According to figures from FIND and Mobile First, 12.04 million people in Taiwan have notebook computers or smartphones, of whom 9.64 million have downloaded one or more apps.
However, there is a big difference between app downloading and regular usage. Although app customers have downloaded an average of 22.5 apps each, only 7.5 apps are being used at least once per fortnight.
The apps were divided into 17 categories, following the classification used by online stores iOS and Google Play. Of Taiwan’s top 10 apps, five of them are for social networking: Line, Facebook, Facebook instant messaging, Whatsapp and WeChat. The other top apps were for news (Apple Daily), photography (Line camera), games (Candy Crush Saga), video (YouTube) and a flashlight app.
Of the 17 categories, social networking, used by 68 percent of people, was the most popular overall, followed by games at 52 percent and news at 47 percent.
Social networking apps are communal and boast high loyalty. More than 70 percent of customers say they are repeat users, which translates as close to 7 million people.
Loyalty is clearly a major problem for games, and the popularity of many apps in this category appears to be short-lived. Candy Crush ranked No. 7 in the list, but 30.2 percent of those who downloaded it said they had not used it since the beginning of the year. App and content developers have to keep innovating if they are to retain customer interest, III said.
The survey also finds there are nearly 5 million people in Taiwan using news apps. This trend has made media companies expedite provision of mobile content.
The survey was conducted from Jan. 9 to Feb. 10 this year, with 4,052 people responding. (SDH)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw