Gaming leads revenue but non-gaming verticals emerge as fastest-growing segment in mobile monetisation: Khai Le, Mintegral

Medianews4u.com caught up with Khai Le Senior Director of Business Development Mintegral. It is a global mobile advertising platform. With deep expertise across emerging markets like Vietnam, India, and Pakistan, he helps global app developers design and execute effective user acquisition and monetization strategies.

Since joining Mintegral, Khai has played a key role in expanding the company’s presence across APAC and strengthening strategic partnerships. His strong market knowledge and data-driven approach continue to drive meaningful growth for Mintegral’s partners.

Q. Could you shed light on the transformation that the APAC mobile advertising market is undergoing through privacy regulations and AI?

From my perspective, the APAC mobile advertising ecosystem is going through a structural shift. Privacy regulations and platform-level policies have pushed the industry to rethink how we measure performance and reach users responsibly. At the same time, AI has become the engine that enables this transition. Instead of relying on granular user-level identifiers, advertisers are increasingly using predictive models and aggregated signals to understand user behaviour. These models can analyse large volumes of contextual and behavioural signals to forecast engagement and conversion outcomes.

At Mintegral, we have been investing heavily in AI-driven infrastructure to support this transition. Our programmatic platform processes more than 200 billion ad requests daily and leverages machine learning models with billions of parameters to optimise ad delivery, bidding strategies, and creative recommendations in real time.

In my view, the combination of stronger privacy frameworks and more sophisticated AI will ultimately create a healthier digital ecosystem—one where advertisers can still achieve measurable outcomes while maintaining a stronger focus on user trust and data protection.

Q. What opportunities does this provide Mintegral as advertisers seek new ways to reach high-value users beyond walled gardens?
As privacy changes reshape the mobile ecosystem, many advertisers are realizing that relying on a few dominant platforms alone is no longer enough. This is where the open internet becomes extremely important.

The open app ecosystem consists of millions of independent apps and networks that collectively offer diverse audiences and high levels of engagement. With the right programmatic technology and machine learning models, advertisers can analyze data signals in real time and make automated decisions around targeting, bidding, and creative delivery. At Mintegral, our platform connects advertisers with over one million apps and reaches more than 2.2 billion daily active users globally, giving brands access to premium mobile audiences at scale.

What excites me most is that this environment allows advertisers to experiment with formats such as playable ads, interactive videos, and performance-driven creatives. These formats often deliver significantly higher engagement and conversion rates compared to traditional display ads.

For many brands today, the open internet is becoming an essential complement to walled gardens, enabling diversified growth and long-term user acquisition strategies.

Q. Mintegral contributes 95.9% of Mobvista’s AdTech revenue and remains the primary growth engine. Will this very high contribution percentage remain in 2026 or is any change expected?

Mintegral has grown into the core pillar of Mobvista’s AdTech business because mobile programmatic advertising continues to expand rapidly worldwide. What we’re seeing across the industry is that advertisers increasingly want platforms that can support the entire lifecycle of mobile growth—from user acquisition and re-engagement to monetisation. Mintegral’s full-stack programmatic capabilities allow us to serve both advertisers and developers at scale.

At the same time, Mobvista is building a broader technology ecosystem that includes analytics, attribution, and campaign optimisation platforms such as SolarEngine. These complementary tools help developers gain deeper insights into user behaviour and marketing performance. So while Mintegral will continue to be a major growth driver in the near future, I expect the broader ecosystem of technologies around it to become increasingly important as advertisers look for integrated growth solutions.

Q. How important are Vietnam, India, and Indonesia in terms of mobile growth? What goals have been set in 2026 for these markets?

Vietnam, India, and Indonesia are among the most dynamic mobile markets in APAC, and they are extremely important for our long-term growth strategy. India in particular stands out because of the rapid expansion of its mobile developer ecosystem. Recent industry data shows that India now has more than 900 native gaming companies, almost double the number recorded just a year earlier. Meanwhile, markets like Vietnam are also seeing rapid growth in local app development, with more than 24,600 locally launched apps as of early 2025.

For Mintegral, these markets are important not just because of user scale but also because they are becoming innovation hubs for mobile apps. Our goal in 2026 is to deepen partnerships with local developers, provide AI-powered tools that help them compete globally, and expand opportunities for advertisers to reach these highly engaged audiences.
Q. How much R&D does Mintegral do to help app developers and brands with user acquisition and monetisation services?

R&D is absolutely central to our business. Mobile advertising today is driven by data science, machine learning, and infrastructure that can operate at an enormous scale.

Our platform processes hundreds of billions of ad requests every day, and the optimization behind those campaigns is powered by large-scale machine learning models designed to predict metrics such as click-through rates, conversion probabilities, and user lifetime value. These capabilities allow advertisers to run campaigns that are highly targeted and cost efficient. For developers, it means they can monetize their apps more effectively and acquire users who are more likely to stay engaged over the long term. In my view, continuous investment in technology and AI is what enables platforms like ours to deliver consistent performance in an increasingly competitive mobile ecosystem.

Q. What are the similarities and differences between India and other APAC markets in terms of the surge in app adoption and developer ecosystems?

India shares many similarities with other fast-growing APAC markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam. These markets are mobile-first, have young digital-native populations, and show strong engagement across gaming and entertainment apps. However, India stands out for its scale. The sheer volume of installs and daily app usage creates significant opportunities for both developers and advertisers.

Another defining feature of India is the diversity of its audience. Successful campaigns often require localised creatives that reflect regional languages, cultural preferences, and entertainment trends. In our experience, campaigns that integrate culturally relevant narratives often achieve significantly stronger engagement. This combination of scale, diversity, and developer innovation makes India one of the most exciting mobile markets globally.

Q. While gaming still represents the majority of app revenue, what trends are expected in 2026 in non-gaming verticals?

Gaming continues to dominate mobile monetisation, but the fastest growth we’re seeing now is actually coming from non-gaming categories. Verticals such as e-commerce, entertainment, utilities, and business & finance apps are becoming major drivers of in-app advertising demand. In fact, monetization data from Mintegral shows that e-commerce apps in APAC can generate eCPMs more than five times higher than those in Europe, reflecting the region’s massive online shopping ecosystem.

We’re also seeing strong monetization performance in entertainment and financial apps, particularly on iOS where some categories can generate significantly higher ad yields compared to non-gaming benchmarks. Looking ahead to 2026, I expect advertisers to continue expanding budgets into these non-gaming verticals as mobile services become more integrated into everyday consumer behaviour.

Q. What trends are expected in 2026 in terms of Indian advertisers using programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising has become the default model for mobile marketing because it offers efficiency, transparency, and measurable results. In India, we’re seeing more advertisers adopt programmatic solutions to manage campaigns across multiple apps and platforms simultaneously. This allows them to scale campaigns quickly while maintaining strong control over performance metrics such as cost per install, engagement rates, and return on ad spend.

The next stage of growth will likely come from AI-driven automation. More advertisers are moving toward outcome-based bidding models that optimise campaigns around real business goals rather than just installs.

Q. How are machine learning models and predictive bidding helping advertisers achieve smarter, ROI-focused user acquisition?

Machine learning has fundamentally changed how advertisers approach user acquisition. Rather than focusing purely on installs, advertisers today want users who will remain engaged and generate long-term value. Predictive models analyse large sets of behavioural signals to estimate metrics such as conversion probability and user lifetime value.

At Mintegral, smart bidding solutions such as Target ROAS and Target CPE automatically adjust bids using optimized CPI models to achieve specific performance goals, helping advertisers acquire higher-quality users while maintaining cost efficiency. This shift toward predictive optimisation is helping brands move from volume-based growth to more sustainable, ROI-driven strategies.

Q. Why are developers shifting from single-mode monetisation to hybrid models combining IAP and IAA?

The biggest reason developers are moving toward hybrid monetization is sustainability.

Relying solely on in-app purchases or advertising limits the potential revenue stream. By combining in-app advertising (IAA) and in-app purchases (IAP), developers can capture value from a broader spectrum of users.

Casual users may prefer free experiences supported by advertising, while highly engaged users are more likely to spend on in-app purchases. Hybrid monetization allows developers to serve both segments while maximizing overall lifetime value. In our experience, this model also helps maintain better user retention because it offers more flexibility in how users interact with the app.

Q. How can developers diversify away from walled gardens and leverage open internet inventory for sustained growth?

The open internet is becoming an increasingly important growth channel for mobile developers. Unlike closed ecosystems, the open web provides access to a vast network of independent apps and audiences. With the right programmatic technology, developers can run campaigns across thousands of apps while optimizing targeting and bidding in real time.

Mintegral helps developers tap into this opportunity by connecting them to over one million apps globally and billions of active users, while offering tools that optimize campaigns for outcomes such as CPI, engagement, or return on ad spend. Diversifying acquisition channels in this way helps developers build more resilient and scalable growth strategies.

Q. Are geopolitical tensions in the Middle East a challenge for the industry in 2026?

Geopolitical developments can sometimes create short-term uncertainty in global markets, but historically the mobile advertising industry has been quite resilient. Performance marketing remains attractive for advertisers because it provides measurable outcomes and allows budgets to be adjusted quickly depending on market conditions.

From what I’ve observed, innovation in the mobile ecosystem continues at a strong pace across many regions, and developers and advertisers remain focused on growth opportunities. While global developments are always something we monitor, the underlying demand for mobile apps and digital services continues to expand.