More than 80 percent of users spend more than two hours a day on apps, the most popular being Facebook, YouTube, Messenger, and Zalo, according to a newly-released survey by HCMC-based market research firm Q&Me.

While 22 percent of smartphone time is spent for messaging, email is no more than one percent. Messaging is the center of the communication.

The survey was done in July based on the screenshot of an app called Screen Time on IOS devices used by people aged 18-39 in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Users spend 31 percent of their app time on Facebook, 13 percent on YouTube, 11 percent on Facebook Messenger and 10 percent Zalo.

Facebook is the most used app with 90 percent of respondents using it, followed by Facebook Messenger 88 percent, Calling 84 percent, YouTube 81 percent, and Zalo 80 percent.

The number of Facebook users in Vietnam is the seventh highest in the world at over 58 million as of last year, according to a report by social media marketing and advertising agency We Are Social.

Mobile shopping is on the rise with one third of surveyed users using online shopping apps, Q&Me said.  

Shopee was the most popular (21 percent), followed by Tiki (10 percent), Sendo (7 percent), and Lazada (5 percent).

Vietnam’s e-commerce market saw revenues jump 29.4 percent last year to $2.27 billion. The number of people shopping online reached 49.8 million people, up 2.6 percent, according to German market research firm Statista.

Around 64 million people, or over half of the country’s population, are online.