7 out of 10 smartphone users access mobility apps: Survey

[Photo by Lee Seung-hwan]

Seven out of 10 South Korean smartphone users access their mobility applications monthly, according to a recent analysis.

According to an analysis conducted on Wednesday by Ideaware Inc.’s Wiseapp Retail Goods on the usage of mobility apps including navigation, maps, and taxi hailing apps as of December 2023, the number of smartphone users employing mobility apps at least once a month was 37.27 million, or 73 percent of the nation’s smartphone users.

The number of mobility app users was 29.18 million in December 2019, before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and declined to 26.72 million in 2020. But this figure has been steadily increasing over the past three years since 2021.

Wiseapp reported that as of December 2023, the average time spent per person on mobility apps was 1 hour and 53 minutes, with 59 launches per person.

The most-used app during that year was Naver Corp.’s Naver Map, which boasted an average of 25.07 million monthly users. Tmap by Tmap Mobility Co. was the most popular navigation app, with an average of 11.95 million users per month, while Kakao T by Kakao Mobility Corp. was the most used taxi hailing app, with an average of 10.87 million users per month.