Car Usage Rises Again... April Fueling Transactions Increase 3.5 Times

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the use of personal cars and rental cars has increased instead of public transportation, leading to an unprecedented boom in fuel apps.

According to the fuel app Owin, the average daily number of refueling transactions in April (4.1~4.25) increased about 3.5 times compared to January (1.1~1.25) this year. During the same period, the average daily payment amount and the number of users on the Owin app also showed an explosive increase of nearly three times. This reflects the desire to use contactless drive-thru refueling due to COVID-19.

As drive-thru spring outing visitors increased, navigation apps have gradually been recovering since the first week of March, the cherry blossom blooming season. According to data analysis from the mobile big data platform Mobile Index, during the last week of February (2.24~3.1), when social anxiety about COVID-19 peaked, the weekly number of users for 'Naver Map, Navigation,' 'T map,' and 'Kakao Navi' apps sharply dropped to 4.82 million, 3.87 million, and 2.02 million respectively. However, in April, the recent weekly user numbers (4.13~19) recovered to approximately 5.6 million, 4.21 million, and 2.3 million respectively.

As social distancing prolonged and fatigue increased, people who had refrained from going out seem to have started outdoor activities using their own cars. It is expected that domestic travel and outings using personal cars and rental cars will further increase during the golden holiday period in the first week of May.

On the other hand, the trend of avoiding public transportation and the decrease in overseas travel are also clearly reflected in the data. According to BankSalad, from December to February, the number of users making public transportation transactions decreased by 49.80%, the number of transactions by 58.47%, and the transaction amount by 52.44%, reflecting the untact (contactless) sentiment due to concerns about virus infection. With air routes effectively closed, the number of users and transaction amounts for travel agencies dropped significantly by 72.38% and 88.1% respectively, and airlines also saw decreases of 61.72% in users and 59.01% in transaction amounts.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.