Asia isn’t mobile-first, it’s post-mobile, says report by adtech startup Appier

Photo credit: Luke Wroblewski.

Asia lives in a post-mobile world, according to a report by Taiwan-based adtech and artificial intelligence (AI) startup Appier. The company has just released its Cross Screen User Behavior Report for the second half of 2015, and its findings are very revealing as far as advertisers are concerned.

A lot is said these days about Asia being primarily a mobile market, or a mobile-first market, but the truth is more complicated, Appier chief marketing officer Caroline Hsu tells Tech in Asia. What’s actually happening, according to research the company has conducted, is that people use a variety of devices ranging from their personal computers to their phones and tablets, just in a different way and at different times in the day, or days in the week.

It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? And it is, although it’s the details that matter.

Cross-country

The report was compiled by analyzing ad campaigns that Appier ran across 11 countries in Asia-Pacific: Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

There’s billions of devices in Asia – how can you even begin to understand that three or four devices share a common owner?

“We analyzed over 850 billion real campaign data points (ad requests, impressions, clicks, and conversions), drawing insights and conclusions from actual aggregated user behavior observed over the second half of 2015,” Caroline says.

Appier uses AI to be able to monitor user behavior and determine things like which devices are used by the same person. “This is a really big challenge for marketers,” Caroline says. “There’s billions of devices in Asia – how can you even begin to understand that three or four devices share a common owner? And how do you scale that across Asia-Pacific? This is where we believe AI comes in.”

Able to recognize patterns and process huge amounts of data, AI can help Appier produce these insights without needing identifiable data and compromising user privacy.

Don’t count the PC out yet

The report found that more and more people around Asia have access to and use three devices or more. The trend includes countries where it’s more or less the norm, with 78 percent of people using three devices or more in Australia, 77 percent in Taiwan, 74 percent in the Philippines, 70 percent in South Korea, 69 percent in Singapore, and 66 percent in Japan.

Other countries are catching on, with 44 percent in Indonesia, 43 percent in Vietnam, and 42 percent in India.

The dominant device in terms of usage is the smartphone, and that, of course, is where the notion of Asia as a mobile-first region comes from. For every active PC on a weekday, there are about 6.8 reachable phones, and 7.8 during weekends, according to the report. For every active tablet, there are 17.2 phones, and 16 during weekends.

Photo credit: Blake Patterson.

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