(ECNS) -- As new and improved mobile apps constantly pop up for our smart phones, people more than ever enjoy the convenience of online shopping, taxi reservations or weather updates, yet user concerns are also on the rise, the Beijing Daily has reported.
Life abducted by apps
Every mobile device has an average of 34 apps installed on it, with the most popular related to gaming, traffic guides, chatting, education and news, according to a report by TalkingData, China's leading provider of mobile intelligence.
Xian Yu, a white collar in Beijing's Yonganli area said she had three car-hailing apps installed, Didi Kuaiche, Uber and Shenzhou, but that none were really helpful during rush hours. The woman also had various apps for ordering food, listening to music, and watching online videos.
Although Xian clears her cell phone's memory every one or two months, she still finds it hard to free up enough space to save photos and run apps. Since purchasing an Apple ID in 2012, Xian has downloaded more than 400 apps and now has 68 installed for various purposes.
Like Xiao, many smart phone users have to constantly delete old apps and replace them with new ones. Some have complained that it feels like their lives have been abducted by apps, according to the report.
China's top three IT companies, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, collectively known as BAT, are the dominant market players. The instant messaging software QQ and WeChat, both products of Tencent, account for 78 percent and 77 percent respectively among users, followed by e-commerce app Taobao and mobile payment app AliPay.
Worries about privacy
Most users said apps make life easier and more efficient, but that they are also worried about the increased possibility of private information being leaked.
Yang Fan, a post-graduate student in Beijing, said she has downloaded seven apps in order to watch video content on several platforms. Sometimes, she has been forced to install an app, otherwise she can't watch the full content of a program.
Yang thinks having so many apps has distracted her attention from study, as she keeps receiving information, such as updates and advertisements, delivered to her handset.
"It feels like a 24-hour information bomber," said the student, who also worried that none of her privation information is kept safe.
Zombie apps
The relatively low cost of programming and huge market demand have bolstered the enormous growth of apps in the past two years. In the first half of 2015, the number of available apps increased by 100,000 and the total number of apps reached four million.
However, a study by the iResearch Consulting Group found that the average lifecycle of an app is 10 months, and that 85 percent of users delete apps in the first month after installment. Only five percent of apps remain five months after being installed.
Mi Jing said she initially had at least 10 apps for photo editing, but that number has dropped to just one.
iResearch also said that about 80 percent of apps - 3.2 million - are considered "zombie apps," or apps that don't get enough attention to regularly receive popularity rankings. Among the apps effectively invisible to consumers, 35 percent are for social networking.
An app that helps create cartoon-like avatars was downloaded 50 million times, 10 million of thsoe from abroad, within three months of its release. But in a short time the app fell out of favor.
Internet analyst Zuo Junquan said numerous apps are just a fad and that users quickly feel fatigued, with the exception of those that meet rigid recruitments.
Another analyst, Fu Liang, said successful apps continually update to offer new features or functions to enhance user loyalty.
