Super app

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. 
• To simplify, super app or super-app is an application that provides end users (customers, partners or employees) with a set of core features plus access to independently created miniapps. 
• 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.

Some examples of super apps-

WeChat–

• It has more than 1 billion monthly users 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. 
• In 2018, some Chinese cities began testing WeChat for an electronic identification system that would be tied to users’ accounts.

Grab app-

• Grab, a leading super app across Southeast Asia, offers food delivery, ride-hailing, on-demand package delivery and financial services and investing.

Alipay–

• Alipay is a third-party mobile and online payment platform established in Hangzhou, China in February 2004 by Alibaba Group and its founder Jack Ma. 
• It operates in association with Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group.

Gojek-

• It is an Indonesian on-demand multi-service digital platform and fintech payment super-app. 
• Established in Jakarta in 2010, as a call center to connect consumers to courier delivery and two-wheeled ride-hailing services, it launched its mobile app in 2015 with four services: GoRide, GoSend, GoShop, and GoFood, which has since expanded to offer over 20 services. 

• In 2021, it merged with another Indonesian unicorn, Tokopedia, forming decacorn GoTo Gojek Tokopedia.

Trial by Snap Inc,  Facebook and Instagram-

• 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.