Singapore – Southeast Asia has emerged as the world’s fastest-growing region for e-commerce app installs, according to a new record from the Shopping App Insights Report: 2026 Edition by the mobile measurement and analytics firm Adjust.
The report found that Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia all rank among the strongest markets globally for shopping app growth.
Globally, shopping app sessions climbed 15% year-over-year in the first half of 2026. E-commerce app installs, meanwhile, rose a more modest 2% worldwide. Southeast Asia, however, grew far faster than that global average across nearly every market in the bloc.
The report benchmarks installs, engagement, retention, and acquisition costs across shopping, marketplace and classifieds, and deal discovery apps. Its findings are drawn from thousands of apps and span global, APAC, Europe, LATAM, MENA, and North America regions, covering data from January 2024 through June 2026.
Singapore led the region, and the world, with installed growth of 67% YoY, the highest of any market tracked in the study. Vietnam followed at 42%, then Indonesia at 36%, the Philippines at 16%, and Malaysia at 14%, giving the region five of the strongest install growth stories worldwide.
Session growth reinforced the trend. Indonesia and Singapore recorded the strongest session growth of any market in the report, up 62% and 58% YoY respectively, underscoring how deeply shoppers across the region are engaging with these apps.
Paid acquisition is playing a bigger role across the region’s growth, though the pattern varies by country. Malaysia’s paid-to-organic install ratio topped every market tracked worldwide, reaching 1.11 in H1 2026, the highest reliance on paid acquisition in the dataset. That mirrors a wider global shift, with the worldwide paid/organic ratio reaching 0.72, up 26% from 2025.
Elsewhere in the region, the trend moved in the opposite direction. Vietnam’s ratio fell 54% YoY to 0.89, nearly halving its reliance on paid installs from 1.92 in 2025, while the Philippines eased 34% to 0.73, suggesting organic momentum is building in some Southeast Asian markets even as others lean harder into paid spend.
The region also stood out on engagement and retention. Singapore posted day-one retention of 16% and 1.45 sessions per user on install day, trailing only Japan among all markets tracked worldwide, with 17% and 1.51 sessions per user respectively.
Several Southeast Asian markets, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore, also reduced the number of ad partners they worked with in H1 2026. According to Adjust, this points to marketers across the region concentrating spend on the channels already delivering results, a sign of a maturing, more disciplined approach to growth.
Commenting on the findings, April Tayson, Regional Vice President, INSEA, Adjust, said, “E-commerce apps had a strong first half of 2026 with major shopping events continuing to grow in scale. However, user acquisition is becoming more costly and paid installs are driving a larger share of growth, particularly in fast-growing markets like Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia.”
“The marketers best positioned to grow efficiently will be those with clear visibility into which channels, markets, and campaigns are bringing in high-lifetime-value shoppers. Reliable measurement is key to making that possible”, Tayson continued.
