Chinese mobile advertising platforms increase global presence amid challenges

As an increasing number of Chinese companies intensify their push to explore the overseas markets, Chinese mobile advertising platforms are also gaining larger global share, according to a latest report by AppsFlyer, an Israeli mobile marketing analytics company.

"During recent years, Chinese advertising platforms such as Mintegral, Shareit, Transsion, Xiaomi, and Vivo continue to increase their market share at a relatively high speed," said Wang Wei, general manager of AppsFlyer Greater China.

According to the report, Mintegral — Guangzhou, Guangdong province-based mobile ad platform specializing in the gaming sector — ranked third place in both Android and iOS systems' app retention index worldwide, closely following global mobile marketing giants such as Google Ads and Meta Ads. The index indicates the percentage of users who continue engaging with an app over time, and the improvement in such ranking shows Chinese companies' potential to further enlarge global user scale and catch up with their US-based counterparts who have ruled the industry for years, Wang said.

"With more Chinese companies aiming to reinforce their global presence, I believe Chinese mobile advertising platforms will further pick up pace going forward and grab an even bigger global share in the near future."

Chinese mobile advertising platforms' progress came as the global advertising industry faces a string of challenges.

Companies' mobile advertising budgets in the second quarter of this year have seen a rare average drop of 12 percent compared with the first quarter, with 14 out of the top 20 mobile advertising platforms witnessing budget cuts from clients in the second quarter, according to AppsFlyer.

By analyzing a total of 500 advertising platforms, 19,000 apps and more than 27 billion app installs, the report provides an outlook on the performance of top media platforms in mobile advertising worldwide during the second quarter.

"Almost all advertising platforms have seen a budget decrease from customers in the second quarter, including leading media sources such as Google Ads and Meta Ads," said Wang, adding that the mobile marketing sector is likely experiencing a bearish trend while the world is facing multiple overlapping challenges like fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, military conflict, inflation, and economic downturns.

"Despite challenges, new opportunities have shown up for tier-2 and tier-3 advertising platforms, who are expected to maintain their growth momentum even faster than before," Wang said.