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What is Super App?

To know how the concept of Super App emerged one needs to understand the mobile culture in India. As per Deloitte study of February 2022, India had 1.2 billion smartphone users in 2021. With internet prices being affordable internet penetration is good in India. The smartphone culture and internet penetration gave the necessary boost to the app culture. We rarely visit a company’s website but we open an app hundred times a day. The concept of Super App is to build an umbrella app which will house all the services of the conglomerate.

Conglomerates and Super Apps

In India the latest conglomerate to join this bandwagon is Tata. Tata Neu will be the umbrella app for all the services provided by Tata. What you will see in the app –grocery delivery (Big Basket), pharmacy (1mg), electronics (Croma), fashion (Westside), e-commerce (Tata Cliq), airline booking (Vistara, Air India and AirAsia) , streaming service (Tata Play) and many more which will be added in future. This app was launched during a mega media event in IPL 2022. The app is developed and managed by Tata Digital. Mostly business conglomerates take the Super App approach. Reliance Industries has consolidated all of its services and offerings under the Jio umbrella. Even Paytm and Phonepe are providing n number of services under one roof. Every big organisation in the country is in the race of joining the Super App.

The concept of Super App first emerged when China’s WeChat and Indonesia’s Gojek leveraged the huge traffic on their platforms to create revenue from other operations. WeChat started as a messaging app and expanded into payments, cabs, shopping, and food ordering to become a Super App. Similarly Gojek was started from a tiny call centre intended to create a platform for drivers and consumers to connect efficiently. Now Indonesian people rely on Gojek for most of their daily requirements be it groceries or logistics.