Emerging mobile adtech company quickly gains traction in key APAC market, generating over one million installs in just three months and partnering with advertisers DailyHotel and AllStay, as well as the leading agency Akinasista.
WeQ, a leading global mobile ad tech organization, today announced its expansion into high growth markets in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, with a focus on South Korea and Japan. The company is already partnering with 50 clients and agencies including DailyHotel and AllStay in South Korea, and Akinasista in Japan. After an initial beta growth period, WeQ has already generated over one million installs for their clients in just a few months, and is now expanding its services to advertisers.
The APAC market is now the biggest driver of global ad spend growth, led by mobile, which is increasing at an average rate of 21% annually. Out of 5.1 billion unique mobile users globally in 2017, 1.33 billion users were based in APAC, signaling the high potential of the region for the mobile industry.
South Korea has the highest smartphone penetration in APAC as well as globally, with 94% of the population owning a smartphone and it is expected to rise to 100% between 18- 34-year-olds in 2019. The future for the app economy looks also bright for Japan with mobile ad spend in the country set to take 72% of the total digital advertising spend by 2020.
Markus Malti, CEO of WeQ, said about the company’s strong development in APAC: “We knew it was critical to break into the APAC market quickly, given its expected growth. In just a few short months, we’ve tapped into the high potential of mobile markets in South Korea and Japan, and have already acquired dozen of top tier clients. We’ll continue expanding our internal resources in the coming months to empower our growing customer base to reach their marketing goals.”
Also, the APAC region leads the global, rising trend of travel consumers moving to mobile, with South Korea at the helm. Travel is one of the most promising verticals in the domestic app economy, having seen double digit growth in mobile travel sales of 58.7% between 2011 and 2016, while APAC surpassed digital travel sales in North America for the first time in 2017 by 15 billion. As for Japan, it is the second largest travel market in APAC and an established online travel market. Digital travel sales in Japan are expected to reach 32.78 billion dollars by 2020.
Julie Hwang, Marketing Director of DailyHotel, the first Korean hotel and restaurant booking app that leads the local hotel booking app market, said: “We appreciate WeQ’sexceptional client services and impressive local market knowledge and we hence partner with WeQ exclusively for South Korea. They deliver upon our ambitious KPIs and we are looking forward to developing our user acquisition strategy in South Korea with the WeQ team further.”
WeQ attributes its success in South Korea and Japan to its dedicated team of account managers, who follow a hands-on consultative approach that is tailored to the market needs for each client. Its APAC team consists of members who have local expertise and speak the languages natively to enable their partners to reach their goals, both in APAC and globally. Additionally, the company’s proprietary technology for successful campaign management and optimization stands out in APAC’s ad tech market landscape.
When the ad tech company launched in April 2018, it had raised more than $50 million USD in internal funds and debt capital to to accelerate its ambitious global growth path. Today’s news is another step for WeQ as it enters new global markets and expands its technological footprint.
About WeQ
WeQ are experts in mobile ad tech, driving user acquisition and engagement at a global scale. Our mission is to enable companies to achieve their strategic growth goals by combining a client-centric approach with purpose-built, state-of-the-art technology. WeQ comprises a team of over 100 professionals, covering over 30 nationalities: from engineers to growth and market specialists, spearheaded by accomplished mobile industry veterans. For more information visit www.weq.com.
