Rat race for gaining market share for the Super App

Now with advancements in technology, the world is moving towards something called a ‘Super App’, which helps people access different services at once. A super-app is a mobile or web application that can provide multiple services including payment and financial transaction processing, effectively becoming an all-encompassing self-contained commerce and communication online platform that embraces many aspects of personal and commercial life. Precisely, it is a one-stop portal or application that allows users to access numerous services in one place. In other words, it is a singular platform developed by a company that offers multiple services under one roof.

It is the technological equivalent of a shopping mall. We use payment apps to transfer money, entertainment apps to consume content, and weather apps to check the temperature. However, super-apps have emerged in other parts of the world and are even starting to gain a foothold in the West — whether we realize it or not. Super-apps cover multiple verticals and create a “one-stop-shop” app where users can complete many different tasks. Put simply, super-apps combine multiple different services into one app. The unique selling point of a super-app that centralizes many functions is that you can complete multiple tasks or actions in one place. You don’t have to switch between programs or providers to get things done.

The SuperApp is more than just a platform-based business model. Going forward, it is expected to cover at least 40-50% of online transactions made by a large customer segment. Learning from the Chinese Technology conglomerate Tencent’s WeChat and Alibaba’s Alipay, in India business houses including Adani Group, Reliance Industries Ltd. [RIL], the Tata group, Amazon, Flipkart, and Paytm are keeping the details of their SuperApp close to their chest but their actions leave a trail of their aspirations.

Even large banks such as the State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank see it as a natural extension of their businesses. In an age defined by hyper-targeting, hyper-personalisation and multi-platform consumers, the power of one is increasingly the superpower that everyone is after. The business houses in the country are eyeing towards India’s booming consumer digital economy, which is projected to be an $800-billion market by 2030, of which online retail will be a large slice, according to a RedSeer report.

The online retail market is likely to grow to $350 billion in gross merchandise value — the value of goods sold on a platform, barring discounts and returns — over the next decade from $55 billion this year. No consumer company can afford to miss this pie.