The growth of WhatsApp on the Dutch market continues to storm forward, according to Telecompaper’s Dutch Apps Market report for September. Three-quarters (75%) of Dutch smartphone owners have WhatsApp installed on their device, with more than 80 percent of these using the app at least once per day. This translates into a presence of more than 5.5 million smartphones in the Netherlands. WhatsApp is especially popular among iPhone users, installed on nearly 90 percent of these smartphones.
The decline of Hyves now looks inevitable. The app is installed on less than 20 percent of Dutch smartphones, while penetration dropped to 16 percent in September from 40 percent in March. In comparison, the Facebook app is installed on more than four times the number of smartphones. Based on the current trend, the Hyves app will be present on only one out of ten smartphones by the end of this year.
Gaming apps enjoy the greatest popularity among Dutch mobile users, followed by apps for social networking and instant messaging. The success of Facebook Messenger and Google+ is still limited. Google+ does have a penetration of 30 percent on Android phones, compared to 16 percent on Apple smartphones.
Telecompaper surveys 2500 consumers aged 15-64 every month, asking about their use of communication services and social media applications, namely Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Hyves, MSN, Twitter, Skype, Ping, Google+, Google Talk, eBuddy, Viber, Foursquare and Nimbuzz.
