Sensor Tower: The compound annual growth rate of global e-commerce application downloads from 2019 to 2025 reached 6.5%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the wave of online consumption brought about by the pandemic has laid the foundation for long-term growth in e-commerce applications. Emerging markets have become the main source of incremental growth. Innovative models such as AI recommendations, short video content, social e-commerce, and instant delivery are driving global mobile e-commerce into a new stage of competition. According to Sensor Tower data, between 2019 and 2025, the number of annual global e-commerce app downloads increased from 4.36 billion to 6.35 billion, an overall increase of more than 45%, with a compound annual growth rate of about 6.5%.

In 2025, the focus of the global e-commerce application growth pattern is shifting from mature markets to emerging regions — Asia continues to lead, Europe and North America stabilize, and Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East are the new engines driving global download growth.

In the Asia-Pacific market, India continues to lead the way and has become the core driving force for new downloads; Southeast Asia has maintained steady growth, the Chinese market has reached a mature stage, and the focus of competition shifts to user retention and service value improvement; the Japanese and South Korean markets continue to stabilize, and AI e-commerce and member ecosystem construction have become innovative breakthroughs.

“Temu” topped the global e-commerce app download list and MAU growth list, and “Blinkit” topped the download growth list

With strong growth in multiple markets, “Temu” once again topped the global e-commerce app download list and monthly active user growth list. Its continued expansion in emerging markets such as Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East has boosted both platform downloads and user activity, and solidified its position as a global leader in cross-border e-commerce.

At the same time, India's instant e-commerce “Blinkit” topped the 2025 global e-commerce app download growth list with a “10-minute delivery” delivery model and deeply integrated local lifestyle services, becoming the fastest growing emerging force in the regional market. The outstanding performance of the two major platforms highlights the trend of diversification of global consumption models.

In the Chinese iOS market, “Douyin Mall” performed well, successfully topping both the e-commerce app download list and download growth list. With rich short video content and deep integration of shopping scenarios, the platform not only attracted massive downloads from new users, but also stimulated the continuous participation of active users. The efficient recommendation algorithm and personalized shopping experience make “Douyin Mall” stand out in the fiercely competitive e-commerce market and become an important channel for brand promotion and user conversion.

Social media is the main marketing channel for digital advertising in the global shopping industry

Globally, online shopping has become the industry that spends the most on digital advertising. From January to October 2025, the US market led the way with $19 billion in ad spending, followed by the UK, which reached 3.7 billion US dollars in ad spending.

Social media platforms are the main channels for digital advertising for shopping brands in major global markets, with Facebook and Instagram accounting for more than 70% of ad impressions. In the Japanese market, the LINE platform dominates. From January to October 2025, its advertising exposure was close to 50%.

The cumulative number of downloads of “Temu” exceeded 1.2 billion times worldwide, and the number of active users reached a record high

According to Sensor Tower data, from 2023 to 2025, “Temu” was at the top of the global shopping app download list for three consecutive years, and topped the list of similar apps in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and South Korea. As of October 2025, the cumulative number of global downloads of “Temu” exceeded 1.2 billion, and in August 2025, the number of monthly active users worldwide reached 530 million, a record high.

Emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America are becoming the new engines of Temu's global growth. Latin America leads the world, accounting for nearly 30% of total downloads of “Temu”; the African market is rapidly rising, with downloads soaring 178%, bringing in considerable new users. Brazil bucked the trend and surged 79% to the top of the largest single market; Nigeria surged 83 times to rank third in the world, highlighting the brand's strong appeal and growth potential in emerging markets.

E-commerce is rapidly rising in India, and “Blinkit” has become a dark horse in the industry

In 2025, e-commerce quickly rose rapidly in the Indian market, and many large platforms such as “Blinkit,” “Zepto,” “Bigbasket,” “Instamart,” “Flipkart,” and “Swiggy” switched to this model and launched “10-minute delivery” services.

With data-driven inventory management and a flexible and efficient local warehouse network, “Blinkit” has become the fastest growing e-commerce application in India. According to Sensor Tower data, from January to October 2025, the number of downloads of “Blinkit” surged 167% month-on-month, and as of October 2025, the cumulative number of downloads of “Blinkit” worldwide was nearly 180 million.

The users of “Blinkit” are mainly young urban men. White-collar workers aged 25-34 form the core spending power, and female users account for 40%. The female market is still an important growth point for brand cooperation and user expansion. At the same time, the core user base of “Blinkit” is highly consistent with India's “fast shopping and food and beverage takeout” scenario, and users have shown a strong tendency to consume instantly. By deepening its own ecosystem (Bistro, Zomato) and differentiated experiences (speed, discount, product quality), “Blinkit” is expected to establish more stable user stickiness in the Indian market.

“Naver Plus Store” becomes the most downloaded e-commerce app in the Korean market in 2025

The AI-driven independent shopping application “Naver Plus Store” relies on NAVER's self-developed AI model and massive data to achieve intelligent recommendations, and integrates social e-commerce models such as short videos, membership point systems and diverse delivery services to create a new shopping experience integrating “portal + AI recommendation + smart delivery” for users, quickly winning the favor of Korean consumers.

According to Sensor Tower data, since its launch in March 2025, “Naver Plus Store” topped Korea's Google Play and App Store download rankings on the first day, and topped the Google Play download list several times from March to May, winning the championship for nearly 60 days. As of October 2025, the app had accumulated nearly 8 million downloads, making it the most downloaded e-commerce app in the Korean market.

In the early days of its launch, “Naver Plus Store” successfully drove a rapid increase in downloads by running high-exposure banner ads on a large scale on mobile devices. With its eye-catching visual design and limited-time discount information, “Naver Plus Store” surpassed “ChatGPT” to become the most downloaded mobile app in the Korean market from March to May 2025, capturing users' attention as soon as possible and effectively stimulating conversion.