Singapore – With more people relying on digital payments during the pandemic, marketers in SEA spent over US$244m on fintech user acquisition and remarketing efforts in 2020, making up about 8% of global marketing spend with US$3b that same year, according to a report by SaaS mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform AppsFlyer.
In the latest report, AppsFlyer noted that there are 2.7 billion app installs in APAC between Q1 2019 and Q1 2021, of 4.7 billion app installs globally. The report also examined 600 million non-organic installs and 1,230 apps across SEA markets including Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The most common app used in SEA is fintech, with about 65% of marketing budgets dedicated to gaining users through non-organic installs (NOI), while out of the US$244 million marketers spent in user acquisition, investment apps were pushed the most aggressively, making up more than 65.5% of NOI in SEA.
Furthermore, the report found that the pandemic led to more users in SEA utilizing loan apps, making up a 58.3% share of NOI in the region. Financial services, meanwhile, ranked last out of all categories with an NOI of 37.3%, owing to the fact that many in SEA switched to using contactless payments due to social distancing measures.
AppsFlyer’s Managing Director and President Ronen Mense said that 2020 was a game-changer, impacting how businesses and consumers interact and operate.
He further shared that the fintech sector has radically adapted to the changing environment and accelerated digital transformation, especially in developing markets where many are unbanked or underbanked.
“As more users shifted to their mobile devices, Financial Institutions followed suit, enabling consumers to function through their devices. Marketers should focus on meeting this increase in demand through remarketing and user acquisition campaigns to be successful among competitors,” said Mense.
AppsFlyer’s report also found that developing markets make up 70% more finance app installs compared to developed markets, which can be attributed to the majority of the population in SEA being either unbanked or underbanked.
According to the 2020 e-Conomy SEA report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, the pandemic forced SEA to rapidly digitize, with over 40 million new users coming online for the first time. This is also why the report found that countries in SEA rank among the top 15 globally by Finance app installs – Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam, which ranked 3, 6, 9, and 13 respectively.
Additionally, the report shows that mobile fraud declined in SEA by 20%. However, fraud is still prevalent in SEA.
