Adjust CEO: “Acquisitions will shape the app market”
January 8, 2025
Adjust’s CEO, Andrey Kazakov, and CTO, Egor Lukomsky, have shared their 2025 predictions covering various industry topics.
The company provides end-to-end solution for every stage of the app marketing journey, and the pair see AI and acquistions playing a key role in future developments.
Kazakov’s Predictions
AI and ML learning models will mature
“In 2025, we’ll see the technology behind AI and machine learning in mobile marketing become more mature and refined. While 2024 was about proving the potential of these models, 2025 will be about scaling them. Developers and marketers will start to trust and leverage these models at a much higher level, achieving better precision and returns on their investment. The tools are here, and next year is when we’ll see widespread adoption and results.”
The growth of alternative app stores
“Over the next year we’ll see alternative app stores and web stores truly scale. We’ve seen the groundwork laid in 2024 with the introduction of web-based stores and compliance with European regulations like the DMA (Digital Markets Act). These new channels will allow brands to bypass traditional app stores, opening up fresh opportunities to drive revenue. The ability to sell directly to users via these new stores will be a game-changer for many companies.”
The rise of acquisitions will shape the app market
“In 2025, I expect the app market will see a shift toward consolidation, with mergers and acquisitions becoming a key strategy for growth across the US and Europe. As US-based companies reach a plateau in their growth, many turn to acquisitions as a way to restart the high-growth phase. This is especially apparent in Europe, where larger US firms are acquiring regional apps with strong local user bases. In doing so, the larger companies gain access to new markets and data, while the smaller regional apps can continue operating under their name and brand – keeping the customer bases they have built while benefiting from the resources of a larger company. However, the rise of super apps, where one app dominates within regions, seems unlikely. Instead, these brands will stay separate but will be owned by a global parent company. These companies will focus on growth by acquiring apps that have the same business values in new markets where it’s hard to localise themselves. This will be beneficial for those companies looking to leverage technology like GenAI, as it gives them an understanding of customer behaviors across a range of markets.”
Lukomsky’s Predictions
Marketers will need more than GenAI to thrive in 2025
“While the creative benefits of GenAI are significant – including enhancing the mobile experience – it cannot effectively address the measurement challenge. In 2025, facing increasing privacy restrictions while under huge pressure to justify ad spend and prove return on investment, performance-minded marketers will increasingly lean on machine learning (ML) models to see how well campaigns are performing, in real time. By adopting ML models that use alternative data points to share insights about user engagement and conversion, brands can effectively understand and predict user behavior in privacy-compliant ways. 2025 will be the year for experimenting, testing and refining these models. Those who successfully navigate this will gain actionable metrics while setting new standards for measurement.”
Rise of consumer-driven data control models and AI-driven privacy legislation
“When it comes to data privacy, it’s not just the EU. No matter where you are in the world working on mobile app user acquisition and retargeting, you are bound to be confronted with regulations in the foreseeable future. Regulations like the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) puts some ad networks in a different legal situation than others. In many cases, these differences will also lead to differences in the requirements that mobile marketers will have to meet for storing and sharing user data with ad networks. Consequently, over the next year, we are going to see an increase in the adoption of multiple measurement frameworks to inform marketing decisions. Now is the time to explore what predictive and incremental solutions have in store.”