Greek life and work go online
An increasing number of Greeks are resorting to social networking, entertainment and communication apps to get an idea of what’s going on in the outside world now that most of us have to stay at home. According to statistics that US technology analytics firm Sensor Tower shared with Kathimerini, the period that started with the closure of schools on March 10 has changed the habits and priorities of Greeks, as reflected in smartphone apps.
So which are the top 10 general-interest apps Greeks have chosen based on iPhone and Android downloads from March 10 to 25, according to Sensor Tower’s analysis? Top spot belongs to TikTok with 108,000 downloads. This is a particularly popular app for creating and sharing videos lasting up to one minute. It was also on top a month earlier (February 10-25), when it chalked up 90,000 downloads.
Behind TikTok in the March 10-25 period were video call app Skype, video conferencing app Zoom, then Messenger and Netflix (the latter with 58,000 downloads). The massive swing toward Netflix becomes clear when one realizes that the US streaming service for smartphones had not even been in the top 10 a month earlier in Greece, when the 10th spot was taken by WhatsApp, with 34,000 downloads.
The new habits and needs of the Greeks are also underscored by the apps taking positions sixth to 10th this month: They are Viber, Microsoft Teams (which allows group work on the Office 365 platform), Cisco Webex Meetings, and two entertainment apps, namely dod Games (a Greek app whose offerings range from backgammon to cards) and Sharpen Blade.
Greeks’ cocooning has also led to an increase in Facebook downloads, from 35,000 in February 10-25 to 42,000 a month later. There was also a rise in downloads of Snapchat and Vodafone’s My CU, which posted a monthly increase of 28.5 percent and 35.7 percent respectively to climb to 27,000 and 19,000 downloads.
