Changing the way we use phones - Superapps

You may have already heard about Superapps; if not, you surely will very soon. So what does this word mean? Formally, Superapps are defined as intermediary mobile applications that can consolidate and replace multiple apps for customer or employee use. In other words, there is one app, one sign-in, and one user experience — for virtually any product or service a customer may want or need.

How it all started

The term was first coined by Blackberry CEO Mike Lazaridis. And although Blackberry itself was not successful at developing a Superapp, the idea proved innovative. Nowadays, many companies work on their versions of Superapps. From Tata Group in India to Kaspi Bank in Kazakhstan, Superapps constitute an emerging trend and help users and brands to unify everyday services under one roof.

People do more things with their mobile phones than ten or even five years ago. Millennials spend 6.7 hours on their phones, while Gen-Zs spend over 7.3 hours daily. However, people spend the most time on only a handful of key apps, which are increasingly concentrated. Users, willing to narrow their focus, strive for a friendlier, more personalized, easier experience.

Superapps effectively address this demand as they often unify financial services, payments, transportation, delivery, booking, e-commerce, messaging and audio-video communication. According to a study, 67% of US consumers are interested in using a single Superapp for multiple digital services. This is why Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, is considering creating the first-ever “western” Superapp - X. Currently, Superapps dominate mostly Asian markets.

WeChat: China’s App for Everything

The largest Superapp in the world is WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has been described as China's "app for everything." Besides using WeChat as a social media platform, people use it to make payments and money transfers. Businesses benefit from its enterprise solutions.

Gojek: From Two-wheels to Unicorn

Gojek, a Superapp from Indonesia, started as a call centre for two-wheeled transportation. Still, since then, it has become an international Superapp offering over 20 different services. Gojek is the first Indonesian unicorn and is valued at $10 Billion. The app users can not only call a taxi or a two-wheeled raid-hailing vehicle but also shop for food, medicine and tickets, pay utility bills, and book various services, such as car maintenance, house cleaning and beauty services.

Banks: Leveraging customer data

Banks provide another example of successfully utilizing customer data and unifying various services under one app. Kaspi, a Kazakh bank, offers its clients a mobile app of a unified ecosystem combining financial services, shopping, booking, payments, messaging and even maps. Here in Georgia, the Bank of Georgia has announced its intention to transform its mobile banking app into a fully-functioning Superapp. Its users can already explore special offers by partner merchants and buy insurance packages and municipal transport passes.

A win-win game

Why do Superapps' popularity and value grow so fast? Companies developing Superapps benefit from them in many ways. Firstly, they acquire a large amount of monetizable user data and use them to provide personalized offers and advertisements. Furthermore, Superapp developers create additional revenue streams for partner companies with revenue-sharing partnerships.

This is why global businesses acknowledge the enormous impact Superapps can make. For example, finance executives all around the world believe that in the near future the majority of financial transactions will take place through a single Superapp.

On the other hand, users can also benefit from uniting everyday services under an umbrella app. Better user experience, easy-to-use interface, automation and personalized content are just a few of the benefits users can get from using Superapps. A recent study identified six main benefits of Superapps that consumers consider important. The biggest benefit was minimizing the risk of losing sensitive information (57%), followed by allowing them to coordinate different areas of their life in one place (55%) and minimizing the need for many security measures (55%). Other benefits included minimizing trust concerns (55%) and minimizing the need to localize the right app (54%). Therefore, Superapps providing all these features have a very good chance of global-scale success.