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. 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% year-on-year growth, while AI art generators still expanded at 21%. Notably, 16 generative-AI apps surpassed US$10 million in in-app purchases, and 25 apps broke 10 million downloads — clear evidence that consumers now routinely pay for AI-enhanced utility, creativity, and productivity.
What it means for editors: AI is no longer a novelty; it’s a durable consumer habit. Developers building pragmatic AI features around productivity, finance, PDF/chat, and community are gaining traction. Advertisers are finding conversion-ready audiences at scale through smarter targeting and data-driven campaign optimization.
Short-form drama from APAC goes global
Short-video apps centered on episodic, “short-drama” content have grown at 50–200% quarter-on-quarter since Q3 2023. The monetization model remains overwhelmingly ad-supported (IAA ~90%), with in-app purchases (~10%) driven by subscriptions and token top-ups. Indonesia now leads with a 39% share of downloads, followed by Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, and Japan/Korea — signaling a cross-regional entertainment trend with low customer acquisition cost and broad appeal.
What it means for editors: A new mobile entertainment category born in APAC is now exporting globally, and advertisers are meeting audiences where they binge micro-episodes. Rewarded video entry points such as 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 various Eastern European platforms — are emerging as underpriced inventory pools. Mintegral’s self-serve access and SDK integrations allow performance advertisers to target, optimize, and monetize across these channels without additional permissions, consistently delivering lower CPI and faster scale. Case studies from 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 strategy.
What it means for editors: Marketers no longer need to be “small fish” competing in red-ocean auctions. Third-party stores are expanding reach and stabilizing supply, 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 for paid actions (registrations, D7 retention) and revenue outcomes rather than vanity metrics.
Lean into creative automation: Use dynamic creative optimization, large-scale creative analysis, and playables to iterate quickly across short-drama formats and AI app utilities.
Diversify distribution: Add third-party stores to media plans to unlock cheaper, incremental scale, then whitelist high-performing verticals and sub-channels.
Mintegral scale and solutions
Mintegral is a global platform for user acquisition and monetization, powering more than 100,000 apps and delivering over 300 billion ad requests and 1.2 billion impressions daily. It supports key verticals including gaming, utilities, entertainment, finance, and education, helping developers and advertisers scale efficiently across the evolving app economy.
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