Super Apps

By Damien Dujacquier and Mohit Gidwani

Super Apps are ecosystems of mini apps set up to deliver a wide range of services to users through a single point of contact, usually within the primary app of a B2C service provider. Super Apps from digital players are increasingly popular and prominent worldwide, posing a substantial competitive threat to the digital ambitions of traditional B2C businesses such as telecom and banking. As Super Apps adoption increases, telecom and banking players risk being relegated to the role of commoditized service providers if they don’t ramp up their ecosystems. Clearly defining the Super App's role, strategy and ambition, and working with specialist implementation partners can help quickly build a Super App play.

Super App capabilities can energize the app experience for a service provider like a bank or telco. The app stops being an information box, and transforms into a window to a wide variety of services that can be purchased digitally, generating valuable customer transaction data in the process.

Building Super Apps also improves customer experience - both internal and external. A strong platform has helped make transactions smoother on the merchant end for a payments player in India. Further, another large regional bank's MD mentioned that the presence of a strong tech partner for their Super App also conditioned their organization to adopt new technologies and accelerate development of innovative solutions.

What is a Super App?

Super Apps are ecosystems of "apps within an app", a transformative platform offering users a convenient way to simplify and enhance their user experience, becoming a one-stop "single window" solution with a wide variety of digital services and solid personalization, meeting various needs of the consumer:

Payment & financial services:

• Cashless payments
• Mobile payments
• Investment platforms
• Insurance
• Credit and loans
• QR code payments

Retail services:

• Ticket reservation for events
• Dinner reservations
• Meal delivery orders
• Hotel reservations
• Transportation ticket reservations
• E-commerce purchases

Other services:

• News and media
• Calls and message
• Job search
• Entertainment
• Real estate sales and rentals
• Cloud data hosting

How to build a Super App?

Selecting the right approach is crucial for big players aiming
to penetrate the Super Apps space - Legacy platforms have
inherent intricacies and requirements that warrant thorough
assessment.

• How to select an approach

Players seeking to enter the Super Apps space can consider various approaches, such as in-house development, collaborating with specialists, partnering with generalists, or acquiring comprehensive "full-stack" capabilities. The decision which approach to undertake will be driven by factors such as product expertise, technology expertise, cost, go-to-market strategy, partnership management, time to market, dedicated team requirement & flexibility amongst others. Assessment of players' existing capabilities, strengths and resources will be imperative to determine which approach will be most suited.

Conclusion

Four commonly employed approaches exist for deploying Super Apps, with partnering with specialists emerging as the recommended choice. Players can drive successful implementation by leveraging technology partners' robust expertise and pre-existing capabilities. Technology partnerships allows players to gain access to advanced technology, best practices and market experience to enable a swift and successful deployment. Moreover, partnerships enable shortcuts along the entire development roadmap of an app and shortening the time to profitability. Embracing the right build approach with a full understanding and assessment of the company's unique intricacies, and envisioned ecosystem is critical to steering this course.

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