Consumer spending in mobile apps in South Korea reached an all-time high of $102.34 million in the second quarter ended June, with high spending on messenger and streaming apps.

According to data released by mobile data and analytics provider App Annie on Monday, consumer spending in app stores across Apple iOS and Google Play amounted to a record $102.34 million in the April-June period, up 1.2 percent from the previous three months. Domestic app downloads reached 307.23 million, down 5 percent during the same period.

In Korea, consumers spent the most on KakaoTalk, the country’s leading multifaceted messaging app, followed by KakaoPage, which is a main content platform for webtoons, novels, and movies, YouTube, Naver Webtoon, and Whatcha Play, which is a movie streaming service app. In terms of downloads, banking apps including NH Smart Banking and mobile payment app Toss ranked top two.

Global app downloads shot up 1 percent to 30.3 billion in the second quarter of 2019 while consumer app spending reached $22.6 billion, up 2.7 percent from the previous quarter ended March, data showed. Mobile gaming apps accounted for a record 35 percent of total downloads and 75 percent of total spending.

Google Play had a 185 percent lead over iOS in terms of app downloads, with gap widening to 265 percent in gaming app downloads.

Mobile gaming app downloads on Google Play in the second quarter were most active in India, Brazil, and the United States, data showed, while on iOS platform China, the U.S., and Japan.

App Annie said that consumer spending in apps surged as people also increased spending in non-gaming app categories and amid rapid growth in emerging markets.

The company projected that demand for non face-to-face service apps such as those of banks, delivery, and consumer services will continue to grow among mobile users in Korea in the remaining of the year.

By Lee Yong-ik and Lee Eun-joo

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