, surpassing Naver?which decreased by 0.8%?by 13,861,509 hours to claim third place, maintaining this rank for two consecutive months. Moreover, last month, the gap with Naver widened to 46,418,705 hours, about 3.3 times the previous month's difference.

Instagram also expanded its lead over Naver in the 'most frequently used apps' category. Last month, Instagram was second with 17,855,246,930 launches domestically, following KakaoTalk (78,767,361,940 launches). Naver ranked third with 14,391,311,518 launches, and YouTube was fourth with 13,973,951,681 launches. Instagram was fifth in November last year with 13,169,342,673 launches but jumped two places to second in December by overtaking Naver and YouTube.

This increase in Instagram's domestic usage time and launch count is attributed to the short-form video service 'Reels,' launched in 2021. Although Naver also launched its short-form service 'Clip' in August last year, it has yet to significantly contribute to increases in usage time or launch counts.

Given this situation, Naver is ending social media (SNS) integrations such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook in its search results. An IT industry insider commented, "If they continue to focus solely on search optimization as in the past, they will be left behind," and added, "Domestic platforms need to strengthen short-form content that users frequently access and spend a long time on, like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts."