The super app’s gravitational pull

The explosion in the number of super app users over the past decade is staggering: China’s WeChat now has around 1.38 billion monthly active users (MAUs); India’s Paytm has 100 million; Argentina’s Mercado Libre has 56 million; UAE’s Careem has 48 million; and Indonesia’s Grab has 41.9 million MAUs. 

In 2022, Gartner forecasted that 50% of the population would be using super apps by 2027.

Originally developed in Asia, the super app model brings together multiple functionalities and services onto a unified platform. Also called the “everything app”, many are positioning themselves as lifestyle platforms where users can access social media, book events and restaurants, schedule home repairs, upgrade flights, and pay bills.

Emerging markets in Asia, Middle East and Latin America, with large mobile-first and underbanked populations, have embraced super apps more readily than those in developed economies like the US and Europe. Consumers in these markets exhibit higher price sensitivity and a willingness to switch between apps for better value.

In addition, developing markets generally had less restrictions on data sharing in the early stages of super app development. This lighter regulatory touch fostered innovation and has permitted greater horizontal and regional integration across different verticals, such as e-commerce, travel and payments.

Many of the super app platforms started off as social messaging platforms (WeChat), retailers (Mercado Libre) or ride-hailing apps (Grab, Careem), and then expanded into other verticals, including payments and other financial services. There are also a few banks that have moved from purely financial services into lifestyle platforms. This positions banks in the centre of their customer’s day-to-day life, providing them with added insights which, in turn, leads to improved personalisation. 

For example, the super app of Russia’s T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff Bank), which boasted 9 million MAUs in 2021, features a marketplace, as well as the ability to book doctor and beauty salon appointments. Kazakhstan’s Kaspi, which raised more than $1 billion in its Nasdaq listing at the beginning of 2024, is another success story. Within a decade, its unique two-sided super app model for consumers and merchants has reached 14 million MAUs in 2023. 

As mentioned, well-established consumer protection standards and restrictions around data privacy erected barriers to super app expansion in developed economies. In addition, consumers have tended to stick with vertical providers they trust, prioritising relationships over price sensitivity. There is also a more competitive ecosystem in developed nations, with many well-established, strong players in specific niches. Incumbent banks, specifically, are often held back by IT complexity in their legacy systems and lack of expertise.

Despite the barriers, companies such as Klarna and Uber are positioning themselves as super apps in Europe, while Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg has added a marketplace, dating and gaming to Facebook and Amazon’s app now includes medical consultation services. X’s owner Elon Musk has signalled his intention to turn the social media platform into a super app. 

A few European banks are also making a super app push, with neobanks leading the charge. Revolut is at the forefront, adding phone plans in addition to Revolut Stays and Revolut Chat, while Monzo and N26 have some insurance and travel features. Despite their ambitions, they haven’t yet reached the feature richness seen in Asia, the Middle East or Latin America.

Not every bank can just spin up a super app from scratch. T-Bank, for example, has been working on its technology platform and ecosystem for more than a decade. Other banks aren’t as advanced in their super app journey. Yet there is great opportunity for both banks and fintechs that understand the local market to develop customised solutions. 

With a fully functional super app, banks and fintechs can immediately add cross- and up-selling opportunities based on customer data and merchant relationships. They can curate partnerships, for example with local insurance providers, and plug them in via an API for additional revenue streams.

In future, banks and fintechs should look at more of an ecosystem play with lifestyle hubs, as we believe that collaborating with strategic partners will be a decisive competitive advantage. 

Super apps have the potential to become a one-stop shop for user needs across their day-to-day life. As such, they offer many advantages and opportunities for banks and fintechs, including enhanced customer engagement, increased transaction volume, improve brand loyalty and new revenue streams. They also offer augmented personalisation thanks to centralised user data on a variety of preferences, behaviour patterns and interests.

The key challenge is delivering the super app experience in a clear, secure and user-friendly way.