Super App

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

The concept of an everything app, often referred to as a “super app,” is massively popular in Asia and tech companies across the world have tried to replicate it.

What is a Super App?

• A super app, or what Musk refers to as an “everything app,” has been described as the Swiss army knife of mobile apps, offering a suite of services for users such as messaging, social networking, peer-to-peer payments and e-commerce shopping.
• These mega apps are widely used in Asia because mobile is the main form of access to the internet for many people in the region.
• Chinese super app WeChat has more than 1 billion monthly users, according to one estimate, and is a ubiquitous part of daily life in China. Users can hail a car or taxi, send money to friends and family or make payments at stores. 
• 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.”
• 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.

Have other U.S tech companies tried this?

• Yes, 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.