eCommerce, information, work and school, entertainment, social, messaging. These are the six types of services exploded in Italy in quarantine. Mobile network usage has decreased while desktop browsing has increased. These are the main considerations that emerge from an analysis by the social media expert Vincenzo Cosenza on how coronavirus has changed the digital habits of Italians.
"In March - he explains - Facebook registered 41 million unique desktop accesses (+ 43% on February). Twitch, the streaming games site, which has a total of 25 million visits (+ 25%) is also growing. The most downloaded app was TikTok (over 1.6 million times, + 50%) followed by Instagram (over 1.1 million). In this period of isolation, the Italians' favorite chat is WhatsApp, the only one to grow in terms of time of use (55 minutes per person). The most downloaded chat is Messenger (1.6 million downloads in March), followed by Telegram (1.5 million). March marks the appearance of the new Houseparty with 1 million downloads and one daily user growth of 8000%.
The March data on the use of desktop content shows that YouTube, with its 33.7 million unique visitors, "is the nerve center of entertainment because it allows maximum freedom to build its own schedule". The video conferencing app most downloaded by Italians is Zoom (over 2.3 million times), also the one that has undergone the greatest increase in daily users together with Hangouts Meet. But the most used by Italians remains Skype, used daily by over 300,000 Android users, followed by Zoom (120,000).
"When we resume the routine of pre-Covid life 19 - observes Cosenza - the use of many services will diminish, but some habits will remain because the psychological obstacle to use has been removed, even if forcibly".