The use of AI speakers, PCs and smartphones has increased here amid the COVID-19 outbreak, according to industry data.

South Korean mobile carrier KT on Friday said use of its AI speaker Giga Genie increased 8.3 percent in Jan. 30-Feb. 12 compared with Jan. 2-15, before the outbreak was reported.

In particular, the number of news searches surged 99 percent, KT said, adding that they were largely related to confirmed cases of the coronavirus here.

Online grocery shopping via the AI speaker also increased 22 percent in the same period. The use of gaming services on KT’s platform increased 14.8 percent, followed by that of kids’ content with 11.5 percent and TV services with 10.9 percent.

Internet use via PCs and mobile devices increased in January as well, according to another report.

Data collected by Nielsen Korea showed that the average time Koreans spent using the internet via PCs rose 0.8 percent in January to 1,069 minutes compared with December 2019.

The average time spent on mobile applications on both Android and iOS-based devices increased to 8,828 minutes and 10,016 minutes, respectively, up 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent from a month ago.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)