April 12th, 2024, YouGov
We all know about the ways smartphones can amuse us, connect us socially, and help us monitor our health and wellbeing. But what about the boring stuff: the workaday chores and tasks that drain our energy, occupy our time, and keep us away from stuff we’d rather be doing?
YouGov Global Profiles can provide some insight into the less interesting ways people are using their phones every day. The most popular option in our list was email, which over half (54%) of respondents across 48 global markets say they send or receive every day.
It is a basic requirement for many people to know whether or not you are going to get rained on, and so tracking the weather (37%) was some way off in second place. Another basic requirement – knowing where you’re going – came joint second (37%), with paying bills a smidge behind it in third (36%).
Some three in ten (30%) across our database said they use their phones for finance and banking, with a quarter (26%) saying they use it for scanning bar/QR codes. One in five (22%) report using it for taking notes, with one in six (17%) saying they use office software on their devices and one in nine (12%) reporting that it functions as an organiser.
There are some differences across markets: Europeans are more likely to use their phone to check the weather (45%), or undertake banking activities (30%), and less likely to report using it to pay bills (28%) or scan QR codes (21%). Consumers in MENA are less likely to use it to check the weather (24%), pay bills (23%), bank (21%), or scan bar/QR codes (16%). Americans are similarly less inclined to scan bar/QR codes every day (20%), and more likely to send emails (60%). This is in contrast to consumers in APAC, who are less likely to send emails (49%) and more likely to scan bar/QR codes (30%), pay bills (40%), or use office software (21%).
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Methodology
YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 48 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ years in China and 18+ years in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.