Smartphone users across Southeast Asia are continuing to download a few new apps each month, according to 2015 research. Social networking, along with utilities apps, are likely drivers of this.
Deloitte surveyed internet users in five Southeast Asian markets about their use of mobile apps. Among those ages 16 to 44 who reported downloading apps, the bulk tended to download a handful of new ones each month.
In most markets, a plurality of respondents said they downloaded three to five apps in a typical months. In the Philippines, it was slightly more common to download just one or two apps each month.
App downloaders were most likely to concentrate on a small number of new apps in Singapore: 78% of respondents there downloaded five apps or fewer each month, vs. 74% in the Philippines, 73% in Malaysia, 71% in Indonesia and 70% in Thailand.
Social networking is a major app activity in many of these markets, according to data from geolocation platform Near. In the Philippines, for example, 53% of all smartphone app usage observed by Near in Q3 2015 was due to social networking apps, with utilities in a distant second place at 12%.
In Malaysia, utilities accounted for 21% of smartphone app usage during the quarter, with social networking coming in a close second at 19%. And in Indonesia social networking tied with utilities for second place at 21%, just after photography apps at 22% of usage.
