Film, travel industries reeling from virus: Report

Industry

Published: 16 Feb. 2020, 16:58

Film, travel industries reeling from virus: Report

Airport staff and travelers wear protective masks at the Incheon International Airport departure entrance on Feb. 11. Fears driven by the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus have heavily affected the tourism industry. [YONHAP]

The recent outbreak of a new coronavirus has reduced demand in the film, travel, and transportation industries according to findings published Thursday by the big-data analysis company IGAWorks.

The report is based on data from an average of 35 million Android devices per day. The company used a mobile index to study the growth of app users per industry in the first week of February, compared to the average weekly users in January.

The film industry was impacted the most.

The number of app users to make movie reservations from CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox plunged 34 percent. Between Dec. 30 last year and Jan. 5, the number of users was as high as 3 million. A month later, the number of users plunged to 1.8 million in the first week of February. Megabox dropped 10.65 percent, CGV dropped 10.47 percent and Lotte Cinema dropped 7.31 percent.

A movie theater erects a notice regarding quarantines, while the lounge is absent of moviegoers. The movie industry has also been affected by the virus outbreak. [YONHAP]

App users in foreign and domestic lodging industries decreased 25 percent and 21 percent, respectively. The airline industry also faced a 21 percent decline in the number of users. Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines application users fell 22.78 percent and 22.76 percent, respectively, compared to the January average. Jeju Air application users fell the most, 31.38 percent, during the same period.

The number of public transportation users and car-sharing app users both decreased by 14 percent, according to the report. Korail Talk users who booked train tickets dropped 35 percent, and ride-hailing app Kakao T users declined 16 percent.

Conversely, apps focused on e-commerce and food experienced an increase in users, according to the report.

The home shopping and retail industries both had a 4 percent increase in app users, and the food and beverage industry had users of its apps increase by 12 percent. In particular, app users of NS Home Shopping and Hyundai Home Shopping skyrocketed during broadcasts featuring mask sales. When NS Home Shopping broadcasted mask sales on Feb. 8, the number of users rose 3.4 times to reach 340,000. Hyundai Home Shopping also saw a sharp increase when the protective masks went on sale.

Meanwhile, Plague Inc., a mobile role-playing game in which the player fights with a deadly plague, has seen its number of users grow since Jan. 20 when the first confirmed patient of the new coronavirus was announced in Korea. The number of users increased by a factor of 27.7, from 1,300 in early January to 38,600 by the second week of February.

Coronavirus Map, which provides information on confirmed patients of the new coronavirus worldwide, also recorded 30,000 users in just five days after it was launched on Feb. 1 and reached 45,000 users on Feb. 6.

BY KIM JUNG-MIN [kim.yeonah@joongang.co.kr]