Donghak Ant Power... Last Year's Top Stock App Usage Time Up 120%

Overall Financial App Usage Time Increased by 45%
Significant Surge in YouTube and Live Commerce Usage Time

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] As Donghak ants flocked to the stock market, the usage time of stock investment apps significantly increased last year. Thanks to the increased time spent at home, video streaming and live commerce apps also grew.

According to the 'Mobile Status 2021 Report' released on the 13th by mobile data and analytics platform App Annie, the usage time of the top stock investment trading apps in 2020 increased by 120% compared to the previous year. This is more than twice the 55% increase in global financial app usage time. Among the surveyed countries, it was the second highest growth rate after the United States.

Total financial app downloads increased by 10% year-on-year, and usage time increased by 45%. These figures reflect the domestic stock fever driven by the 'Donghak Ant Movement' and 'Youngkkeun' (borrowing to invest). The financial apps with the highest year-on-year usage time growth rates were ranked as follows: 1st Kiwoom Securities Hero Moon S, 2nd Samsung Securities mPOP, 3rd NH Investment & Securities Mobile Securities Namu, 4th Korea Investment & Securities, and 5th Mirae Asset Daewoo Integrated m.Stock.

In the SNS category, TikTok ranked first in usage time. The average monthly usage time was 13.8 hours, a 92% increase compared to 7.2 hours the previous year. Following were ▲KakaoTalk 11.1 hours ▲Facebook 8.7 hours ▲Naver Cafe 6.2 hours ▲Instagram 4.8 hours. Facebook usage time decreased to 8.9 hours compared to the previous year.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, video streaming app usage time broke quarterly records. In the fourth quarter, domestic video app usage time exceeded 3.82 billion hours. Especially, YouTube ranked first in usage time in all countries except China. The average monthly YouTube usage time in Korea was 37.8 hours, a 20% increase from 31.5 hours the previous year. Following were ▲AfreecaTV 13.9 hours ▲Twitch 11.1 hours ▲Wavve 9.1 hours ▲Netflix 8.4 hours.

The performance of live commerce also drew attention. During the first week of November, Korea's Black Friday season, weekly shopping app usage time reached 13.5 million hours, surpassing the highest record. Last year, live commerce apps grew significantly, among which 'Grip' recorded 895,000 downloads, a 244% increase compared to the previous year.

Due to COVID-19, the number of users ordering delivery food also increased significantly. In Korea, 150 million sessions were achieved in the last week of December. The apps with the highest session growth rates compared to the previous year were Baedal Minjok (Baemin), followed by Coupang Eats, and Market Kurly.

Last year, total app downloads in Korea reached 2.05 billion, and mobile spending amounted to $5.64 billion (approximately 6.1842 trillion KRW). The average daily mobile usage time was 4.4 hours, a 19% increase from the previous year.

An App Annie official explained, “As people worldwide stayed at home due to COVID-19, mobile usage habits were accelerated by 2 to 3 years. In the mobile-first era, companies can drive revenue growth by capturing emerging market opportunities through mobile market data analysis or by discovering threats or potential partnerships.”

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