APAC – Consumers in six markets across three regions now spend more than five hours each day in apps for Q3 2023 with APAC leading the way, according to the report by mobile analytics provider data.ai.
Data from the report indicates that globally, Indonesia surpassed the five-hours-per-day threshold the most in Q3 2023 with more than 6 hours per day, followed by Thailand with 5.7 hours and India making top 5 with 5.2 hours.
Additionally, Singapore holds firm in the top 10 countries with a 10% growth in usage from Q2 2023 with 4.7 hours spent, adding to how daily time spent on mobile apps has climbed double-digit percentage points across several markets in APAC.
The report also focused on the emergence of Threads, which was launched by Meta at the start of Q3, which skyrocketed up the charts and reached 150 million downloads faster than any other app in history. For APAC, Singapore saw Threads as the top app in terms of downloads and download growth for the quarter, but it remains to be seen if it can sustain its position at the top in Q4 2023.
Furthermore, Threads was also regarded by the report as the number one breakout app in terms of downloads for Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand.
Lastly, in terms of consumer spend in APAC, the top breakout apps by consumer spend growth vary in different markets, but the focus for Q3 2023 centres around social media apps such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, accompanied by new trends such as AI photo editing apps and generative AI apps.
Tag: platform
Singapore – German premium home services brand Helpling has announced the expansion of its services to become a one-stop home care and services solution with the launch of their super app.
Through the super app, Helpling broadens their line-up of services to include elderly care and childminding services, in tandem with new home maintenance services like home organising, handyman and plumbing services.
Soft-launched, this platform also offers childminding care to families who seek occasional childcare support on an ad hoc basis for just a few hours each day or week, with the on-demand service starts at just SGD$25 per hour. Babysitters on the platform can assist in expert household management like meal preparation, errands and administrative tasks alongside professional home cleaning while minding the children.
Both new services are built onto Helpling’s booking system. Upon signing up for the service, Helpling’s algorithm will match users with reliable, skilled and trained providers. Among the recently added services, Helpling’s suite of services includes home cleaning, along with appliance and air conditioning maintenance services.
The new Home Services Super App embodies Helpling’s commitment to providing a holistic platform for busy professionals to effortlessly find the home services they require.
James Lim, CEO of Helpling Asia-Pacific, said, “This expansion aims to elevate our portfolio, catering to the diverse needs of busy households. The launch of caregiving services is notably in line with the government’s push to boost accessibility to full and part-time help for families. Our venture into companionship care also seeks to create greater access to solutions amid Singapore’s rising elderly population.”
“We are the top choice for busy Singaporeans who do not want to compromise on the standard of service. Each provider undergoes meticulous screening conducted by professional trainers and is continuously evaluated through performance reviews and training sessions. From there, Helpling’s care consultant will work with customers to personalise and tailor each service, depending on their needs”, he added.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – E-commerce technology company iPrice has announced the launch of iPrice.au, providing Australian consumers with the same proprietary online shopping experience it’s been offering Asian shoppers for the past 8 years.
With the launch of iPrice.au, iPrice stands apart in the Australian market with its unique ability to compare and curate offers at the same scale it employs in Southeast Asia, a region where it continues to help over 130 million shoppers each year to save money online.
The new iprice.au website builds on past successes with a blended approach, adding human curation on top of its proven technology platform. With large teams of category experts constantly reviewing the catalogue, they are able to quickly intervene where offers might be too-good-to-be-true. This method ensures that Price users see the best offers available at the time of their search.
The Australian launch of iPrice.au marks the first significant expansion beyond Southeast Asia, setting the stage for future growth in the region, responding to a growing demand to streamline the online shopping experience for Australian consumers by offering a more effective way to save money.
Talking about the expansion, Karl Loo, SVP of business development & internationalisation at iPrice, said, “As inflationary pressures make shoppers more cautious about spending, we are pleased to provide the convenience of Southeast Asia’s largest price comparison platform to Australia, to help Australians get more bang for their buck when shopping online.”
Meanwhile, Heinrich Wendel, co-founder and CEO of iPrice, commented, “Our mission has always been to help consumers save money, it’s great to see how our technology developed for hundreds of millions of consumers in SEA has the potential to carry forward to new markets like Australia.”
Singapore – InMobi, a global provider of content monetisation and marketing technologies, has announced the acquisition of Quantcast Choice, a consent management platform (CMP) designed to help publishers seamlessly align with the rapidly changing global privacy regulations.
This strategic acquisition reinforces InMobi’s commitment to bolstering its privacy management platform for mobile app and web publishers, encouraging them to navigate the dynamic and intricate privacy landscape.
In a time where a proven CMP often results in lost opportunities for publishers, Quantcast Choice is said to support more than 500 Google-Certified, 800 IAB-approved vendors, and non-certified vendors specific to publishers’ needs, helping publishers increase monetisation, higher fill rates, and sometimes up to a 35% boost in eCPMs in certain regions.
As part of the acquisition, InMobi will uphold the platform’s free availability for existing customers and remains committed to extending this promise to both existing and new customers.
Speaking on the acquisition, Kunal Nagpal, chief business officer at Inmobi Advertising, said, “Quantcast Choice is a gold standard for thousands of Web publishers; we are excited to build and extend its benefits to the 40,000 mobile apps that currently work with InMobi. This acquisition allows us to bring the power of a proven world-class CMP into the in-app ecosystem where the challenges remain enormous and unresolved.”
Meanwhile, Peter Day, chief technology officer at Quantcast, commented, “InMobi understands the needs of publishers and we’re delighted that this market leading CMP will continue to be available as a free solution. We remain committed to our customers and have formed a close partnership with InMobi to ensure a seamless transition.”
Sydney, Australia – Data collaboration platform LiveRamp has announced an expanded partnership with visual inspiration platform Pinterest, to offer a better global integration for advertisers to reach their audiences on Pinterest’s platform globally.
Through the partnership, marketers will be able to reach their customers on Pinterest with seamless activation on RampID, LiveRamp’s pseudonymous, people-based identifier.
The partnership between LiveRamp and Pinterest will now span APAC markets of Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Marketers in the region will now be able to easily activate Pinterest as a destination via LiveRamp.
The expansion aims to improve measurement and analytics for advertisers and create more opportunities for brands to derive value from first-party data within the APAC region. At a time when ROI matters more than ever, APAC marketers can benefit from the performance and access to insights enabled by this partnership.
“We’re excited to continue building on the momentum of our privacy-centric data collaboration with LiveRamp. We’re now enabling even more marketers around the world to activate on Pinterest without compromising on control or privacy,” said Bill Watkins, chief revenue officer at Pinterest. “Global marketers can build better campaigns with LiveRamp and Pinterest today. They can also build campaigns with the confidence that this partnership is sustainable beyond third-party cookie deprecation and other ecosystem shifts.”
“In this evolving macroeconomic climate, every dollar marketers spend must be addressable and measurable, and we’re excited to offer marketers across the world the ability to seamlessly leverage RampID, enabling better campaigns,” said Travis Clinger, SVP, activations & addressability, LiveRamp. “By building on identity that can power better data collaboration in the future, marketers can begin building enduring brand and business value.”
Switzerland – CHRONEXT, a luxury watch platform, has enlisted the services of content management system provider Storyblok to help enhance customer experience by developing an iOS mobile app that allows their marketers and developers to construct customised user journeys.
Realising that their content system was purely web-based, CHRONEXT decided to use Storyblok and was able to build their mobile app prototype in just 7 weeks. Since its launch, app session times have tripled from 2 minutes on their website to 5 minutes on their mobile application.
Other aspects that influenced CHRONEXT’s decision to choose StoryBlok included the fact that it is a headless CMS that allows them to provide omni channel user experiences, the ease of use for developers and marketers with comprehensive user management tools, and the ability to serve as a centralised hub for all content.
Speaking on the developments, Emanuel Schleussinger, CTO at CHRONEXT, said, “Storyblok opened possibilities for our marketing team to easily update product pages, create new campaigns and promotions for different markets, and engage with our customers.”
Cameron Crosby, team lead of website & digital innovation at CHRONEXT, also added, “With Storyblok, content teams can simply drag, drop, and update specific component pieces that make up a product detail page in our application within seconds, without having to redeploy the application to the App Store. Changes are reflected on user’s screens instantly without disrupting their purchase session.”
Meanwhile, Dominik Angerer, co-founder and CEO of Storyblok, commented, “CHRONEXT is a great example of a brand that understands the omnichannel benefits and possibilities of a headless CMS and uses that knowledge to build better customer experiences. They now have a centralised content hub that can grow with them as they expand.”
Singapore – Fintech and e-commerce ecosystem Society Pass, has announced a strategic payments partnership with Singaporean global full-suite payments platform 2C2P to enhance the e-commerce experience in SEA.
Through this partnership, Society Pass’s loyalty application would be able to offer 2C2P’s selection of alternative payment options to customers based in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Rokas Sidlauskas, chief marketing officer of Society Pass, shared their excitement to announce the partnership with 2C2P as it enables them to offer more flexible and convenient methods to pay for goods and services within their ecosystem.
“By integrating leading Southeast Asia digital e-wallets such as AliPay, Touch n’ Go, Momo or GCash just to name a few into our ecosystem, Society Pass enables millions of customers to access our platforms, ranging from travel, to e-commerce, to telecoms, and to digital advertising. This is especially important considering that we operate in Southeast Asian markets, where unfortunately, over 75% of people are unbanked and do not possess debit or credit cards,” he added.
Meanwhile, Rachelle Alexis Lim, executive director of 2C2P, said, “As we embark on this strategic partnership with Society Pass, we look forward to enhancing the payments experience of SOPA’s consumers across SEA. This collaboration with SoPa aligns perfectly with our mission to drive e-commerce growth in the region and globally, revolutionising how people transact and unlocking the potential of the digital economy for all.”
Vietnam – Channel Factory, a global brand platform for YouTube, is strengthening its presence in the APAC region, with the opening of a dedicated office in Vietnam. Said expansion show’s the company’s dedication to strengthening their commercial strategy and making expenditures in the area.
The newly established office in Vietnam will be managed by country manager Khanh Ngo, whose responsibility is to serve media agencies and direct brand clients by providing targeting, brand appropriateness tactics, and campaign optimization solutions.
Ngo, who has a decade of experience collaborating with media agencies across the APAC region, leads the team alongside Hoang Luong as sales manager, Van Tran as client partner, and Duyen Thao as account manager.
Speaking about the newly established office in Vietnam, Khanh Ngo, country manager of Channel Factory, expressed, “I’m thrilled to play a pivotal role in setting the foundation for Channel Factory in Vietnam. With an already distinguished roster of global clients, the opportunity to deliver localised brand suitability strategies directly to agencies and brands allows us to deepen our existing partnerships and, over time, expand our esteemed client portfolio even further.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Wong, VP, APAC of Channel Factory, commented on the launch, “Local market experience and support is imperative for what we do for our clients. The establishment of our office in Vietnam serves as a vital step in solidifying our position, providing us with a distinct competitive advantage in the region.”
He added, “We are incredibly fortunate to have already cultivated extensive expertise in the area through our teams in Australia, Singapore, India, and the Philippines, and view the Vietnam office as a natural progression in this ongoing evolution.”
Wong also expressed, “This is an exciting time for Channel Factory as we continue to expand across markets and support our clients with contextual and suitability solutions that protect brand reputation and ensure businesses are adhering to the recent changes to government regulations around misleading and unethical advertising practices.”
Long Pham, managing director of Dentsu iProspect Vietnam, remarked on the expansion, “We are excited about Channel Factory’s expansion into Vietnam, as we believe it will greatly enhance our ability to deliver exceptional brand suitability and contextual targeting strategies to our clients in the region.”
“Our partnership with Channel Factory, not only represents our commitment to stay at the forefront of industry innovation and provide our clients with the best solutions for their advertising needs, but also maximise ROI in this dynamic market,” Pham said.
California – Global adtech company PubMatic has announced the launch of ‘Convert’, a unified self-service advertising platform for commerce media which allows commerce media networks to have a unified single self-service platform for transactions.
Built on PubMatic’s global cloud infrastructure, Convert empowers commerce media networks with a single, self-service platform that streamlines the complex and fragmented commerce media marketplace by bringing together essential monetization and optimization capabilities across sponsored listings, CTV, video, and display ad formats.
Convert also aims to ensure transparency in fee and pricing structures along with automation and scalability for commerce media networks and advertisers.
Industry brands, retailers, and advertisers such as IPG Mediabrands, dentsu, Lyft Media, MiQ, and Wallapop have joined PubMatic as initial partners in the development and announcement of Convert.
The new platform complements PubMatic’s existing commerce media capabilities offered via Connect, the omnichannel addressability solution launched in 2022 that enables data access and control on the sell-side, closer to the consumer.
Peter Barry, VP of addressability & commerce media at PubMatic, said, “Data access, monetization, and control are critical for commerce media networks and their advertisers, and PubMatic has a strong history of leadership and innovation in these areas. By making substantial investments in developing customised technology with Convert, we are confident in our ability to continue to drive increased value for our customers.”
Singapore – Global partnership management platform impact.com has announced the launch of ‘impact.com / creator’, a unified influencer marketing platform that allows advertisers to discover, create, manage and scale full-funnel influencer marketing programs from a single interface.
Said platform brings creators and brands together in a single platform to discover new partnerships, contract, manage, pay and optimise those partnerships based on comprehensive performance insights.
Moreover, the technology provides a marketplace for brands to find new partners based on filters such as geographical location, social platform, follower size, vertical, and soon, AI-based recommendations and more. The two-sided nature of the platform also allows creators to seek out brand collaborations.
This empowers brands and creators to collaborate efficiently and view performance in one platform. Now everyone, from CMOs and VPs to managers and coordinators, can understand the incremental awareness and revenue that their partnerships are driving.
Brands can also diversify their partner mix and compensate them with a variety of models, from CPA and commission to flat fees or combinations of both.
David A. Yovanno, CEO at impact.com, said, “We recognise that marketers require innovative technology to stay ahead of developments within the fast-paced creator economy, which is why we’ve created an industry-first creator partnerships management platform.
He added, “Creators are a critical and expanding part of our industry, and with impact.com / creator, we are enabling clients not only to scale these partnerships, which is notoriously difficult, but also to help establish longer-term relationships. But first, brands must know what’s working, and tracking and performance insights are where impact.com has been leading the market for some time.”