193% year-over-year surge in SEA remarketing spend, signaling the start of a structural shift toward lifecycle investment
39% of APAC Android finance IAP revenue came from Indonesia in 2025, with India second at 27%
22% fraud rate across APAC finance in 2025, down by nearly half from the year before
Finance pivots from hyper-growth to sustainable value
The APAC region remains the global heavyweight for digital economic expansion, forecast to grow 4.7% in 2026, despite global trade uncertainties. For millions of users, the smartphone has evolved from a simple communication tool into the primary engine of financial participation, powering a digital economy that is set to exceed $300 billion in gross merchandise value by the end of 2025.
However, the “growth at all costs” era has ended. Capital is no longer deployed broadly across expansion markets. It is being reallocated toward higher-efficiency segments, premium device cohorts, and lifecycle depth. In the first half of 2025, fintech funding in the region moderated to approximately $4.3 billion, a multi-year low that signals a decisive move away from speculative expansion.
This capital discipline is forcing a structural maturation across the sector. Established platforms are no longer rewarded for vanity metrics; the new mandate is profitability. We are already seeing this play out in Southeast Asia (SEA), where the digital economy has grown profits by 2.5 times over the last two years, reinforcing a broader regional shift from land-grabs to unit economics.
For marketers, this redefines success. Performance is now measured by how efficiently budgets are spent, platform mix quality, retention depth, and monetization durability.
Our report provides a data-driven perspective on how this strategic pivot is unfolding on the ground. Our analysis of app behaviors offers insights into where the market is correcting, where hyper-growth opportunities persist, and where the next wave of high-value users is emerging.
*All results are based on fully anonymous and aggregated data. To ensure statistical validity, we follow strict volume thresholds and methodologies and only present data when these conditions are met.
Finance installs fall for the first time, even as iOS hits record 16% share
Finance app installs in APAC declined 17% year-over-year in 2025, the first broad correction the region has seen, even as iOS reached a record 16% share, up 33% since 2024.
iOS accounted for 16% of total APAC finance installs in 2025, its highest share on record. Over the same period, Android installs declined 20% year over year. As overall volume contracted, a greater share of installs came from premium-device cohorts.
This shift carries economic implications. Finance apps consistently record stronger in-app purchase intensity and monetization depth among iOS users. As acquisition budgets tighten, install distribution is concentrating in segments with stronger revenue characteristics.
Geographic performance reinforced the pattern. India remained APAC’s largest volume contributor, accounting for over 40% of total installs, though installs declined 22% year over year. Thailand fell 40% and Vietnam 22%, reflecting maturing adoption in markets where financial app penetration is already widespread.
Pakistan grew 61%, consistent with earlier-stage digital finance adoption. South Korea expanded by 9%, standing out among mature ecosystems. Growth in Korea reflected continued engagement expansion within an established financial services infrastructure rather than first-time access dynamics.
In 2025, APAC finance was increasingly shaped by tighter, more focused spending decisions. Platform mix, device economics, and monetization intensity are becoming primary determinants of where growth persists.
Overall install trend (normalized)
Share of installs by platform
21% paid install rate: Indonesia rises as Australia declines
While overall finance installs declined year over year, the share of installs driven by paid campaigns varied widely across APAC markets. Growth ecosystems expanded paid acquisition, while mature markets pulled back amid budget tightening.
Indonesia recorded one of the clearest increases in paid install rates across finance apps during 2025. The paid install rate rose steadily through the year, reaching roughly 21% by Q4, nearly double the levels seen in early 2024. Vietnam followed a similar trajectory, with paid install rates climbing from 12% to about 21% over the same period.
Other markets showed more stability. The Philippines remained broadly consistent throughout the year, maintaining a balanced mix between organic and paid acquisition.
In contrast, mature ecosystems moved in the opposite direction. In Australia, the paid install rate declined sharply, falling from 49% in early 2024 to roughly 15% by late 2025, reflecting tighter Android budgets and a stronger focus on acquisition efficiency.
At the category level, the divergence becomes even more pronounced. In Indonesia’s Investment segment, paid install share surged from 22% in Q4 2024 to 45% in Q4 2025, more than doubling year over year and highlighting continued expansion in markets with strong monetization potential.
Across APAC, the pattern is clear: growth markets continue to lean into paid acquisition, while mature ecosystems are prioritizing efficiency and lifecycle engagement.
Paid Installs Rate (normalized) – Finance Overall
UA spend declined 27% across APAC as Android budgets contracted
User acquisition investment contracted sharply across APAC finance in 2025, reinforcing the capital discipline theme observed throughout the year.
Across analyzed APAC markets, total UA spend declined approximately 27% year over year. The Indian Subcontinent recorded the steepest contraction at 38%, driven primarily by a 43% decline in Android spend in India. Southeast Asia declined 27%, with Android spend falling 25% and iOS contracting 48%.
In contrast, Japan and South Korea recorded modest overall growth of 3%, reflecting more stable acquisition environments. Australia increased 16% year over year, driven entirely by iOS growth of 86% while Android declined 32%, signaling a clear platform shift rather than broad expansion.
The contraction was uneven across markets. India fell 42%, Vietnam declined 48%, and Thailand declined 55%, confirming widespread budget compression in scale-driven ecosystems. Pakistan and Bangladesh expanded, reflecting earlier-stage growth markets with smaller budget bases.
Contraction hit hardest in large Android ecosystems, while iOS and mature markets proved more resilient.
YoY % change in the UA Ad Spend (2025 vs. 2024)
UA ad spend by platform in 2025 (USD)
47% of SEA Android UA spend came from China-based apps
As UA budgets tightened across APAC finance in 2025, spend concentrated in fewer markets rather than being evenly distributed.
In Southeast Asia, China-based apps accounted for 47% of Android UA spend, up from 38% in 2024. Even as overall SEA spend declined 27%, their relative share expanded, indicating that a greater proportion of remaining budgets flowed through a single dominant hub. Much of this allocation was directed toward Indonesia and the Philippines, reinforcing Chinese apps’ structural influence within the sub-region.
A comparable pattern emerged in ANZ. UK apps accounted for 41% of Android inbound spend and 47% of iOS inbound spend in 2025. UK-origin budgets increased year over year despite broader regional contraction, solidifying its position as the primary outbound driver into ANZ.
The Indian Subcontinent followed a different configuration. Android allocation remained overwhelmingly domestic, with India accounting for 92% of spend within the sub-region. In contrast, iOS investment was more diversified across China, Israel, Russia, and the UK, with no single external hub exerting dominant control.
China’s Android budgets were heavily concentrated in Southeast Asia, with minimal allocation to India — targeted concentration rather than universal dominance.
YoY % change in the share of finance app UA spend of China-HQ apps
Inbound UA spend by source market, 2025
SEA remarketing spend surged 193% as lifecycle investment intensified
While user acquisition budgets contracted across APAC finance in 2025, remarketing investment accelerated in selected markets, an early but meaningful shift in spending from user growth toward engagement depth. UA budgets still far outpace remarketing overall, but the gap is narrowing.
Southeast Asia recorded the strongest expansion. Overall remarketing spend increased 193% year over year, driven by a 202% rise on Android and an 84% increase on iOS. Indonesia grew by 144%, Thailand by 339%, the Philippines by 241%, and Vietnam by 161%. The magnitude and breadth of these increases suggest structural reprioritization rather than short-term optimization.
Japan and South Korea followed a steadier trajectory. Remarketing spend rose 74% overall, with South Korea up 85% and Japan up 56%, reflecting sustained lifecycle investment in mature ecosystems.
The Indian Subcontinent diverged. Total remarketing spend declined 8%, as Android, the dominant platform, fell 9%. Although iOS remarketing increased 101%, it expanded from a much smaller base, limiting its impact on total regional spend.
Unlike user acquisition, which remained shaped by cross-border hubs, remarketing activity was largely domestically anchored. In Southeast Asia, Android remarketing was concentrated in Indonesia (30%), Thailand (28%), and the Philippines (22%), reinforcing the idea that lifecycle investment followed market scale rather than outbound capital flows.
Remarketing ad spend by platform in 2025 (USD)
Remarketing Conversion Trend by country (normalized)
Japan & Korea lead Day 30 retention as SEA closes the gap
Retention improved across multiple APAC finance markets in 2025, reinforcing engagement depth as a growing performance priority in a capital-constrained environment.
Southeast Asia recorded steady gains. Android Day 30 retention increased from 2.35% in Q1 2024 to 3.86% in Q4 2025, while iOS rose from 5.50% to 8.87% over the same period. At the market level, Indonesia improved from 1.92% to 3.37%, Thailand from 1.97% to 3.05%, Vietnam from 1.75% to 4.23%, and the Philippines from 0.98% to 2.95%.
India showed steady improvement. Android Day 30 retention increased from 2.48% in Q1 2024 to 4.36% by Q4 2025, while iOS rose from 6.29% to 9.65% over the same period. The improvement reflects deepening engagement within an established financial app ecosystem where usage extends beyond transactional entry into recurring financial management behavior.
North Asia showed more moderate but stable improvement. Android Day 30 retention in Japan and South Korea ranged from 6.72% in Q1 2024 to 7.24% in Q4 2025, holding steady at approximately 7% throughout the period. This is the highest Day 30 Android retention across all APAC sub-regions, consistent with markets where financial app engagement is already habitual and incremental gains reflect refinement rather than adoption expansion.
As install-led growth moderated, retention became a central indicator of performance durability heading into 2026.
Session trend: Finance – overall (normalized)
Average Retention trend: Finance – overall apps by sub-region
39% of APAC Android finance IAP revenue came from Indonesia
In-app purchase revenue patterns in 2025 reflected both concentration and geographic breadth across APAC finance markets. A small number of economies anchored platform-level monetization, while revenue generation remained widely distributed across the region.
Within APAC, Indonesia accounted for 39% of Android IAP revenue, followed by India at 27% and South Korea at 14%. Globally, Indonesia accounted for 12% of total Android finance IAP revenue, ahead of India and the United States at 8% each. Brazil contributed 7%, reinforcing Android’s monetization strength in large-scale emerging ecosystems.
On iOS, the story is similar. Indonesia led within APAC at 33%, while South Korea outperformed its Android share at 18%, signaling stronger monetization intensity on premium devices.
Although Indonesia and India remained APAC’s dual-platform anchors, their relative global revenue shares declined between 17% and 19% year over year across both platforms. The shift reflects faster revenue growth in other markets rather than outright revenue contraction.
South Korea recorded the strongest year-over-year expansion in the region, with finance IAP revenue increasing 52% on Android and 63% on iOS. The acceleration narrows the gap with the region’s established leaders and signals rising monetization depth in premium-device ecosystems.
Revenue remained broadly distributed. Nearly 40% of global finance IAP revenue originated from markets outside the top contributors, underscoring the geographic diversity of monetization across APAC and beyond.
As scale-led growth moderated, monetization depth, not install volume, became the defining performance metric heading into 2026.
YoY % Change in the share of IAP Revenue
Share of in-app purchase revenue by country
Fraud rates down 22% as traffic quality improves
Install fraud across APAC finance declined materially in 2025. The regional average fraud rate fell from 41% in 2024 to 22% in 2025, reflecting strengthened detection frameworks and a broader shift toward higher-quality traffic sources. However, with more than 1 in 5 installs identified as fraud, vigilance should remain high.
The improvement was most visible in historically high-risk verticals. Investment fraud rates declined from 26% to 8%, marking the lowest exposure among finance categories in 2025. Personal Loans improved from 31% to 14%, while Mobile Banking remained the highest-risk vertical at 29%, despite a meaningful reduction from prior-year levels.
Platform exposure converged. iOS recorded an average fraud rate of 21%, compared to Android’s 20%, narrowing gaps observed in previous periods when platform-specific spikes were more pronounced.
At the market level, outcomes diverged. Thailand and South Korea recorded fraud rates of 3% each, positioning them among the lowest-risk ecosystems in the region. The Philippines reached 9%, and India 11%, reflecting sustained quality improvement.
However, elevated exposure persisted in specific markets. Vietnam recorded 46% and Bangladesh 35%, while Australia and ANZ remained materially above the regional average. Fraud has compressed, but it hasn’t disappeared; risk remains concentrated in specific markets and verticals heading into 2026.
Fraud Rate – Finance Overall
Fraud Rate – Investment
Fraud Rate – Mobile Banking
Fraud Rate – Personal Loans
In-app event queries reach 12% in Mobile Banking
Analysis of more than 2,000 questions submitted by Finance marketers to AppsFlyer’s AI Assistant shows that AI is primarily used for performance interpretation, with attribution emerging as the dominant use case.
Personal Loans recorded the highest share of attribution queries at 20.7%, nearly double Mobile Banking. The longer conversion cycles and higher CAC typical in lending funnels increase the need to understand which sources actually drove installs and downstream activity.
Usage patterns vary by vertical. Mobile Banking generates the highest share of In-App Event questions (12.2%), reflecting onboarding-heavy funnels where activation milestones determine early performance. Investment apps display a more observational usage pattern, producing the highest share of Chart Summarization queries (9.4%) and the lowest concentration of Media Source questions (24.8%), suggesting greater emphasis on interpreting dashboards rather than actively adjusting acquisition channels.
Prompt behavior reveals a second pattern. Attribution queries consistently produce the highest share of advanced prompting (34–40%) across all finance subcategories, indicating that marketers provide more context when the analytical stakes are higher. A similar dynamic appears in channel analysis, where Personal Loans show significantly higher advanced prompting for Media Source queries (32%) than Mobile Banking (14%).
Together, these patterns suggest that Finance marketers increasingly rely on AI to interpret complex performance signals, while prompting sophistication rises when decisions directly impact acquisition spend.
AI assistant queries split by type among Finance marketers*
Share of queries with advanced prompting
Omnichannel fragmentation persists despite high digital engagement
Mobile apps have become the primary banking touchpoint across APAC and globally. According to Accenture’s Global Banking Consumer Study 2025, customers average 150 app interactions per year, the highest frequency among service channels. Mobile apps also receive the highest satisfaction scores at 60%, reinforcing their central role in daily financial activity.
However, engagement depth does not translate uniformly across the customer journey. Most interactions remain transactional. Checking balances accounts for 45% of weekly activity, while money transfers represent 31%. When customers move beyond routine actions into more complex needs such as loan applications, dispute resolution, or service escalation, continuity across channels often weakens.
Accenture’s research also highlights a perception gap. Only 21% of banking service executives view customer service as a value driver. Separately, in a cross-industry study on customer service, 32% of consumers believe service quality has improved in the past five years, and just 18% feel that technology has enhanced their overall experience.
The findings point to a structural challenge. Digital engagement is high, but omnichannel continuity remains uneven, particularly during high-friction or high-value interactions. Deep linking plays a key role here, connecting touchpoints seamlessly and ensuring users land in the right place regardless of where they started. As financial institutions deepen digital investment, seamless coordination across app, web, paid, and physical touchpoints remains a critical area for improvement.
Accenture Data: Channel Usage and Satisfaction
- Many finance brands are shifting focus from cost-per-acquisition toward activation, engagement, and lifetime value. From what you see globally, which signals best indicate high-quality growth, and how should platforms support optimization toward those outcomes?
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Volume is a vanity metric in a challenged macro environment; value is the reality. The finance world is overcrowded. The average customer splits their finances across 5+ relationships. The goal isn’t more customers; it’s capturing more value from the ones you have. High-quality growth is measured by Product Density, the proxy for “Share of Wallet.” e.g., Can you turn a mortgage lead into a wealth relationship? A good starting point is to focus on value metrics rather than simple CPA metrics.
- The Shift: We are seeing a global move toward Value-Based Bidding (VBB). According to Think with Google research on the e-Conomy, the top 30% of spenders account for 70% of total digital spend – those are the relationships to win.
- Case in Point: Zoe Financial optimized their bidding for the value of each lead rather than just the number of applications. By identifying what made an “ideal client” in their CRM and feeding that signal back to their campaigns, their most valuable client segment rose to 60% of total sales.
- Strategic Tip: Stop reporting on “Total Leads.” Start reporting on “Value Delivered”. That is where the real margin is hidden.
- Customer journeys in financial services increasingly span web, app, paid, and owned environments. As data in these environments is fragmented and customer journeys become more complex, how should marketers evaluate performance beyond individual channel metrics to ensure they are optimizing for true business impact?
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If your data is in silos, you’ve likely hit your ceiling. Stop optimizing for individual channels and start optimizing for a multi-modal customer. The modern consumer doesn’t live in “owned” or “paid” silos. They shift between high-intent search, immersive video, bank apps, and product websites, sometimes within a single decision journey. Channel-level metrics can’t capture this. The question isn’t “how did this ad perform?” — it’s “where is this customer in their journey, and what’s the next best action?”
To answer that, you need a unified data stack that connects signals across every touchpoint — not just your CRM, but the full funnel. As highlighted in Think with Google’s Digital Transformation playbooks, the critical link is between your First-Party Data and external ecosystems — so that every signal, from every touchpoint, is visible, connected, and actionable.
- Case in Point: Agicap moved beyond “casting a wide net” by feeding their HubSpot CRM data directly into Google Ads, shifting from channel volume to “prospect life cycle” bidding, and nurturing high-intent leads at the right moment.
- The Architecture: A centralized warehouse (e.g., BigQuery) that ingests signals across the funnel lets AI like Performance Max find your next customer, whether they’re scrolling, streaming, or searching.
- Trust is central in financial services, where relevance must align with compliance and brand integrity. How are leading brands using AI and automation to deliver contextual messaging across environments without compromising consistency or customer trust?
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In finance, trust IS the product. Brand isn’t a billboard; it’s a trust-transfer mechanism. Trust is the single most critical variable in the FSI equation. In periods of macro-volatility, consumers don’t look for the cheapest rate; they look for reassurance. Leading brands recognize that their brand equity is a “future demand” generator that keeps them above the “demand ceiling.”
- The Balancing Act: According to the Google/WARC whitepaper on brand value, emotional bonds guide 95% of consumer decisions. For a bank, trust is that emotional bond.
- Consistency at scale: Trust erodes when a consumer sees a personalized wealth offer on mobile that doesn’t match the in-branch experience.” Leading brands use AI to ensure contextual messaging stays consistent across 70+ environments without losing that “human” touch.
- The Insight: Trust and performance aren’t trade-offs. An ad that creates brand interest and trust is statistically more likely to drive short-term sales. Think of your brand as a “Trust Balance sheet” — every insight-driven, secure interaction is a deposit.
- AI is increasingly deployed in campaign optimization, targeting, and creative optimization. In highly regulated sectors like financial services, what governance and compliance practices should marketing teams put in place to use AI responsibly — and how do you build consumer trust in the process?
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AI is increasingly deployed in campaign optimization, targeting, and creative optimization. In highly regulated sectors like financial services, what governance and compliance practices should marketing teams put in place to use AI responsibly — and how do you build consumer trust in the process?
In FSI, security isn’t a feature; it’s the foundation that enables responsible growth. In a highly regulated sector, being “secure in your data” is the prerequisite for innovation. You cannot unlock meaningful growth without Responsible AI foundations. This isn’t just about privacy; it’s about Explainability — the ability to tell a regulator why an AI made a specific decision.
Google’s Responsible AI Principles (Safe, Secure, Fair, and Accountable) are critical here.
- Security by Design: Use technologies like Data Clean Rooms or Confidential Computing to process sensitive PII without exposing it.
- The “3Rs” of Responsible AI: Implement the 3R framework (Regulation, Reputation, Realization). You comply with acts like the EU AI Act not just to avoid fines, but to preserve your brand’s reputation for fairness.
- Practical Next Step: Audit your AI pipeline for bias. If your model training data is skewed, your outcomes will be too. High-fidelity, clean data is the only way to build an AI engine that regulators will actually let you switch on.
- As marketing, product, and data functions become more interconnected, how do you see the operating model of high-performing finance marketing teams evolving over the next few years, particularly in measurement, budget allocation, and AI-supported decision-making?
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The wall between the “creative” and the “cloud” has fallen. If your marketing team can’t talk to your data team, you’re already behind. The operating model of high-performing FSI teams is evolving into a unified intelligence stack. The line between IT, Product, and Marketing is blurring. In this new world, the “generalist” — someone who understands data architecture and creative storytelling — is the most valuable asset.
- The CMO-CFO Power Couple: High-performance teams have a tight alliance between the CMO and CFO, using shared KPIs such as CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) rather than siloed marketing metrics.
- The “Orchestrator” Model: We are moving away from fixed budget caps to demand-led pacing. AI agents handle the routine campaign setups (the “grunt work”), while the marketing team focuses on “Moonshot” strategy and creative distinctiveness.
- Evolution: Measurement will move toward MMM-Calibrated Attribution (like the Meridian model), providing a single source of truth that the whole C-suite can agree on. The future belongs to the teams that can pivot from “buying media” to “orchestrating business outcomes.”
APAC finance exited its hyper-growth phase in 2025. Installs declined 17% year over year, UA budgets compressed across major regions, and capital deployment became more selective. Growth is increasingly defined by allocation efficiency, platform targeting, and corridor prioritization rather than regional scale expansion.
Premium device segments reached a record 16% install share as overall volumes cooled. iOS continued gaining relevance even amid contraction, reinforcing platform mix as a performance lever. Monetization intensity remains strongest in premium-device ecosystems, including South Korea and Indonesia.
Remarketing spend increased by 193% in Southeast Asia and 74% in Japan and South Korea, while UA contracted. SEA Android Day 30 retention rose from 2.35% to 3.86%, and Japan and South Korea held the highest Day 30 Android retention in APAC at approximately 7%, ranging from 6.72% to 7.24%. Markets that intensified lifecycle investment recorded stronger post-install engagement outcomes.
Performance diverged across markets and subcategories. Investment paid install share doubled in Indonesia, Digital Wallets expanded from 9% to 34% in Southeast Asia, and South Korea recorded the fastest IAP revenue growth in APAC. Returns in 2025 were concentrated in markets and verticals with established monetization depth.
The regional average fraud rate declined from 41% to 22% in 2025, reflecting improved traffic quality and stronger filtering. However, elevated exposure persisted in specific corridors and high-risk verticals, including Mobile Banking. As budgets tighten, risk management remains central to performance durability.
