Hi Bruce
As far as I remember about hours per day chat apps usage all around the world statistics,
1- in Korea there is an impressive & pervasive time people spend with chat instant messaging apps (Kakaotalk, WeChat, and maybe LINE etc.), more than in South American countries and Italy (in Europe)...
2- BTW, both above mentioned IMs allow sort of chatbots services ( https://github.com/sjp38/kakaobot)...
that’s could be one reason.