In brief
News and magazine apps led growth in Hong Kong in 2016 at 183%, while information and social networking apps were the most popular globally, growing by 44%. Flurry's report highlights substantial regional and cultural differences in app usage.
Which mobile apps (mobile applications) are the most popular? Information is more practical than games and entertainment: news and magazine apps recorded 183% growth in Hong Kong in 2016, followed by utilities and productivity software, while games performed poorly, declining by 24% last year.
A report published by Yahoo-owned Flurry Analytics found that, globally, information and social networking apps were the most popular, growing by 44% last year, followed by sports apps, which grew by 43%. In Hong Kong, Flurry Analytics director Christopher Klotzbach noted that news and magazine apps grew by 183%, while the same category declined by 5% globally. He acknowledged that mobile app trends vary considerably across regions and cultures.
Indeed, Snapchat, which is popular in the United States, has not gained much popularity in Hong Kong, illustrating differences in user preferences across regions. The Flurry Analytics report aims to offer guidance to app developers. Christopher Klotzbach noted that Hong Kong's mobile usage trends lag behind global usage data by 2 months. Large-screen phones, which display more information, account for 66% of the overall market. Among phone manufacturers, the largest shares are still held by Apple (Apple) and Samsung Electronics (Samsung Electronics), at 47% and 34%, respectively.
At the time of the report, Flurry had 1,500 partners in Hong Kong, with more than 14,000 apps using its services across approximately 9 million devices each month. Developers can use the Flurry platform to understand how their own apps are performing. Globally, Flurry covers 940,000 apps and tracks 2.1 billion smart devices, enabling it to report on overall market developments and provide developers with information and recommendations.
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