Many Indians spend 4 hrs/day on apps

BENGALURU: The most active smartphone users in India spend more than 4 hours every day—the equivalent of half a standard workday—on mobile apps. India was among the top 5 markets in terms of total time spent on apps on Android phones in May 2017, according to a study by app analytics firm App Annie.

India's top 20% (the most active Android users) was close behind the top 20% in South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan, whose users spent about 5 hours.

Even the least active users in India spent at least 1.5 hours. The median (those in the middle) spent close to 2.5 hours a day.

"This indicates strong adoption of apps even for the least avid users in these countries, thanks to widespread adoption of apps such as WhatsApp and an emerging mobile-first lifestyle," the report noted.

App Annie looked at the ten biggest Android using countries for its study.

In terms of categories, shopping apps, travel, and games emerged as the top categories where people were spending most of their time. Indians were second in terms of average time spent per month per user on mobile shopping, with close to 90 minutes.

South Korea was just ahead with more than 90 minutes. For finance apps, a user on an average spent 30 minutes per month in India, behind Brazil (45 minutes) and South Korea (60 minutes).

The rest of the users, including the ones in well-established markets like the US, UK, and France were spending less than 20 minutes.