Indonesians glued to phones for a third of waking hours in 2021, report finds

Mobile-first markets have spent roughly a third of their waking moments on their phones in 2021, with Indonesia logging in the highest average hours spent a day, alongside Brazil at 5.4 hours, estimates by Data.ai show.

Image credit: Data.ai

Across the top 10 markets in Data.ai’s State of Mobile 2022 report, the weighted average surpassed 4 hours 48 minutes in 2021, up 30% from pre-pandemic 2019. Joining Indonesia in the leading positions are countries like India at fifth place, with an average of 4.7 hours per day, and Singapore at no. 8 with 4.5 hours.

Globally, mobile consumer spending was at US$170 billion in 2021, with over 230 apps and games collectively exceeding US$100 million in annual consumer spend. Of those 230, 13 shot past US$1 billion.

According to Data.ai (previously known as App Annie), improvements in mobile devices have made it easier for people to enjoy more premium games on the go. “Consumers, consequently, migrated share of wallet to mobile as the de facto gaming console and tool for managing our lives,” the report stated.

Data.ai estimates showed that in Indonesia, the bulk of downloads in the finance subgenres are digital wallets and payment apps. The segment saw a 112% surge in downloads in 2021 to hit a total of 76.5 million – a significant jump from 36 million in the previous year.

Growth in Indonesia’s finance subgenre downloads in 2021 compared to 2020 / Image credit: Data.ai

However, mobile banking is catching up fast, with downloads from the space seeing a 178% increase in 2021 to 64.1 million compared with just 23 million in 2020.

Other fast-growing subgenres are personal investing and cryptocurrency trading apps, with the latter logging in around a 16x uptick to 14.1 million downloads in 2021. Personal investing downloads, meanwhile, rose 166% to 30 million last year.

The full report can be accessed here.

See also: Ajaib, Stockbit drive Indonesia’s stock-trading boom