Log Analysis to Deepen Understanding of Smartphone Users (1) ~Why Do Older Women Use Game Apps More Frequently?~

■ Why Log Analysis?

 

According to Video Research Ltd.'s ACR/ex survey data from January 2015, personal smartphone ownership has already reached 67.5% (ages 12-69, within a 50-kilometer radius of Tokyo).Smartphones have become indispensable information tools for many people, offering not just functional benefits but also an emotional presence akin to an "extension of oneself" (some may recall ads personifying smartphones as concierge-like companions).

What makes smartphones indispensable are the various "apps" installed on each device. From managing schedules and connecting with friends and acquaintances to passing the time, apps with diverse functions enhance the convenience of our lives. However, on the flip side, capturing the actual usage patterns of these ever-diversifying apps has become extremely difficult.

While diary studies and surveys have been used to understand media consumption patterns, traditional methodologies struggle to fully capture the reality of smartphone usage, characterized by frequent on/off cycles measured in seconds.

Against this backdrop, DENTSU SOKEN INC. Media Innovation Research Department conducted an original survey analyzing smartphone users' app launch logs.
The goal is to accumulate and organize vast amounts of launch log data to understand "Who launches which apps, when, and how?"
Below, we introduce part of this effort to trace consumers' media behavior at a finer granularity.

■ Do Older Women Play More Game Apps?

 

This survey utilized the Android user launch log database "Cloudish by AppApe" (see the survey overview at the bottom of this article). This enabled us to identify which apps, belonging to which categories, were launched by gender and age group, broken down by time of day and day of the week.
Based on this data, Figure 1 shows the aggregated app launch counts for men and women aged 10 to 50+. This chart reveals, for example, that women launch apps more times per day, and that teens lead both genders, with younger age groups launching more frequently. On average, teens launch apps around 70 times per day.
Shifting focus to app content, social networking apps (yellow-green band) top the launch frequency across all age groups. Social networking includes apps like LINE and Facebook (see Chart 2 for details). Notably, for teenage girls, these apps account for over half of their daily launches, clearly indicating highly active communication with friends and other social contacts.

The breakdown of representative apps within each category is as follows.

Now, please focus on the figures for female users and game apps in Figure 1 (the top band outlined in red). Remarkably, among women, the number of times games are launched increases with age, particularly among middle-aged and older women. In contrast, for men, younger age groups launch games more frequently, with the number decreasing in older generations.
This suggests that playing game apps more frequently as one ages is a phenomenon unique to women.
This result contradicts our common perception, but it is precisely in such "discrepancies" that we find seeds of insights worth exploring.
Let's now focus on the launch frequency of game apps among women and examine the breakdown.

Looking specifically at the 30s to 50s age group, which launches games most frequently, we see a larger proportion of "puzzle" and "casual" games compared to the 10s to 20s age group, whose launches are spread across various genres. The "casual" category largely includes what are often called "simulation & idle games" – types that don't require complex controls or strong commitment, and generally feature a laid-back world setting.A recent hit example is "Neko Atsume," which surpassed 2 million downloads and is especially popular among women, fitting into this category.

Do these games function as a form of therapy for their target audience? Or is the appeal in the slow yet steady progression, offering a satisfying sense of achievement (with low hurdles and stress-free completion)?
...Various insights like these become apparent. And by considering these insights, we might also gain an opportunity to update our own perceptions of games (such as the idea that games are something young people play seeking stimulation).
Of course, the validity of these insights requires separate investigation and verification. However, I believe the crucial point is that analyzing logs can stimulate a kind of exploratory reasoning.

■ Why should researchers focus on users' "unconscious"?

 

The above briefly summarizes the analysis of user insights gleaned from app launch logs. This research method differs from traditional conscious surveys (which ask about awareness to understand actual behavior) and can be termed an "unconscious survey" (revealing awareness and psychology from the facts of actions and behavior).
In marketing, efforts to observe eye movements and brain waves to understand consumers are being explored, and this too could be classified as a form of "unconscious research." However, the difference lies in the fact that analyzing large-scale logs like this can be used not so much to deeply probe each individual's unconscious, but rather to discern major trends emerging from the accumulation of that unconsciousness.
In a highly information-driven society where people's actions and statements are utilized as logs, presenting appropriate interfaces before these data clusters allows previously unseen aspects of reality to begin taking shape.For example, in General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google (Kodansha, 2011), Hiroki Azuma argued that utilizing logs of people's online statements as a kind of "aggregate" (without delving into each individual detail) can provide material to steer policy makers' deliberations in a better direction.This perspective also seems grounded in the underlying orientation of utilizing the unconscious revealed through the vast expanse of speech logs.
Due to space constraints, this introduction to the research project utilizing Cloudish by AppApe remains introductory in nature. However, such unconscious research/analysis could well represent the next vein of gold for researchers and marketers whose livelihood depends on exploring insights.

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【 Analysis Overview 】

Method: Analysis of smartphone app launch log data
Database: Utilized "Cloudish by AppApe"
Subjects: Approximately 1,000 Android users aged 15 and older (nationwide)
Data Collection Period: October 1–31, 2014
Conducted by: Video Research Interactive Inc.