What Apps Do Koreans Actually Use? The 2026 List Where Local Apps Beat Google

In the previous article I covered which phones Koreans use: Galaxy 81%, iPhone 19% — with one exception, women in their 20s at 67% iPhone.

But the real story sits inside the case. Korea is one of the few countries where Google’s and Apple’s default apps simply don’t run the show. The map isn’t Google Maps, the payment method isn’t Apple Pay, and the messenger isn’t WhatsApp.

This isn’t a matter of taste. It comes from laws that block map data from leaving the country, an identity system built around phone numbers, and the local platforms that grew up on top of both. That structure is convenient for Koreans — and a wall for you.

The good news is that the wall visibly lowered in 2025–2026. This article is about what’s actually installed on a Korean phone, and which parts of it you can use.

📌 Update to the previous article: In “Galaxy vs iPhone” I wrote that Google Maps is legally restricted in Korea. That statement went stale on February 27, 2026, when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s council conditionally approved Google’s overseas transfer of precision maps — 18 years after the first request in 2007. The catch: export only happens after the government confirms the conditions are met, so as of August 2026 no tangible change has been observed. Details in the maps section below.

The apps Koreans actually use — MAU of the major apps

These are average monthly active users (MAU) for the first half of 2026 (January–June), from IGAWorks’ Mobile Index.

Rank	App	Avg. MAU	One-liner
1	YouTube	49.91 million	Practically the TV
2	KakaoTalk	47.48 million	The national messenger
3	Naver	46.25 million	A portal, not just search
4	Google	45.27 million	—
5	Chrome	41.70 million	—
6	Coupang	34.53 million	The Amazon slot
7	Naver Map	29.37 million	Instead of Google Maps
8	Instagram	25.76 million	—
9	Baemin	23.77 million	Delivery No. 1
10	Toss	21.84 million	The finance super-app
11	Karrot	21.21 million	Neighborhood secondhand
12	Samsung Wallet	18.62 million	Pay app No. 1
13	Kakao Bank	18.58 million	—
17	ChatGPT	15.44 million	Top new install of H1
25	Kakao Pay	10.47 million	—

Measured by time, the ranking looks completely different. Monthly averages, January–November 2025:

App	Total time used	Launches
YouTube	114.0 billion min (~1.9 billion hours)	14.9 billion
KakaoTalk	32.4 billion min	76.1 billion
Instagram	27.9 billion min	15.9 billion
Naver	19.1 billion min	14.4 billion

KakaoTalk gets opened dozens of times a day but only in short bursts, while YouTube, once opened, never closes. 76.1 billion launches versus 114.0 billion minutes — the two apps own Koreans’ screen time in completely different ways.

By the January–May 2026 measure, YouTube is still at 113.6 billion minutes a month — more than 20x Netflix (5.61 billion minutes). (That earlier table uses January–November 2025, this paragraph January–May 2026, so the numbers differ slightly.)

July 2026: the ranking flipped

This is the freshest news in this article. In July 2026, the Google app hit 47,022,854 users and passed Naver (46,845,017) by a margin of 177,837 — the first time since Mobile Index began tracking in March 2021.

The same month, ChatGPT reached 16,456,151 users and 7th place in the productivity category — 2.6x the No. 2 (Daum at 6.3 million). As of January 2026, Koreans’ ChatGPT time totaled 3.4 billion minutes, up 8x in a year.

⚠️ Different research firms show a different No. 1. On Wiseapp·Retail’s measure, KakaoTalk is No. 1; on Mobile Index’s, it’s YouTube. Both are panel-sample estimates, so check whose numbers you’re reading. Same goes for KakaoTalk — the 47.48 million above is Mobile Index’s H1 average, while the 47.70 million cited in the previous article is Wiseapp’s January–April monthly average.

Maps — a gap built by law, and a decision 18 years in the making

Open Google Maps in Korea and walking directions barely work. Car navigation is the same. Public transit works, but even that is less accurate than the local apps.

This isn’t because Google under-invested in Korea. It was the law.

How the regulation works

The Act on the Establishment and Management of Spatial Data restricts the overseas transfer of precision survey data (maps). Exporting it requires approval from the council for deliberation on the overseas transfer of survey results — chaired by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and including the Ministry of National Defense, the National Intelligence Service, and civilian members.

Google has requested export of 1:5,000-scale precision maps since 2007, and was rejected every time (including in 2016). Because Google Maps processes data on overseas servers, without the data it can’t build a proper service.

February 27, 2026 — conditional approval

After 18 years, there’s a decision. The council voted for conditional approval, with six conditions attached.

1. Satellite and aerial imagery of Korean territory may only use security-processed footage. Google Earth’s historical time-series imagery and Street View must blur military and security facilities.
2. Remove or limit coordinate displays for Korean territory.
3. Original data must be processed on the domestic servers of Google’s Korean partner firms, and only data passing government review may be exported.
4. The export scope is limited to the minimum needed for navigation and directions — excluding security-sensitive material like contour lines.
5. Build a security-incident response framework, plus immediate technical measures for national-security emergencies (the “red button”) and a dedicated Korea map manager stationed domestically.
6. Data export is allowed only after the government directly confirms the conditions are met. Continued non-compliance or serious violations can suspend or revoke the permit.

Domestic industry pushed back, and freedom-of-information requests were filed. Some read the move as leverage against US tariff pressure.

⚠️ As of August 2026, it’s unconfirmed whether the conditions are complete and Google Maps’ Korean directions have actually improved. Check it yourself before you travel.

What the local apps did in the meantime

App	Q1 2026 avg. MAU	Q1 2025	Change
Naver Map	28.92 million	26.68 million	+2.24 million
Kakao Map	12.55 million	10.98 million	+1.57 million
Google Maps	9.69 million	9.05 million	+0.64 million

By Naver’s own count, Naver Map passed 31 million MAU in March 2026. Interestingly, much of Google Maps’ growth is attributed to inbound foreigners — there were few Korea-specific feature updates, and it’s closer to an Android preload effect.

While regulation held Google back for 18 years, Naver and Kakao processed precision data freely on domestic servers and built the gap: indoor AR navigation, 3D flying view, ultra-precise bus arrivals, an indoor map of the National Museum of Korea, and AI restaurant recommendations.

Traveler’s takeaway: even in 2026, use Naver Map. It supports English, Chinese, and Japanese, and since 2024 reviews and place filters have been translated too.

Messaging — why nothing can replace KakaoTalk

KakaoTalk’s dominance looks strange even on numbers alone. MAU 47.48 million, and 76.1 billion monthly launches.

As covered in the previous article, that dominance actually shakes Korea’s phone-brand share. In the US, what locks people into iPhone is the iMessage “green bubble” stigma — and Korea has no such barrier. Switch to Galaxy and your chat rooms, stickers, and friend list all come with you. The switching cost is close to zero.

One caveat: KakaoTalk is No. 1 domestically but only around No. 10 globally, and outside Korea it barely exists, losing to WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line. Leave Korea and nobody uses it.

For travelers: install it the moment you land. It’s the default way to exchange photos and files in Korea. Suggest AirDrop and there’s an 80% chance the other person is on Android.

Payments — the country where Samsung Wallet is No. 1

Pay-app MAU as of May 2026:

App	MAU	vs. last year
Samsung Wallet	19.04 million	—
Kakao Pay	11.87 million	+37% (a record)
KB Pay	10.37 million	+20%
Shinhan SOL Pay	8.19 million	+4%
Paybook/ISP	6.56 million	+1%
Naver Pay (standalone app)	6.53 million	+15%
NH Pay	5.01 million	+48% (top growth)

⚠️ Naver Pay’s 6.53 million is the standalone app only. Naver Pay used inside the Naver app isn’t captured here. Reading “Naver Pay is half of Kakao Pay” would be wrong.

Toss is a separate category. Its H1 2026 average MAU was 21.84 million and its cumulative time spent 440 million hours — a dominant No. 1 in finance and banking. Its banking usage time is roughly 9x the No. 2.

Per-person monthly usage time shows what Toss really is.

App	Avg. monthly time per user
Toss	1 hr 58 min
Kakao Pay	35 min 36 sec
Naver Pay	25 min 18 sec
Kakao Bank	23 min 36 sec

Toss isn’t a payment app — it’s closer to the app Koreans open when they think about money.

For travelers: as covered before, Apple Pay’s only real partner issuer as of June 2026 is Hyundai Card. Samsung Wallet works at almost every terminal. If you’re on an iPhone, bring a physical card to be safe.

Commerce — Coupang, and life after the data breach

Coupang’s H1 2026 average MAU was 34.53 million, and June alone hit a record 35.09 million.

Then there’s a fascinating episode that lays Korean consumer behavior bare.

November 2025 Coupang data breach → February 2026 payment volume fell to ₩4,021.9 billion → yet June 2026 estimated payments reached ₩4,833.7 billion and MAU 35.09 million — higher than during the incident (₩4,473.5 billion).

Competitors didn’t even capture a spillover. In the same June, Gmarket was at ₩283.7 billion (−33.7% vs. the previous November) and 11st at ₩270.9 billion (−22.4%).

Chinese commerce (AliExpress, Temu) splits by generation. In July 2026 mall-app MAU by age, Coupang is No. 1 in every age group, but No. 2 is Chinese commerce in every group except the 40s (Naver Plus Store). Teens to 30s use AliExpress; 50s and 60s+ use Temu.

As of June 2026: AliExpress 8.01 million (+20.0%), Temu 7.52 million (−6.6%).

Delivery — and Karrot, a very Korean phenomenon

Delivery (June 2026 MAU)

App	MAU	vs. a year earlier
Baemin	24.33 million	+7.6%
Coupang Eats	13.72 million	+25.9%
Yogiyo	4.05 million	−13.3%

The four delivery platforms’ estimated July 2026 payment volume was ₩3.28 trillion, a record.

Secondhand — Karrot

This is the Korean app foreigners find hardest to understand.

Metric	Karrot	For comparison
Q1 2026 avg. MAU	23.19 million	Bunjang 5.2 million
Avg. monthly launches per person	172.2	5–6 times a day
H1 2026 total time	310 million hours	Commerce No. 2 (No. 1 Coupang, 440M)
June avg. time per person	141.2 min	Longer than Coupang’s 128.5 min

More than 4 in 10 smartphone users use a secondhand app. The three big apps (Karrot, Bunjang, Joonggonara) have 23.39 million deduplicated users, and total launches grew 90.7% in four years.

Karrot keeps people longer than Coupang because it isn’t only a secondhand app. It’s closer to a neighborhood community and a time-killer. Local news, part-time job postings, finding someone to take a walk with — it all happens here.

Social — Instagram, and the fast risers

Wiseapp·Retail, January–April 2026 monthly average SNS app MAU:

KakaoTalk 47.70 million → Instagram 28.08 million → Band 15.59 million → TikTok 9.43 million → Naver Cafe 9.04 million → X 7.95 million → Pinterest 7.72 million → Facebook 7.47 million → Threads 7.29 million → Discord 6.80 million → TikTok Lite 6.42 million.

The top growth rate is Zeta (48.1%), followed by TikTok Lite (46.8%).

TikTok Lite’s growth stands out. As of January 2026: MAU +61.1%, time spent +82.9%.

★ And the strangest stat of all — the AI character-chat app Zeta has an average MAU of just 1.29 million, yet its June per-person monthly usage time hit 2,411.7 minutes (about 40.2 hours) — the highest engagement of any app surveyed. Its H1 cumulative time was 310 million hours, about 70% of Coupang’s (440 million) despite Coupang holding 27x the MAU.

That’s how much time Korea’s teens and 20-somethings spend talking to AI characters.

★ What can foreigners actually use? — the wall that’s crumbling

This is the most practical section for travelers.

The structure of the problem

Korean apps’ identity verification generally requires an Alien Registration Card (ARC) plus a Korean phone number. But the ARC is only issued to people staying 90 days or longer, so short-term travelers are blocked from the start.

Yanolja Research analyzed Reddit posts about Korea travel from 2023–2025: digital issues made up 27.8% of foreign-visitor friction and payments 12.0%. Within that, sign-up and identity verification was 13.1% (the top digital issue) and payment limits like overseas-card rejection was 11.5% (the top payment issue).

One Chinese tourist summed it up.

“Korea seems to be almost the only country where a phone number is mandatory to sign up. Overseas, most apps let you register with just an email.”

Real cases were reported too. A tourist who couldn’t sign up for a delivery app ordered with a Korean friend’s number — the rider called the friend, who called the tourist. One fried chicken, three people on the phone.

Complaints filed with the Korea Tourism Organization follow the same pattern: online booking and payment verification problems, foreign-issued cards rejected, Korean phone number required, and real-name verification impossible for online payments.

2025–2026: the wall came down

App	Foreigner access	Evidence
Naver / Naver Map	✅ Much better	Passport verification added June 9, 2026 — verify identity with just a passport photo, no Korean number. In-map reservations, orders, and payments
Baemin	✅ Much better	Feb 2026: first Korean delivery app with English, Chinese, Japanese, Google login, Mastercard/Visa/JCB overseas cards, Alipay and WeChat Pay; May 2026: Apple Pay overseas cards. → H1 foreigner payments +331%, transaction value +308%
Coupang Eats	✅ English support	Adopted before Baemin
Kakao Map	✅ Expanding English	English search, places, and directions expanded; better translation
k.ride	✅ Foreigner-only	Google/Apple account or email-only signup, 100+ languages, auto-pay with overseas cards
Creatrip / Gangnam Unni	✅	Email-only signup. Gangnam Unni links WeChat and Line
Toss / Kakao Pay / Karrot / Coupang / Kakao T (main apps)	⚠️ Unconfirmed	No official guidance found. Check inside the app yourself

In that table, Baemin’s performance change is the clearest proof the improvements actually work. Lower the barrier and the demand was there all along.

Taxis — not Kakao T, but k.ride

To hail a taxi in Korea, Koreans use Kakao T. But there’s a separate app built for foreigners.

k.ride — Kakao Mobility’s foreigner-only app, launched in June 2024. It hails Kakao T Blue, Venti, Black, and deluxe taxis.

• Signup: enter a phone number, then a Google/Apple account or email verification (no Korean number needed)
• Payment: auto-pay with overseas-issued cards + overseas simple payment
• Language: 100+ languages auto-translated (destination search and even chatting with the driver)
• Passed 600,000 rides in Korea by March 2025; 58% of users are from China, Japan, the US, Taiwan, and Singapore
• H1 2026: signups +65%, rides about +120%

Uber exists too. Its MAU is 1/20 of Kakao T’s, but it’s growing double digits monthly on foreigner hails, and trips are up over 50% year over year. Caveat: MAU is based on Korean panels, so it under-represents foreigner use.

The very fact that Kakao Mobility built a separate app for foreigners is proof the main app is hard for them to use.

Transit cards — a half-finished improvement

• The Mobile T-money app’s overseas credit-card registration and top-up was announced to open on March 21, 2026 (signup required). Confirm it works on the ground to be safe.
• ⚠️ But Apple Pay’s direct link for overseas cards fell through over negotiations with Apple. iPhone users need a separate app.

The government is moving too — but some rules go the other way

• The Korea Communications Commission is pushing to improve non-face-to-face certificate issuance for the roughly 2.5 million foreign residents without a Korean phone. The plan is passport-info check + a bank account or video call + ID, but consistency with the Financial Services Commission’s real-name standards is a sticking point, so inter-agency talks continue.
• The Korea Tourism Organization selected 7 “essential Korea travel apps” (taxis, maps, translation, booking) — apps with foreign-language support, overseas-card payment, and no identity-verification barrier.
• ⚠️ There’s movement in the opposite direction too. From July 1, 2026, opening a phone line requires additional identity verification — facial recognition, a mobile ID, or a same-day resident registration transcript (to block burner phones and voice phishing). Opening a Korean number as a foreigner could actually get harder.

The apps a traveler should install

Use	Pick	Notes
Maps	Naver Map	English/Chinese/Japanese. Passport verification (June 2026) enables booking. Kakao Map is expanding English. Google Maps: post-Feb 2026 improvement unconfirmed
Messaging	KakaoTalk	The moment you land. The default for photos and files
Taxis	k.ride	Foreigner-only. Email signup, overseas cards, 100 languages
Delivery	Baemin	Since Feb 2026: English/Chinese/Japanese + overseas cards + Apple Pay. Coupang Eats has English too
Transit	Mobile T-money	Overseas-card top-up announced for March 2026 (verify on site). Apple Pay direct link fell through
Translation	Papago	Korean-specialized. Use Google Translate alongside
Booking	Naver	With passport verification, reserve, order, and pay inside the map
FX & payment	WOWPASS · T-money Travel Card Plus	Transit + FX + payment combined

Things you might install but can’t use: Toss, Kakao Pay, Karrot, and the main Coupang app — no official signup guidance for foreigners was found. Try, but don’t expect it to work.

Why local apps win

Finally, the structural reasons, in four.

1. The identity-verification system became an entry barrier.

“Until now, foreign tourists who wanted to use Korean apps were blocked by Korean-phone-number-based identity verification or overseas-card payment rejection.” — Jeon Seong-min, professor of business administration, Gachon University

Real-name verification infrastructure is basic plumbing for domestic businesses, but a wall overseas players can’t climb. As Korea University professor Lee Seong-yeop put it, Korea’s “independent IT ecosystem becomes a digital barrier for foreigners.”

2. Map data export regulation. While Google couldn’t take precision maps out for 18 years, Naver and Kakao processed them freely at home and built a feature gap: indoor AR navigation, 3D view, ultra-precise transit.

3. Dense local data. Local platforms hold finer neighborhood information and life data than global ones. This is also why Karrot keeps people longer than Coupang.

4. The super-app structure. Toss absorbs most of the banking usage time (about 9x the No. 2). Traditional banks renovate their apps to win installs but can’t win time. KakaoTalk (messenger → payment, shopping, booking) and Naver (search → payment, shopping, booking) run the same structure.

2025–2026: what rose and what fell

Fast risers

• ChatGPT: 5.34 million cumulative new installs in H1, No. 1 overall. July MAU 16.45 million. Time spent up 8x in a year.
• Google app: passed Naver for the first time in July 2026 — Gemini’s spread and stronger AI search.
• SmartThings: +28.1% in H1, the top growth rate among the top 30 apps.
• Kakao Pay: May MAU 11.87 million, a record (+37%).
• TikTok Lite: MAU +61.1%, time spent +82.9%.
• Zeta: MAU +48.1%, 40 hours per person a month.
• setlog: an SNS for teenage and 20-something women. Viral in April–May 2026, DAU up to 2.73 million; 4.77 million H1 installs (No. 3).
• Spotify: time spent +1,200% in four years (free tier + Naver membership tie-up).
• YouTube Music: November 2025 MAU 7.97 million, passing Melon (7.05 million).

Falling or stagnant

• Yogiyo: December 2025 4.55 million → June 2026 4.05 million (−11.0%); year over year −13.3%.
• Public delivery apps: Ddanggyeoyo 2.27 million (lowest since September 2025), Meokkkebi 0.49 million. Coupon-dependent, they never built loyalty.
• Gmarket: June 2026 payments ₩283.7 billion — down 33.7% from November 2025, just before the Coupang breach.
• Domestic music: Melon, Genie, and Flo keep sliding from a once-80% share.
• Auction’s secondhand marketplace: shut down in March 2026 after 25 years.

Regulation

• The Online Platform Act reignited after the November 2025 Coupang breach, with a “self-regulation is over” mood. As of August 2026, passage through the National Assembly is unconfirmed.
• Google’s YouTube Music bundling: after an FTC investigation, Google will launch “YouTube Premium Lite” (Android/web, ₩8,500 a month) without music within the year and freeze pricing for one year.

In a nutshell

On a Korean phone sit KakaoTalk (76.1 billion launches a month) and YouTube (around 110 billion minutes a month). One gets opened constantly; the other never gets closed.

Below them sits a combination found nowhere else: Naver Map instead of Google Maps, Samsung Wallet instead of Apple Pay, and Karrot — the neighborhood secondhand app nearly half the country opens five times a day.

This structure isn’t taste; it’s a product of institutions. Eighteen years of map-export regulation and phone-number-based real-name verification bought local platforms time. In that time they piled up neighborhood data, and now the gap is wide enough that even looser rules won’t easily close it.

The good news for travelers: the wall visibly lowered in 2025–2026. Naver now signs you up with just a passport; Baemin opened English and overseas cards and foreigner payments rose 331%; and Kakao built an entire taxi app just for foreigners.

Korea’s digital ecosystem is still its own world. But now there’s a door.