The State of Marketing in APAC – 2026 Edition

Entertainment installs are being driven by a real shift in what people are watching: regional-language content now makes up the majority of OTT viewing in India, and that shows up most clearly on iOS, up 42% year over year in the Indian Subcontinent, compared with 12% on Android over the same period. SEA shows the same lean at a smaller scale.

Finance’s installs are growing for a different reason entirely: real payments infrastructure is expanding, which means more people can use these apps, showing up as an iOS-led trend in SEA, up 34% against 20% on Android, with the Philippines leading that iOS number specifically, up 39% on its own.

The Indian Subcontinent flips that lean entirely, up 35% on Android against 16% on iOS, with India itself up 39% on Android. Entertainment’s iOS lead holds in SEA and the Indian Subcontinent, while Android leads in Japan & Korea and Australia & New Zealand, at 11% and 16%, respectively. Finance leans toward iOS only in SEA, where payment access is the constraint being lifted.

Gaming declined almost everywhere, evident in both organic and paid installs, with Android down between 17% and 26% across all four sub-regions. The Indian Subcontinent is the one exception on iOS, installs up 6% while Android fell 17%.

Shopping declined in SEA and the Japan & Korea region, down 47% and 32% on Android, while the Indian Subcontinent climbed 59% on iOS against 25% organic growth on the same platform, leaving the gap to non-organic sources. That climb measures India’s festive sales moving into September 2025, concentrated in a single quarter, and has since partly faded.

Finance’s organic growth measures that the infrastructure story is almost everywhere. SEA grew 30% on Android year over year. India itself grew 55% on Android over the same period, and the broader Indian Subcontinent region followed at a slower pace, up 46%.

Entertainment’s organic growth measures the same regional-content shift, but by platform more than by region: iOS is strongest where that push is furthest along, up 42% year over year in the Indian Subcontinent, with India itself matching that number over the same period. Android’s growth leans toward the Australia & New Zealand region instead, up 19%.

Shopping’s organic installs tell a different story from its paid growth: they declined in SEA and the Japan & Korea region across both platforms, consistent with a vertical whose growth this cycle comes from paid channels. The Indian Subcontinent’s Android installs fell by 30% too, though iOS grew by 25%, driven almost entirely by a single early spike that has since faded. The Australia & New Zealand region grew 21% on Android.

Gaming’s organic installs declined across most of the region, mirroring the pullback in paid installs, down 21% on Android in both SEA and the Japan & Korea region.

Entertainment’s paid installs on Android outpace its organic growth across all four regions. The margin is widest in the Indian Subcontinent and the Japan & Korea region, up 87% and 36% against 14% and 5% organic. The Australia & New Zealand region follows at 31% paid against 19% organic, and SEA sits close to level on both, easing 2% on each.

Finance’s paid installs on Android run behind organic at every level. India grew 14% on paid against 55% organic, and the broader Indian Subcontinent region grew 16% against 46%. The relationship holds at both the country and regional levels, with a different gap each time.

Gaming’s paid installs declined in every region on Android, with the sharpest declines in SEA, down 36%, and Australia & New Zealand, down 31%. The pullback showing up in both paid and organic installs suggests reduced acquisition spend, with softer demand playing a smaller role.

Shopping’s paid growth is far narrower, concentrated almost entirely in the Indian Subcontinent, up 62% on Android, reflecting the same festive-sales shift into September and pulling Shopping’s installs there.

Shopping’s UA spend in India grew 55% on Android and 20% on iOS, the same paid-acquisition push already showing up in Shopping’s install numbers there, tied to festive sales moving into September and to quick-commerce platforms scaling their ad spend hard enough that e-commerce advertising now makes up nearly a quarter of India’s digital ad revenue. The Australia & New Zealand region’s iOS spend climbs the sharpest of any market in this report, up 312% and rising every quarter since Q1 2025.

Entertainment’s UA spend in SEA grew 23% on Android, driven in part by Vietnam alone, up 194%, more than seven times the regional pace, consistent with the local-content push pulling in new streaming audiences.

Gaming moves the opposite way almost everywhere, and spend tells a different story than installs alone: SEA’s UA spend held roughly flat on Android, while the paid installs it bought fell 36%, meaning Gaming is paying about the same and getting over a third fewer installs. The Indian Subcontinent’s Android spend fell 30% year over year, less steep than the 44% drop in India specifically, meaning markets outside India are cushioning the regional decline.

Finance’s UA spend in SEA grew 14% on Android and 112% on iOS, tracking the same infrastructure expansion behind Finance’s organic installs growth there, with Vietnam again the standout, up 153% on its own. The Indian Subcontinent grew 48% on Android and 22% on iOS, while the Japan & Korea region grew just 2% on Android and fell 29% on iOS.

Indonesia and India hold the top two positions globally for Finance UA ad spend on Android, at 23% and 22% of worldwide spend, respectively, with the Philippines close behind in fourth at 14%. Three of the world’s four largest Finance UA spend markets are in APAC.

On iOS, that dominance disappears entirely: the US holds 80% of global share, and Indonesia is the only APAC country in the top six, at 4%, with India further back at 1%. The split measures device economics as much as marketing strategy: Android holds well over 85% of smartphone market share in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, driven largely by affordable device pricing, while iOS holds the opposite position in wealthier markets like the US.

Gaming shows the same platform split, with one exception. South Korea holds the second-largest Android UA spend share globally at 9%, with Japan fourth at 7%. Japan is also the only APAC market to place on iOS, third at 7%, well behind the US at 71%.

Shopping’s APAC presence exists only on Android, where India holds the second-largest global share at 19%. On iOS, no APAC country appears anywhere in the top six, and the US and UK take the first two positions outright, the clearest device-driven split in the vertical.

Entertainment breaks that pattern entirely. It’s the only vertical with real APAC share on both platforms at once: India, Indonesia, and the Philippines all place in the Android top six, while Japan holds the second-largest iOS share at 9%. Device economics account for the platform split in Finance, Shopping, and Gaming. Entertainment stands apart from that explanation, holding a real share on both platforms at once.

Shopping’s strongest market is the Japan & Korea region, where remarketing spend surged 223% on Android. Thailand and Malaysia both grew sharply on iOS. The Indian Subcontinent bounced without a clear direction for most of the period before declining in the two most recent quarters.

Entertainment’s SEA spend grew on both platforms, the only region where this vertical clears the reporting threshold.

Gaming’s spend grew across most regions, Vietnam up 106% on Android. The Japan & Korea region’s iOS spend climbed more than eightfold from a small base over the past year. The Australia & New Zealand region’s Android spend climbed for most of the two-year period before a sharp drop in Q2 2026, while its iOS spend rose over the same quarter.

Finance’s remarketing spend in Indonesia grew 104% on Android, several times the pace of Finance’s own organic growth there. The broader SEA region it sits in grew 17% on Android, with Indonesia accounting for most of that movement. The Indian Subcontinent sits opposite, down 29% on Android, driven by India itself. The two largest Finance remarketing markets in the region are moving in opposite directions.

Finance’s remarketing conversions grew 268% on Android in Indonesia, against just 3% growth in paid installs over the same period. The Japan & Korea region and the Indian Subcontinent moved the opposite way, down 10% and 6% on Android, respectively.

Shopping’s conversions grew 230% on Android and 144% on iOS in the Japan & Korea region, both platforms climbing together. Its Indian Subcontinent figures split by platform, down 38% on Android and up 48% on iOS.

Entertainment’s conversions split by platform in SEA too: iOS up 62%, Android down 37%. The Indian Subcontinent grew 74% on Android.

Gaming conversions grew on iOS in SEA and the Indian Subcontinent, up 324% and 21%, while Android fell 39% in the Indian Subcontinent. The Japan & Korea region eased 16% on Android and added 5% on iOS. The Australia & New Zealand region’s conversions grew 28% on Android over the year, while remarketing spend there fell by more than half in Q2 2026 alone.

Finance’s Sessions grew on both platforms across three of its four regions, Android up 21% to 62%. The Japan & Korea region grew fastest of all on Android, up 90%, while its iOS sessions eased 2%.

Gaming sessions declined across both platforms in three of its four regions, SEA, Japan & Korea, and the Australia & New Zealand region, with the sharpest declines in SEA on Android.

Shopping sessions grew on both platforms in the Japan & Korea region, up 39% on Android and 82% on iOS, and grew even faster in the Indian Subcontinent, up 115% on Android and 171% on iOS. The Australia & New Zealand region jumped to a new, higher level starting in Q4 2025.

Entertainment’s Sessions grew on both platforms in the Indian Subcontinent, up 19% on Android and 51% on iOS, measuring the same local-content pull driving installs there, and declined on both platforms in the Japan & Korea region, where that driver doesn’t apply. SEA grew on both platforms too, up 19% on Android and 14% on iOS. The Australia & New Zealand region is the one true platform split, Android down 28% while iOS grew 2%.

Finance’s early retention in SEA is improving on Android specifically, Day 1 up 26% and Day 7 up 45% over the year, with iOS up 5% and 1%. Day 30 moved the opposite way on both platforms, down 32% on Android and 27% on iOS. Early engagement and Day 30 retention moved in opposite directions across the year.

The same divergence shows up in Entertainment, most clearly in the Australia & New Zealand region: Day 7 retention on Android grew 104% year over year, while Day 30 on Android still fell 40%.

The Australia & New Zealand region leads the gains in Shopping too, Day 1 up 18% and Day 7 up 28% on Android, while Day 30 fell 52%, the sharpest Day 30 decline in this vertical. SEA barely moved on either early metric, up 7% and 15%, but Day 30 fell just as sharply regardless, down 49%, so the decline doesn’t depend on early retention moving at all.

Gaming’s Day 1 and Day 7 retention stay close to flat across all four regions, with no early strength to offset Day 30.

Day 30 retention softened in all four verticals, all four regions, and on both platforms. Finance’s Android retention falls faster than iOS in every one of its four regions. The widest gaps sit in the Australia & New Zealand region, down 65% on Android against 28% on iOS, and the Japan & Korea region, down 49% against 21%. SEA and the Indian Subcontinent sit within 5 points on both platforms.

Gaming’s Share of Paying Users (SOPU) grew in every region and on both platforms between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, up as much as 29% in the Indian Subcontinent on iOS. Indonesia grew 28% on Android and 22% on iOS over the same period, climbing every quarter.

Finance’s growth story points in the same direction: installs up, spend up, sessions up, especially in SEA and Indonesia. Its SOPU in those same two markets is falling instead, down 5% in SEA and 16% in Indonesia on Android as of Q1 2026, with iOS down 20% and 19% over the same period, though neither decline is smooth. SEA fell for three straight quarters before a small uptick, and Indonesia has moved up and down throughout. Finance may be growing its user base in its two strongest markets without growing the paying base underneath it.

Entertainment shows iOS consistently ahead of Android in three of its four regions, most clearly in the Japan & Korea region (-12% Android vs. 20% iOS). The Indian Subcontinent breaks that pattern: Android grows 9% there while iOS falls 7%, the one region where Entertainment’s usual gap runs in reverse.

Shopping’s clearest growth sits in the Indian Subcontinent, the most consistent region in this vertical. The Japan & Korea region moved in the opposite way. The Australia & New Zealand region and SEA are both split by platform, in opposite directions.

The Japan & Korea region shows a broad, consistent decline in fraud across nearly every vertical year over year: Finance’s Android fraud rate fell by 83%, Shopping’s fell by 82%, and Entertainment’s fell by 65%. Gaming is the outlier, holding at 3% for the region, with Japan alone up 68% on Android.

SEA shows the same direction. Shopping’s iOS fraud rate fell by 90%, though it has bounced quarter to quarter and has yet to settle at a steady level. Finance fell 80% on iOS, and Entertainment fell 63% on Android.

The Indian Subcontinent’s Entertainment fraud rate fell 75% on Android. iOS moved the opposite way, up 170%, though the current level remains below where it was two years ago, driven mostly by India, where the iOS rate moved from 2% to 5% across the year.

The Australia & New Zealand region’s fraud rate doesn’t fit a single pattern the way the other regions do. Finance’s Android fraud rate swings between 12% and 78% with no clear direction, while Gaming’s stayed low most of the period before a real jump in the last two quarters.