With social media taking firm root in everyday lives, the preferred service differs among age groups in South Korea, a survey showed Sunday.

Nielsen Koreanclick, which provides base data for media planning and ad effectiveness analysis, said it has researched the generational use of social media, based on findings that 91.7 percent of mobile users were active on various social media services. The survey targeted smartphone users using Android operating system as of October.

Facebook was by far the most popular social networking service among those in their teens and 20s.

The survey showed that 66.7 percent of Android smartphone users aged 13-18 and 61.0 percent aged 19-24 used Facebook.

They spent an average of 34 percent and 29 percent of their entire social networking time on Facebook, respectively.

Koreans in this age group also widely used Instagram, a photo-sharing network that was acquired by Facebook in 2012.

Among them, 49 percent used Instagram, while 84 percent of Instagram users also used Facebook.

For those in their 40s and 50s, the most frequently used services were mobile community services Naver Band and KakaoStory.

Those in this older age group spent 67 percent of their time on social media there.

Nielsen said these services appear to have appealed to the older generation by having a specific purpose of their communities with closer interaction and credibility among the members.

Meanwhile, the average time spent on social media apps by age showed that those 13-24 lingered longest, 1,074 minutes per month, followed by 25-29 (399 minutes) and 40-59 (292 minutes). (khnews@heraldcorp.com)