ING's mobile banking app passed the 5 million download mark this month. It took the app about nine years to do that, the first release being in 2011. The number of daily logins is even slightly higher, at 5.2 million times.
'Do your thing'. That has been ING's new brand direction since the beginning of this year. On the one hand, the orange bank encourages people to do what they want and be who they want to be. On the other hand, it is a reference to arranging financial matters themselves as much as possible, quickly and without friction. To do this, people can go online but also, of course, through ING's mobile banking app, which is available for Apple devices and Android devices.
European adoption of mobile banking is high among Dutch consumers. A 2018 survey by consulting firm Roland Berger found that two-thirds (66%) of Dutch people were doing mobile banking. The majority combine that with internet banking. Whether that high adoption rate is because the quality of Dutch mobile banking apps is high or just the opposite, that high quality leads to more use of them, is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue and not very relevant in itself.
Nine years after the launch of the first version of the app, ING welcomes the 5 millionth download. The figure above shows the development of the number of downloads, that is, the number of downloads in the Netherlands. Especially from 2017 to 2018 a remarkable increase is visible, with almost one million downloads in one year.
Not very surprisingly, it is young people (ages 18 to 24) who have downloaded the app the most. Often young people are quicker to keep up with innovations - sometimes also due to the simple fact that the most current development is their first introduction to a banking service in the first place - and moreover, smartphone ownership is highest among young people. This is not to say that older people are not moving along. Even in the 65-74 age group, about half of customers use the app.
With ING being the largest bank in the country, you would expect that the ING mobile banking app would also immediately be the most downloaded banking app. However, that is not the case. In fact, the most downloaded banking app is repayment app Tikkie, which claims to have some six million users. Now to consider Tikkie a banking app is debatable; opinions will differ on that. Those who think so may still place ING at number one.
