India’s app boom tests advertising’s Google–Meta habit

When it comes to mobile app advertising, India is proving to be a market of paradoxes. A new Moloco research study shows that while user attention has shifted dramatically across millions of mobile apps, marketing spend remains overwhelmingly concentrated with Google and Meta.

Together, the two giants attract 88% of consumer mobile app advertising dollars worldwide. In India—one of the fastest-growing app markets—this imbalance is especially stark, raising questions for advertisers who risk missing out on the next wave of high-value users.

The report, Performance Through Independence: Unlocking Incremental App Growth Beyond Google and Meta, developed with Sensor Tower and Singular, reveals a widening gap between where consumers spend time and where advertisers allocate budgets. It argues that diversification of ad spend can deliver material performance improvements, with some marketers seeing returns on ad spend (ROAS) increase by as much as 214% when they shifted budgets beyond Google and Meta.

The report’s findings are based on anonymised and aggregated data from multiple sources. Moloco provided internal forecasts on global mobile user acquisition spend; Singular conducted a meta-analysis of over $5 billion in ad spend and 2,000 apps, comparing Google and Meta against diversified mixes; and Sensor Tower contributed app usage and audience insights. The research covered markets including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the UK, the US, and Vietnam across 2024.

Results by category and market met minimum thresholds of more than 30 apps and over $50,000 in ad spend or revenue, adding statistical robustness to the conclusions.

A market out of sync

India is at the centre of this global shift. According to the study, time spent on mobile apps has surged across several categories between 2023 and 2024. Entertainment apps alone added 68 billion hours, gaming now accounts for 34% of app time with 11% growth, and generative AI adoption exploded with 669% growth, making it the fastest-growing app category in the country.

Despite this expansion, ad budgets have not kept pace with consumer behaviour. “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.”

The independent app ecosystem—defined as the millions of apps developed and monetised by companies other than Google, Meta and Apple—already reaches more than two billion daily active users, a figure comparable to the combined reach of TikTok and Instagram. Yet, marketers continue to cluster budgets around two platforms.

Rising consumer app economics

Beyond usage, consumer mobile apps are now generating meaningful revenue. In 2024, in-app purchase (IAP) and subscription revenues rose 25% to reach $70.5 billion.

For the first time, consumer app revenues are on track to surpass gaming within the next two years. Categories such as entertainment, finance, delivery, productivity and AI are driving this acceleration, while gaming retains a strong baseline share of user time.

“India is one of the fastest-growing mobile app markets globally, and our data clearly shows a dramatic shift in user behaviour—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.”

Yet, the inertia in spending patterns is difficult to ignore. Despite growth across categories, advertisers continue to direct the bulk of dollars to Google and Meta. The Moloco report characterises this as a structural lag in marketing practice—budgets are slow to follow consumer shifts.

Why Google and Meta still dominate

The explanation for this concentration is both practical and behavioural. For marketers, Google and Meta offer predictable scale, centralised measurement, and streamlined buying processes. The platforms’ sheer reach—combined with entrenched ad tech infrastructures—creates a gravitational pull that keeps advertisers in orbit.

Moreover, for brands under pressure to show quarterly performance, established channels feel like safer bets. The result is what the Moloco study describes as “over-indexing”—a dependence that not only limits potential growth but also exposes advertisers to concentration risks, especially as audience habits fragment across new apps.

“Advertisers tend to equate reach with efficiency,” said an independent agency strategist who reviewed the report. “But reach is now dispersed, and the platforms that guarantee safety and measurability are no longer the only places where meaningful engagement happens.”

Where the growth is shifting

The Moloco research draws a clear distinction between mature and emerging markets. In the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, mobile app usage is plateauing. But in South Africa, India and the Philippines, time spent is rising sharply, reflecting a structural growth trend that advertisers cannot afford to ignore.

In India, the strongest gains are visible in categories beyond traditional social media. Entertainment and gaming dominate, but generative AI apps have emerged as the new frontier. Sports apps, by contrast, saw a decline of 130 million hours, suggesting that consumer attention is being reallocated toward higher-engagement categories.

User sentiment also shows signs of fatigue with legacy platforms. Over half of surveyed users—and nearly two-thirds of 18–34-year-olds—said they wanted to cut back on social media, with attention shifting toward casual gaming, productivity tools, and AI-driven applications.

Returns outside big tech

One of the most striking data points in the report is the performance uplift from diversification. Consumer mobile app marketers who expanded spend beyond Google and Meta achieved up to 214% improvement in ROAS at Day 30. These gains were attributed to broader reach, access to high-value users scattered across independent apps, and incrementality validated by performance modelling.

“Since expanding our channels beyond social partners, we’ve seen an increase in platform bookings that we have been able to validate through incrementality modelling,” said Valerie Castro, acquisition marketing director at Turo, the car rental marketplace app. “We’re excited to push performance further by increasing our creative velocity.”

The implication is that advertisers chasing efficiency may actually be leaving returns on the table by concentrating too heavily on two channels. For marketers in fast-growing markets like India, the incremental upside could be even more significant given the breadth of app adoption.

Independent apps as performance drivers

The independent app ecosystem is not a niche play. According to Sensor Tower data cited in the report, these apps reach over two billion daily active users—on par with global giants. Yet, because the inventory is fragmented across thousands of publishers, it requires a different buying mindset.

For advertisers accustomed to the simplicity of buying through a single platform, diversification means investing in broader discovery, creative testing and channel-specific optimisation. But Moloco argues that this complexity is precisely where performance gains are realised.

“Diverse inventory is key to driving performance. High-value users are scattered across thousands of apps, making broad reach essential for maximising every conversion opportunity,” the report notes.

For senior marketers and agencies, the takeaways are unambiguous. First, consumer attention is fragmenting beyond traditional social platforms, particularly in growth markets like India.

Second, the overreliance on Google and Meta is not aligned with where users spend time, nor where the strongest returns are being recorded. Third, diversifying across independent apps is not simply about risk management but about unlocking incremental growth.

As Shadbolt put it, “The independent app ecosystem is quickly becoming the new engine for predictable and long-term performance.”

A turning point in India

India’s position is particularly significant. With time spent on apps surging across categories and generative AI adoption at record pace, the market represents both the problem and the solution.

On one hand, advertisers are still clustering budgets around Google and Meta, risking inefficiency. On the other, India’s app economy provides ample headroom for diversified strategies to deliver outsize returns.

The Moloco report positions this moment as a potential inflection point. If marketers recalibrate spend to align with consumer behaviour, India could emerge as a testing ground for new models of app advertising—models less dependent on big tech and more reflective of how users actually engage with digital platforms.

For agencies, brand marketers and media planners, the question is less whether Google and Meta remain relevant—they will—but whether a disproportionate dependence is sustainable in a market where user attention is fragmenting and new app categories are scaling rapidly.

India’s mobile app economy is not slowing down. It is diversifying, expanding and reshaping user behaviour at a pace few markets can match. The biggest returns, according to the data, are no longer confined to the duopoly. For advertisers, the challenge is whether they are ready to follow users where they are actually spending their time—or remain locked in a cycle that favours convenience over performance.