South Koreans are estimated to have spent nearly 30 hours on YouTube in September, a report showed Thursday, far surpassing other popular social media apps.

South Korean users spent an average of 29.5 hours on Google's video-sharing app last month, compared with 12 hours on KakaoTalk, the country's top messenger app, according to data from local market tracker IGAWorks.

Local users spent an average of 11.7 hours on global social media app Facebook, followed by 10.2 hours on Naver, South Korea's top internet portal, and 7.5 hours on Instagram.

IGAWorks' data, based on monthly active users on major apps offered on Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms in September, also showed that there were 43.2 million YouTube users in South Korea, accounting for 83 percent of the country's 51.8 million population.

KakaoTalk had 45.5 million monthly active users in South Korea as of the second quarter this year, according to its operator Kakao Corp.

The data also showed that South Koreans across all age groups used YouTube frequently, accessing the app for 16.9 days on average last month. The age group between 10 and 19 was on the video streaming app for 20 days, while those in their 60s used the app for 15.8 days. (Yonhap)