The superlative growth in mobile usage since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic point to quick digital acclimatization and resilience.
New data from firm tracking mobile app data insights has identified Indonesia’s high-growth industries: +180% hours spent on retail apps and +93% hours spent on video streaming apps since 2019.
Overall, new app downloads in Indonesia surpassed 7.3bn in 2021, a 33% increase from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
App store consumer spend also saw a 38% increase since 2019, exceeding US$1K per minute in 2021. According to the data, daily time spent per user in Indonesia had reached 5.4 hours in 2021, tying with Brazil as the most mobile-engaged market in the world.
According to data.ai’s metrics, Indonesia also shattered records in terms of growth in time spent on video streaming apps. Total time spent among the top 20 video streaming apps surpassed 27bn hours, up by 93% since 2019, the highest percent increase among all markets analyzed and nearly 3x the growth rate worldwide. Top apps included global brands such as YouTube, MX Player, Netflix, YouTube Kids and Viu. For Indonesia-based Vidio, time spent surpassed 174m hours, landing it at #8 in 2021.
Another category that saw tremendous growth in total time spent in Indonesia was the shopping apps. Since 2019, time spent on retail apps had risen from 2bn to nearly 5.6bn in 2021, a 180% increase.
Social, communication, and Photo/Video apps also saw continual growth, peaking in Q4 2021, equating to seven out of every 10 minutes of Indonesia’s mobile usage time.
In terms of time spent on shopping apps, Indonesia was also one of the global leaders at 52% growth, with strong movement in categories such as fast fashion, social shopping and mobile-savvy big-box players.
Finally, finance app downloads in Indonesia surpassed 382m in 2021, an 82% YoY increase and a 185% increase since 2018.
