ACM MobileHCI 2018 scientific talk. Ella Peltonen: "The Hidden Image of Mobile Apps: Geographic, Demographic, and Cultural Factors in Mobile Usage". Publication is available in https://www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/carat/pubs/mobilehci18.pdf

1. The Hidden Image of Mobile Apps:
Geographic, Demographic, and
Cultural Factors in Mobile Usage
Ella Peltonen, Eemil Lagerspetz, Jonatan Hamberg, Abhinav Mehrotra,
Mirco Musolesi, Petteri Nurmi, Sasu Tarkoma
University of Helsinki, Finland
University College Cork, Ireland
University College London, UK
Lancaster University, UK

2. Pervasive Mobile App Usage
• Smartphones are integral part of modern society all around the world
• Mobile apps integrate multiple functionalities onto single device

3. We have personal preferences, but which “underlying” factors
affect our app choices?

4. We have personal preferences, but which “underlying” factors
affect our app choices?
Country of residence

5. We have personal preferences, but which “underlying” factors
affect our app choices?
Country of residence
Demographics

6. We have personal preferences, but which “underlying” factors
affect our app choices?
Country of residence
Demographics
Socio-economic status

7. We have personal preferences, but which “underlying” factors
affect our app choices?
Country of residence
Demographics
Socio-economic status
Education and profession

8. We have personal preferences, but which “underlying” factors
affect our app choices?
Country of residence
Demographics
Socio-economic status
Education and profession
Household situation

9. We have personal preferences, but which “underlying” factors
affect our app choices?
Country of residence
Demographics
Socio-economic status
Education and profession
Household situation
Cultural values

10. Hidden Image of Mobile Apps - Contributions
• Study of app usage categories around the world
• 44 countries, 25,000 Android users
• Country, demographic factors, and cultural values affect the app
usage significantly; as well as combinations of these factors

11. Summary of Main Results
• Statistically significant differences between app category usage in
different countries
• Between 44 countries, geographic clusters are considered
• Mobile usage reflects demographic factors throughout the world
• Country, occupation, education, and socio-economic factors
• App usage constitutes an external societal factor that correlates with
Hofstede’s cultural values model
• Combinations of these factors reveal interesting sub-groups

12. Category-level Analysis
• Avoid usage bias, e.g., public transportation apps dedicated for
certain cities
• Each Android app can
be associated with one or
more of the 55 categories
in Google Play

13. Data Collection
• Installed applications through the Carat app (incl. timestamp, time
zone, etc.): 25,323 Android users, 44 countries
• Demographic questionnaire for the Carat users (gender, age group,
education, occupation, etc.): 3,293 users
• Google Play categories (communication, travel, different games etc.)
• Hofstede’s Cultural Values Model 2015 (VSM)
• VSM questionnaire for the Carat users
• Voluntary disclosure, anonymous responses, IRB approved

14. Data Collection

15. Geographic Grouping

16. ”Non-English Europe”
”English-speaking Countries”
”Mixed Countries”

17. Demographic Factors

18. Cultural Factors
• Hierarchic cultures: less entertainment and leisure apps, such as
Travel and Local, Sports, Health and Fitness, Music and Audio
• Individualistic cultures: more entertainment and leisure apps
• Collectivistic and feminine cultures: more family and parenting
related categories
• Masculine culture: more personalisation apps
• Short-term oriented cultures: more weather apps

19. Combined Effect
• We can identify sub-groups of
similar app usage
• Professionals in Australia, Canada,
and the US
• Professionals in Central Europe
• Students’ app usage does not
follow country boundaries

20. Combined Effect
• Household situation: living with or without kids
• Dedicated family, parenting, and dating categories

21. Open Questions
• Language barriers: more apps available in English
• Definition of culture: Hofstede’s model does not consider subcultures
or minorities
• Other factors, e.g., religion and political opinions
• Impact of immigration
• Africa and China excluded due to missing data
• Focused on categories – how about individual apps?

22. Takeaways
• Geographic, demographic, and cultural factors have significant effect
on application choices
• These factors should be considered when studying mobile data
• Results can be used to target apps in different countries and
personalisation of recommendation systems

23. Thank you!
• Contact: ella.peltonen@insight-centre.org, Twitter @Ella_Peltonen
• Read more about the data and the Carat project in
http://carat.cs.helsinki.fi/

24. The Hidden Image of Mobile Apps: Geographic,
Demographic, and Cultural Factors in Mobile Usage
• Statistically significant differences between mobile app usage in
different countries
• Within 44 countries, geographic clusters are considered
• Mobile usage reflects demographic factors throughout the world
• Country, occupation, education, and socio-economic factors
• App usage constitutes an external societal factor that correlates with
Hofstede’s cultural values model
• Combinations of these factors relieve interesting sub-groups