Adjust and Liftoff: Digital Payments Continue Driving Overall FinTech App Session Growth in Japan

New Japan Mobile App Trends 2022 report shows payment app sessions account for nearly 75% of total fintech sessions from 2021 through H1 2022

Adjust, the mobile marketing analytics platform, and Liftoff, a leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, released Japan Mobile App Trends 2022: Essential App Performance Benchmarks and Insights, a deep dive into the performance analytics on mobile gaming, e-commerce, fintech and dating apps, as well as CTV, in Japan. The joint report finds that fintech charted the highest session growth of all app categories during the first half (H1) of 2022, increasing 13% year-over-year (YoY).

As the country moves to a more connected future, Japan has set its sights on being a cashless market with 40% of all transactions going digital by 2025. As a result, payment apps have captured the lion’s share of sessions among fintech sub verticals from 2021 through H1 2022, according to Adjust and Liftoff’s report, accounting for nearly 75% of total fintech sessions, followed by banking (15%) and crypto (12%).

Looking across verticals, sessions for all apps increased by 12% in H1 2022 YoY, and from 2020 through H1 2022, app installs grew nearly 20% for all verticals. Notably, while gaming sessions fell in H1 compared to last year, they are still above early pandemic levels — up 8% compared to H1 2020.

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“Despite significant industry challenges, Japan has shown its resilience as a top market for app users and advertisers.”

“Despite significant challenges to the global app and mobile marketing industry over the past two years, Japan has shown its resilience as a top market for app users and advertisers,” said Naoki Sassa, General Manager Japan at Adjust. “From a huge uptick in mobile payment usage to boosts in gaming and e-commerce sessions, we’re excited to see how these growth patterns continue over the coming months as user habits continue to evolve.”

The report also examines retention rates, cost per install (CPI), and return on ad spend (ROAS) across four key verticals in Japan to provide mobile marketers with actionable insights for this high-growth market. The top takeaways include:

• In H1 2022, June saw the highest volume of fintech app sessions — 30% higher than the 2021 average and 79% higher than 2020. Fintech apps also retain users well in Japan. In H1 2022, Japan had higher retention rates than APAC overall. The median retention rate on day 1 was 17%, 11% on day 7, 9% on day 14, and 7% on day 30.
• Hyper-casual and role-playing gaming apps are the most popular genres. As the third-biggest games market worldwide, Japan saw hyper casual titles account for 15% of total gaming installs between 2020 and H1 2022, while role-playing games (RPGs) came second at 13%. Users played gaming apps for an average session length of 26.5 minutes in H1 2022, exceeding the average session length across all verticals by 15 minutes.
• E-commerce marketplace apps continue to dominate installs. E-commerce performed exceptionally well in Japan over the last two years. From 2020 to H1 2022, marketplace apps saw the majority of installs at 75%, followed by shopping apps at 23%. And January 2022 was the highest charting period, up 8% compared to the 2021 average and up 29% compared to 2020.
• Despite coming with a higher price tag, Android users are more likely to download dating apps than iOS users. Sessions for dating apps grew steadily over the last two years — by 7% and 13% in H1 2021 and H1 2022 YoY, respectively — but so did the cost of acquiring new users. According to Liftoff, CPIs for dating apps rose in the winter and hit a high of $6.60 per install in February 2022, with iOS users costing slightly less per install and Android users converting more easily with an $8.47 price tag.
• CTV is the next frontier for app marketers. Japan is rapidly becoming one of the major markets with 21% of its population using CTV, and is predicted to reach 23.2% by 2025. With mobile penetration in Japan surging, CTV campaigns are set to become a fixture in app marketers’ user acquisition strategies as they hope to capture a piece of the forecasted ¥58.8 billion in CTV ad spend by 2024.

“To properly measure CTV campaign performance, marketers must go beyond last-touch attribution to look at the assisting touchpoints — CTV ads that are served before users convert via other channels,” Sassa added, ” which is possible through comprehensive cross-device measurement solutions like Adjust’s CTV  AdVision. To illustrate the assisting power of CTV, Adjust data shows that 223.8 million mobile app installs were generated directly through CTV ads globally in Sept. 2022, compared to 670 million mobile app installs being assisted by CTV ads through the same time period.”

“Now is the time to consider what’s next for mobile marketing to accelerate the growth of your apps,” said Kota Amano, Senior Country Manager Japan & Korea at Liftoff.  “At the same time, marketers need to know how to acquire engaged users post-install.”

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