More people in the older generations are connecting to the Internet through their smartphones and other digital gadgets, although their use of applications was fewer in number and diversity than younger age groups, a survey said Thursday.
Nielsen KoreanClick, basing its findings on mobile behavioral data from October 2014 to April 2016, said 77 percent of South Koreans in their 50s-60s use the Internet through personal computers and mobile phones. This is an increase from 53 percent in 2013. The jump in Internet connections using smartphones more than tripled to 61 percent from 18 percent in 2013, and is higher than 55 percent for PCs, the survey said.
Accordingly, the age group accounted for 28 percent of the population that uses mobile gadgets.
When it came to using applications, however, the age group fell behind their younger counterparts. The senior group had an average of 105 applications but were using only 45 of them, while the younger group had 132 applications and used 65 of them.
The most widely-used app types among the elderly group were financial services (35 percent), messengers (25 percent), lifestyle (19 percent) and online commerce (17 percent). This compares with concentrated use of social networking services, entertainment and multimedia applications by the younger age groups. (Yonhap)