Super App

In News: The concept of an everything app, or a “super app,” is massively popular in Asia as mobile is the main form of access to the internet in the region and tech companies across the world have tried to replicate it.

• Elon Musk saw an opportunity to create such an app by adding more tools and services to Twitter.
• Musk said he wanted Twitter to grow from its 237 million users to “at least a billion.”

What is a super app?

• Elon Musk refers to it as an “everything app,” such as the Swiss army knife.
• A super app is essentially a one-stop app that offers a suite of services by bundling a bunch of services or separate apps within it, to cover every need of the consumer such as messaging, social networking, peer-to-peer payments, health and wellness and e-commerce shopping.
• These offerings will often be bound by a common account and a robust in-app payment system.
• On the contrary, any other app in general will be specialising in one of these services or categories such as Uber for cabs, Swiggy for food and grocery delivery, and Netflix for movies and content.
• These Super apps are strongly aligned with emerging market governments because of their role in shrinking the grey economy.

Examples of super apps:

• Chinese super app WeChat is currently the most sophisticated super app globally. It has more than 1 billion monthly users and is a ubiquitous part of daily life in China.
• Alipay too has treaded a similar path in China and has a massive userbase.
• Grab, a leading super app across Southeast Asia, offers food delivery, ride-hailing, on-demand package delivery and financial services and investing.
• Gojek is Indonesia’s super app, which is now called GoTo.

Position of U.S.:

• Snapchat parent Snap Inc. previously introduced peer-to-peer payments called Snapcash, but ended the feature in 2018.
• It also made a push into mobile gaming and recently ended that venture as part of cost-cutting plans.
• Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram have also tried to expand beyond social networking and messaging into e-commerce.

India’s Position:

• Amazon in India, lets you pay utility bills, book travel, order food, groceries and so on.
• Paytm has been offering a multitude of services, including bill payments, ticket booking, gaming, investments and more.
• Reliance Jio’s intents offering a suite of services within its app. The app will have groceries, medicines, content, fashion and so on.
• Flipkart’s Phonepay too has been partnering with several other companies like Ola, Swiggy, MakeMyTrip, IRCTC to name a few to enable services across categories through Phonepay Switch platform.
• Tata Digital’s Tata Neu latest offering has brought together some of the top brands within their respective categories with a smoother and better user interface.

Source:  The Hindu