Most popular smartphone apps South Korea 2023, by type

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2023, around 75.6 percent of respondents stated that communication applications are among their top three most used smartphone apps. Music and media applications followed at a 53.3 respondent share. Other multimedia services were often accessed via mobile devices, like reading, music, or video streaming. Meanwhile, the most popular instant messaging application in South Korea that year was KakaoTalk.

What is KakaoTalk?

KakaoTalk, often shortened to KaTalk, had accumulated around 48.5 million domestic users by 2023, equaling over 90 percent of the South Korean population. The service is operated by the Korean company Kakao Corporation. Besides a chatting and call function, the app also offers public chatting rooms, shopping, and gift exchanges. Users can purchase emoticons resembling comic GIFs using the company's own characters as motives or independent artists' designs. Merchandise with these company-owned characters, Kakao friends, are sold in dedicated stores in big cities.

Social media in South Korea

Other popular communication media included other commonly known social media platforms, like Meta’s Instagram and Facebook. With South Korea being one of the most well-connected countries to the internet with broad access and high speed, social media usage in the country is among the highest worldwide.Despite the high access to both internet and smartphones across all groups, those aged between 18 and 34 years old were the most likely to use social media services as opposed to only one out of four for those aged 55 years and older.