This study was conducted to figure the usage status and satisfaction of food-related smartphone applications by generic characteristics and food purchase attributes of Seoul area workers. The results show that health․vitality-oriented group, married compared to single, those with higher eating-out expenses possess more food-related applications (p<0.05). The primary reason for the usage of food-related applications was the need for food-related information (53.7%). The highest application subjects in use were restaurant-related information and recipe information. The real-life aid food-related applications utilized most were also restaurant information (60.7%) and recipe information (28.3%). Health․vitality-oriented respondents especially turned out to use nutrition information and food functionality information often (p<0.01), and recipes or calories & diet information usage frequency was higher in women than in men (p<0.001). Restaurant-related information were more frequently used by singles, highly educated, and those with high income and eating-out expenses (p<0.05). Satisfaction of food-related applications was normal (3.06), showing that the satisfactory level is not yet high. Satisfaction regarding purchase attributes showed that the health․vitality-oriented group (3.19) was more satisfied compared to other groups (p<0.05), and women (3.16) were more satisfied that men (2.89) were (p<0.05). Inconveniences of food-related applications were highest in usage fee (3.29), simplicity of information (3.28), lack of reliability of information and need for update (3.10). The results of this study implies that various subdivisions of food-related applications users should be implemented; at the same time, food-related applications covering diverse subjects that regard each group's characteristics should be developed in order to utilize food-related knowledge and information as a marketing tool in the food industry; this can efficiently be done by paying attention to the quality of information and updates within applications.
