The global Internet population is now well-acquainted with — and using — a wide variety of apps, according to a new survey of over 20,000 respondents from Ipsos.
More than seven out of 10 Web users surveyed in the online panel used apps in several popular app categories, including weather, finance, music, and news.
Notably, the survey did not ask about usage of gaming apps, known to be among the most popular apps on smartphones, which suggests that an even higher proportion of Internet users may be using apps overall.
The U.S. Internet population appears to be the laggard in uptake for most of the app categories studied, with a lower proportion of users reporting regular app usage than the global average.
- For example, 60% of the Chinese Internet population and 35% of the global Internet population said they used music apps, compared to 28% in the United States.
- In the U.S., weather apps were the most popular type of app, with 46% penetration of the Internet population. It was the only app category that saw more interest from U.S. Internet users than from the global audience, or those in China.
- In the U.S., 29% of the Internet population used finance apps, presumably stock-checking, banking, and payment apps, compared to 39% in the rest of the world and 48% in China.
The survey asked almost 20,000 Internet users from 27 different countries around the world which apps they used regularly. The survey did not specify whether they were talking about mobile apps specifically or the broader Web app category. However, we assume most respondents took the question to refer to mobile app usage, as this is the most widespread definition of the word, "apps."
To arrive at their global average for app usage by category, Ipsos included only 15 countries with Internet penetration rates above 60%. China, therefore, was not included in this average.
China is a clear leader in app uptake, however, with higher-than-average adoption of every app category. Media-related apps were among the most consumed in China.
Music, news, and movie-related apps each captured over half of the Chinese survey respondents.
App usage throughout China is especially impressive considering that the country is nowhere near maturity in smartphone adoption, and still largely runs over slow mobile networks. Given these circumstances, we may not be anywhere close to a ceiling in Chinese app economy growth.
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