App Market Enters Maturity: App Marketing Transformed by Digital Gift Strategies

Fuller, Inc. (Headquarters: Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture; President and CEO: Masashi Yamasaki; hereinafter "Fuller") has released the "App Market and Gift Strategy Report 2026," which analyzes trends in the smartphone app market and promotional measures using digital gifts. The report is based on data from its app market analysis service "App Ape" and insights from "giftee for Business," a service for corporations and local governments utilizing digital gifts, developed by giftee, Inc. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Representatives: Mutsumi Ota, Tatsuya Suzuki; hereinafter "giftee"), which operates an e-gifting platform business.

This report introduces usage trends in the domestic app market for 2025, as well as case studies of "digital gifts," which are gaining attention as a measure to promote user behavior.

As the market transitions to a mature phase, app businesses are required to design new experiences to achieve "new user acquisition," "continued use," and "engagement improvement." This report organizes tips for designing promotions that generate user behavior through concrete case studies utilizing digital gifts.

We hope this will serve as a practical reference for everyone involved in app marketing, CRM measures, and campaign planning.

▼Download the "App Market and Gift Strategy Report 2026"
https://ja.appa.pe/reports/appmarket-giftcampaign-report-2026

Survey Overview
Survey Method
Analysis based on data from approximately 400,000 Android devices in Japan from Fuller's app market analysis service "App Ape," and insights on digital gifts from giftee.
Survey Period
January 2024 - December 2025
Survey Purpose
To organize the latest trends in the smartphone app market and the potential of gift measures to generate user behavior, and to provide reference information for app operation and marketing measures.

Excerpts from the Report
① The app market in 2025 will shift to a mature phase
The total number of annual app users in 2025 decreased by 1.2% compared to the previous year.
Additionally, the number of apps used per month was 47.6, the number of apps used per day was 15.0, and the daily app usage time was 5.3 hours, showing a generally flat trend.
This suggests that as smartphone use has become a daily routine, the app market is shifting from an expansion phase to a mature phase.

② "Communication," "Video," and "Games" tend to have long usage times
Looking at usage trends by category, the daily usage time for the "Communication" category was 68.2 minutes, "Video Players & Editors" was 68.8 minutes, and "Games" was 56.8 minutes.
On the other hand, categories like "Tools," "Lifestyle," and "Shopping" had a large number of apps used, confirming their close connection to daily life.

③ 77.8% of app users are "light users"
In the frequency of use analysis, 77.8% of users were classified as "light users," with less than 10 days of monthly usage, on average across all targeted apps.
By category, the heavy user ratio in the "Games" category was high at 26.2%, showing significant differences in usage habits depending on the category.

④ Digital gift measures promote user behavior
The report also introduces promotion case studies using digital gifts.
- A credit card company's official app saw an increase in new users through a daily lottery campaign.
- A manga app increased new and returning users with a mission-completion incentive measure.
- A game app increased its DAU through an SNS-linked campaign.
The report organizes the potential of using digital gifts as a measure to promote user behavior.
It also introduces measure designs that lead to habituating logins, SNS sharing, and promoting continued use by leveraging the "instantly delivered, instantly usable" characteristic.

Report Structure (Table of Contents)
Chapter 1 | Trends in the Smartphone App Market
Chapter 2 | Practicing "Meaningful Promotions" Learned from Gift Utilization

―――――

About App Ape
App Ape, provided by Fuller, is an app market analysis service that provides data on app user trends based on actual smartphone app usage data. Positioned like a smartphone version of TV viewership ratings, it allows you to see data on when, by whom, and how much an app is used. In addition to app user trend data, it provides cross-sectional data such as app store information and user attribute information, and is widely used for app planning and marketing, including market and competitor research. It has been used by various business professionals involved with apps, such as app development companies, advertising agencies, and financial institutions, with over 500 companies having used it to date.

About Fuller
With the mission "To bring human-centric digital to everyone's hands," Fuller actively develops its "Digital Partner Business," providing support related to digital products like apps and websites in all professional areas Fuller possesses. From strategy building for new and existing businesses to product development and growth, Fuller works alongside clients as "one team." As a "reliable presence in all things digital," Fuller stays close to its customers, contributing to problem-solving and business growth. With a dual headquarters system in Kashiwa-no-ha and Niigata, the company aims for medium- to long-term growth by maximizing the unique characteristics of each region.

Company Name: Fuller, Inc.
Locations: [Kashiwa-no-ha Head Office] KOIL 148-2, 178-4 Wakashiba, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba; [Niigata Head Office] PLAKA2 NINNO, 1-2 Sasaguchi, Chuo-ku, Niigata-shi, Niigata
Representative: Masashi Yamasaki, President and CEO
Established: November 15, 2011
Business: Digital Partner Business
Stock Exchange: Tokyo Stock Exchange, Growth Market (Stock Code: 387A)

About "giftee for Business"
Since its launch in 2016, "giftee for Business" has met the needs of various corporate campaigns, promotions, and marketing measures regardless of industry, such as survey rewards, store visit promotions, and campaigns using SNS, with the cumulative number of implemented projects exceeding 75,000 (*1). In particular, its main products, the digital gifts "giftee Box®" (*2) and "Elabelu Pay®" (*3), are widely used as incentives for nationwide campaigns and campaigns with diverse participant attributes, as they are highly satisfactory gifts regardless of the recipient's residence, gender, or age, due to the convenience of allowing recipients to choose their gift. Furthermore, in October 2022, it launched a service specializing in "Corporate Gifts," which are gifts given by companies to business partners, customers, and employees to build and strengthen relationships, and from December 2022, it began offering services specialized for resident measures implemented by local governments, expanding the scope of its services to different targets and purposes. Digital gifts are highly versatile, usable at nationwide chain stores and e-commerce sites, and can be set up with a lineup of gifts according to a certain theme, making them ideal as incentives for specific measures targeting specific individuals or purposes, such as child-rearing support and other resident support benefits. Their easy implementation also enables smooth measure operation.
(*1) As of the full-year financial results for the fiscal year ending December 2025 (disclosed on February 13, 2026).
(*2) With giftee Box®, recipients can exchange their awarded "Gift Points" for their favorite products from about 1,000 types of gifts, including convenience store products and cafe tickets.
(*3) Elabelu Pay® is a digital gift that allows recipients to exchange their awarded "Gift Points" for their favorite products from various smartphone payment service points.

About giftee, Inc.
Under the corporate vision of "Providing services that foster various connections among people, companies, and towns, centered on e-gifts," giftee operates an e-gifting platform business both domestically and internationally, providing end-to-end services from e-gift issuance to distribution. Its main services are the casual gift service "giftee®," the "eGift System" for issuing and selling e-gifts and tickets, the corporate solution "giftee for Business" utilizing e-gifts, and the digital platform service "e-Machi Platform®" for solving local government and regional issues, offering a wide range of e-gift services to individuals, corporations, and local governments.

Company Name: giftee, Inc.
Location: 12F Higashi-Gotanda Square, 2-10-2 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0022
Established: August 10, 2010 (Service start: March 2011)
Capital: 3,286 million yen (as of the end of December 2025)
Representatives: Mutsumi Ota, Tatsuya Suzuki
Business: E-gifting platform business (the following 4 services)