New Delhi: Moloco, the AI performance advertising company, has released new research highlighting India’s rapid rise as a global driver of mobile app advertising and consumer engagement. The study, Performance Through Independence: Unlocking Incremental App Growth Beyond Google and Meta, uncovers a significant gap between where advertisers are spending and where consumers are actually spending their time.
The research, developed with Sensor Tower and Singular, reveals that while Google and Meta capture 88% of mobile app ad dollars, diversifying beyond these platforms yields up to 214% higher financial return (ROAS by Day 30).
“India is one of the fastest-growing mobile app markets globally, and our data clearly shows a dramatic shift in user behavior—particularly the explosive rise of generative AI usage and the continued strength of gaming,” said Siddharth Jhawar, Country Manager, Moloco India. “For advertisers, this means real opportunities lie in looking beyond big tech platforms and diversifying strategies to reach high-value users across new and emerging app categories.”
The study reveals striking trends in India’s app usage:
- +68 billion hours spent in entertainment apps (2023–2024).
- Gaming drives 34% of app time, with +11% YoY growth.
- Generative AI adoption surged +669%, making it the fastest-growing category.
- Sports app usage dipped slightly (-130M hours), indicating a shift toward higher-engagement categories like gaming and AI.
“Too many advertisers are still over-indexing on Google and Meta. But the biggest returns we are seeing are happening outside big tech,” said Tom Shadbolt, Senior Insights Manager, Moloco. “The independent app ecosystem is quickly becoming the new engine for predictable and long-term performance. This research is a wake-up call for mobile app marketers.”
Globally, the report shows consumer mobile app revenues (excluding gaming) grew 25% in 2024 to reach $70.5 billion, with categories such as entertainment, finance, and delivery driving momentum. For the first time, consumer app revenue is projected to surpass gaming within two years.
The findings also emphasize:
- Independent apps rival TikTok and Instagram combined in reach, serving over 2 billion daily active users (DAUs).
- High-value users are scattered across thousands of apps, requiring a broader inventory to maximize conversions.
- Advertisers who diversified beyond big tech platforms validated performance gains through incrementality modeling.
“Since expanding our channels beyond social partners, we’ve seen an increase in platform bookings that we have been able to validate through incrementality modeling,” said Valerie Castro, Acquisition Marketing Director at Turo. “We’re excited to push performance further by increasing our creative velocity.”
With India leading the charge in generative AI adoption, gaming, and entertainment engagement, Moloco’s research underscores the need for advertisers to rebalance their ad mix and harness opportunities in the independent app ecosystem to drive sustainable growth.
