The top five apps are dominating mobile traffic generated on smart devices, at least in three countries, an Ericsson mobility report has found.
In the US, South Korea and Spain — the countries covered in the report – these apps, including video streaming and social networking apps, account for about two-thirds of app traffic over mobile networks.
In December 2014, the top three apps in the US were Netflix and YouTube, while South Koreans turned to peer-to-peer TV app AfreecaTV and search portal Naver. Facebook was the top app in each of the three countries.
With the growing popularity of video apps, it is not surprising that over the next six years, mobile video traffic is expected to grow 17 times more than it did in the last six years.
The major factors driving this rapid growth include increased number of video-enabled devices, larger screens and better picture quality.
Meanwhile, fourth-quarter figures showed that, for the first time, LTE technology achieved the highest quarterly additions, with 110 million new mobile subscriptions.
Last year, 800 million smartphone subscriptions were added worldwide, taking the total number to 2.7 billion – up 40% from a total of 1.9 billion in 2013.