ChatGPT surpasses 18 million users in South Korea; Claude also surges 15-fold

[Financial News] The number of people in South Korea using the ChatGPT mobile app has topped 18 million for the first time. Total time spent on the app has more than doubled from a year earlier, and average time spent per user has also increased.
According to IGAWorks' MOBILEINDEX on the 8th, the ChatGPT app had 18,762,276 monthly active users (MAU) last October. That was a 43.8% increase from 13,048,025 in the same month last year. It was also up 4.3% from 17,993,884 in the previous month, September. This was the first time ChatGPT's monthly users exceeded 18 million since MOBILEINDEX began compiling the relevant statistics.
Time spent using the app also rose sharply. Last month, total time spent on ChatGPT was about 50.98 million hours, up 113.9% from 23.83 million hours in the same month last year. That growth far outpaced the increase in users. Average monthly time spent per user also rose 48.8%, from about 110 minutes to 163 minutes over the same period. In other words, each user spent an average of 53 more minutes a month on ChatGPT.
ChatGPT users accounted for about 84% of AI app users counted by MOBILEINDEX last October, rising to about 91% this October. The figures show that roughly nine out of 10 users of the AI apps included in the tally used ChatGPT.
Anthropic's Claude also saw its user base grow rapidly. Last month, Claude had about 2.1 million MAU, around 15 times the roughly 140,000 recorded in the same month last year. Its ranking among AI apps by users consequently jumped from seventh to second.
Total time spent on Claude was about 3.88 million hours, roughly 22 times the figure from a year earlier. Average monthly time spent per user also increased, from about 75 minutes to 111 minutes. This suggests that actual usage grew alongside the influx of users.
Some AI apps, by contrast, saw their user numbers decline. A., SK Telecom's app, had about 1.07 million MAU last month, down 42.5% from the same month a year earlier. Perplexity also fell 30.9%, to about 570,000 users.
ChatGPT retained the top spot for new installs. It had about 790,000 new installs last month, down 16.2% from the same month last year, but still the most of any AI app. Claude ranked second, with about 490,000 installs—around 13 times the number in the same month a year earlier.
These statistics are based on use of Android and iOS apps in South Korea and do not include web usage.
MOBILEINDEX explained that some usage of Google Gemini may not be captured, depending on how it is accessed, since Gemini is available through the Google app as well as a standalone app.

[email protected] Jang Min-kwon Reporter