Mintegral unveils 2025 APAC app-economy data insights as AI apps surge

Short-drama explodes and ‘blue-ocean’ Android stores unlock cheaper user growth

Mintegral today released new data and advertiser guidance showing three powerful shifts reshaping mobile growth heading into late-2025. These include the mass adoption of AI apps, the meteoric rise of short-form drama from APAC, and the emergence of third-party Android stores as a “blue-ocean” channel for low-cost, scalable user acquisition.

The data shows that AI features are moving mainstream, short-drama is becoming the next global entertainment format, and third-party Android stores are quietly delivering efficient scale. The data shows advertisers can ride these waves right now with creative testing, ROAS-aligned bidding, and diversified distribution beyond the duopoly.

AI crosses the chasm

Consumer AI apps have gone truly mass-market. In 2024 the category reached 1.5 billion downloads and US$1.3 billion in revenue. Within the category, AI chatbots led with 119% YoY growth, while AI art generators still expanded at 21% YoY. Notably, 16 generative-AI apps surpassed US$10 million in IAP, and 25 apps broke 10 million downloads, evidence that consumers now routinely pay for AI-enhanced utility, creativity, and productivity. 

What it means: AI is no longer a novelty; it’s a durable consumer habit. Developers building pragmatic AI features around pain points (productivity, finance, PDF/chat, community) are winning traction, and advertisers are finding conversion-ready audiences at scale. 

Short-form drama from APAC goes global

Short-video apps centered on episodic, “short-drama” content have grown at 50–200% QoQ since Q3 2023. The monetization model is overwhelmingly ad-supported (IAA ~90%), with IAP ~10% (subscriptions, token top-ups). Indonesia is now the single biggest downloader at 39% share, followed by Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, and Japan/Korea, signaling a cross-regional entertainment format with low CAC and broad appeal. 

What it means: A new mobile entertainment category born in APAC is exporting globally, and advertisers are meeting audiences where they binge micro-episodes. Rewarded video entry points like daily check-ins, unlocking new episodes, and task rewards are standard, giving performance marketers clear levers to balance reach and retention.

Third-party Android stores = the new “blue ocean”

Beyond Google Play and the App Store, third-party Android stores (including Xiaomi, Amazon, Samsung, Oppo/Vivo, Huawei, and Eastern European stores) are emerging as under-priced inventory pools. Mintegral’s self-serve access and SDK integrations allow performance advertisers to target, optimize, and monetize across these channels without extra permissions, consistently delivering lower CPI and fast scale. Case studies on Amazon’s store, for example, show US CPI bands as low as US$0.26–0.42 with daily installs in the 2,000–5,000 range depending on genre and bidding approach.

What it means: Marketers don’t need to be “small fish” fighting in red-ocean auctions. Third-party stores are expanding reach and smoothing supply shocks, especially for gaming, utilities, entertainment, and emerging short-drama publishers.

What advertisers can do now

• Adopt ROAS-aligned bidding across models: Run Target ROAS, Hybrid ROAS, IAA ROAS, or Target CPE to optimize toward paid actions (registrations, D7 retention) and revenue outcomes rather than vanity metrics. 
• Lean into creative automation: Use dynamic creative optimization, massive creative analysis, and playables to iterate quickly across short-drama formats and AI-app utilities. 
• Diversify distribution: Add third-party stores to the media plan to unlock cheaper, incremental scale, then whitelist high-performing verticals and sub-channels.

Mintegral scale & solutions 

Mintegral is a global platform for user acquisition and monetization, powering over 100,000 apps and delivering more than 300 billion ad requests and 1.2 billion impressions daily across key verticals such as gaming, utilities, entertainment, finance, and education.

Source: Mintegral

  AI, APAC, Data Insights, Mintegral, Mobile, Report