SEOUL -- A recent study by WiseApp, a mobile app analysis firm, has revealed that South Koreans are now spending an average of 40 hours per month watching YouTube on their smartphones. This is the highest monthly usage time ever recorded in the country, and represents a significant increase from just five years ago, when the average monthly usage time was 21 hours.
The study, which was conducted in January 2024, surveyed a sample of users from both Android and iOS platforms. The results showed that the total monthly usage time for YouTube in South Korea also reached a record high of 111.9 billion minutes. This is more than double the amount of time spent on YouTube in January 2019 (519 billion minutes).
The study's authors attribute the increase in YouTube usage to the platform's growing popularity among younger generations, particularly Generation Z (born between the mid-1990s and early 2000s). The launch of YouTube Shorts, a short-form video service, in July 2021 is also seen as a contributing factor.
