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APAC’s app developers have gone from strength to strength in recent years, challenging past records and conventional ways of thinking.
For one thing, they’ve grown paid downloads in the region by 22% and achieved install rates that more than doubled the global average since 2017.
They’re also redefining what it means to drive innovation in the world of mobile apps by bucking industry norms around monetisation and finding new ways to create business impact.
Here are three ways app companies — featured in Google’s APAC App Summit Hall of Fame 2024 — push the limits of innovation to drive growth.
1. Daring to reimagine app business models
Fintech apps do not typically run ads on their platforms. They pass up on that revenue stream, concerned that in-app ads might weaken the user experience.
Korean app developer Viva Republica, however, decided to challenge that norm and make mobile app monetisation a win for both its business and customers.
It introduced native and interstitial ads on its payment services app, Toss, and took care to integrate the ads seamlessly so that the user experience is not compromised.
That strategic move towards user-friendly ad monetisation led Viva Republica to achieve a 2.96X growth in ad revenue within a year and its first quarterly profit since it was founded.
It also set a benchmark for fintech apps, showing that in-app ads can be both user-friendly and a powerful lever to boost app growth.
2. Making experimentation a priority
It’s common knowledge that experiments can help businesses drive optimal results. But app developers who go a step further and make experimentation a priority are staying ahead of the curve.
By championing continuous experimentation, they always have fresh insights from ongoing tests to improve user satisfaction and app revenue. That’s true of Japan’s app developer New Story.
Known for pushing the boundaries of in-app advertising strategies in Japan, New Story did not hesitate to partner Google in a closed-beta test. The experiment was for a new form of immersive in-game ads where the ad display blends naturally into the game environment.
App developer New Story partnered Google in a closed-beta test to incorporate immersive in-game ads to the load-screen of its hidden object game, Happy Find.
New Story ran the experiment with its popular hidden object game, Happy Find. Over the course of the experiment in 2024, it notched a 10% boost in AdMob revenue and an overall 1% uplift in mobile user lifetime value.
It was also one of the first Google Admob partners to successfully incorporate immersive in-game ads into its load-screen. That achievement was featured as an app case study at the 2024 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
3. Expanding business impact
Leading app developers in APAC are also pushing innovation by expanding the definition of business impact. Instead of limiting it to revenue and profits, they’re making social impact a critical part of the results they drive too, and that’s yielding pay-offs.
Take for example the Pakistan-based mobile game studio, Game District. By building a workforce that represents its myriad customers, including women, it’s able to unlock the full business potential of a diversely creative team that understands its users.
Indeed, while women make up fewer than 20% of the IT sector in Pakistan, more than half of Game District’s core leadership are women, including its heads of departments. Its trainee programme for 2D and 3D artists has also nurtured 14 women talents since the programme’s launch in late-2023, and they have joined the company.
Another app company that’s driving business impact with a broader remit is Qtonz Infosoft. Its founder, Piyush Kasundra, chose to set up business in Rajkot, a city better-known for traditional handicrafts, to create IT jobs in the community.
That pioneering move grew the company from just three members in 2013 to over 200 employees today, of which 35% are women. Its practice of hiring locally has cultivated high employee retention and a strong commitment among staff to accelerate business growth.
From reimagining app business models to prioritising experimentation, app developers in APAC are proving that some industry norms are better challenged than followed. By taking the path less travelled, they’re bringing their app innovations to the next level — and so can you.
Contributors: Sheena Ong, Product Marketing Manager; Adele Zucchi, Strategic Partnerships Marketing Communications Strategist; Ajay Luther, Strategic Partnerships Development Manager; Frederica Sim, Partner Manager
