Top apps used by consumers are often listed and reported in the media; however, these reports fail to recognize the differences in app use between age groups and ethnicities. This blog details one of these demographic slices, ethnicities, and how the use of popular apps varies across groups, including Asians, Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latino, and Whites or Caucasians.
Similar But Differing App Use Across Ethnicities
The table below ranks the top 30 apps of 2019 year-to-date for four ethnic groups based on average monthly minutes per month. Despite the similarities of apps listed between the groups, there are notable differences across the groups (note that all apps have a minimum incidence level or penetration rate of 10% on the AppOptix panel). To begin, apps such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google Chrome rank high among all ethnicities. In fact, notable apps such as Instagram, Google Maps, Twitter, Amazon Shopping, Snapchat, Google Mail (gmail) are sprinkled within each list.
But between the well branded and commonly known Android apps are apps that should get noticed. When eliminating well branded apps and utilizing a penetration rate of between 10% - 20%, the apps, while still a who’s who of apps, get high marks in terms of use levels within each of the ethnicity groups. Some notable in each of the groups include:
- In the Asian community the WeChat (a Chinese messaging, payment and social media app) is popular. Other popular apps in this group include Reddit, Discord, Ibotta, and Robinhood (a financial trading app).
- In the Black or African American community, a few notable apps include Hulu, eBay (671 monthly minutes) and Shopkick.
- Among the Hispanic or Latino community are Reddit, Doordash, OfferUp and Wish.
- And in the White or Caucasian group, Hulu ranked number one with a few others making the top 30 list being Kindle, Wish and Amazon Music.
Each of the apps in this mobile phone penetration range have high minutes of use levels and high engagement percentages, making them optimal locations for messaging and brand building opportunities.
