Super apps — the good, the bad and the ugly
In 16th century Europe, folks would gather in closed alleys to play pallamaglio or pall mall, a predecessor to croquet. The alleys, called “malls”, often had cafes and shops and served as a hang-out spot to socialise, eat, drink and even shop. At the turn of the 19th century, malls started aggregating into big complexes that slowly shaped into the malls we know today. Now a new breed of apps dubbing themselves “super apps” are on the rise to build the digital replacements for these malls.
How apps became super
The origin story of super apps takes us to the tech industry of Southeast Asia, where, over the last few years, apps like WeChat have conglomerated a huge user base by providing a deeply connected ecosystem of micro apps. The micro-services are aimed to fulfil all of the day-to-day services of a user.
The seamless nature of super apps means that a user would never have to go out of the app. This is the same concept which made malls popular. The difference is that you don’t have to step out of the house at all! You can shop for clothes, groceries, and food, hire a plumber, or pay your bills on the same app. This level of market control is why some experts predict that super apps are the way to the first $10 trillion company.
Super apps are banking on convenience being their key driver. Instead of having multiple apps for different tasks, consumers are gravitating toward the convenience of one app — says a study from KPMG. It’s easy to understand this, considering the bloated condition of the app industry. Consumers do not want to think about the apps they use as they have a life to live.
When everyone is super, no one is…
Impressed by the rising success of these apps, the west has taken notice. By bundling these services with social features and content, Facebook and Instagram have shifted their approach, creating what they call “Social+”. The concept is the same as other super apps, if a consumer comes to your app, they should be able to do everything on it. Facebook and Instagram have their marketplace, fuelled by the existing content created for social media, and it is propelled forward by systems like Facebook groups. Similarly, Whatsapp is testing the waters in India by providing payment services through UPI. Numerous other apps have also started to expand their domain. Every app wants to become a super app.
If this has started to ring an alarm in your head, you are not alone. Super apps are trying to be monopolies in the upcoming digital age, and monopolies are (almost) always bad for the consumers. It is very important to remember that though these companies aim to provide “the best user experience”, they don’t actually care about the users. Good user experience is merely a tool to create the convenience that helps user retention.
The downside of this approach is a user is probably not getting the best possible solution to their problem. Super apps cover much ground regarding services they offer but often lack depth in individual services. It’s the difference between grabbing a coffee from Starbucks and getting it from a speciality coffee shop — both have different experiences, but the latter is undoubtedly richer.
What’s more is, after some time, consumers get bored of the same experience. Since super apps are made for daily needs, they have to fight the fatigue that builds up in users. All of this, plus the heated competition by every app trying to do everything, sounds like an uphill battle. Super apps are not disrupting the app market but rather creating a super app market that might face the same issues that created them in the first place.
Super surveillance
Mark Zuckerberg might have seen more in super apps than the fluidity of experience. Super apps are notorious for mining user data. If the alarms didn’t ring before, they sure do now. Alibaba and Tencent (the parent company of WeChat) create 360-degree profiles of users based on their behaviour. This is, of course, a huge privacy concern. It feels like tech companies have not learned (or do not want to) from their past. In any case, super apps seem to push humanity into the Orwellian future we dread so much.
Concluding remarks
In the last two decades, personal computing has moved at lightning speeds. Over the past few years, humans have dealt with the dizziness the pace brings. The long-term effects of using social media indicate that sometimes it is better to go slow than fast. Super apps are the same. They bring convenience to the masses and provide equal services like online payments to a largely unbanked sector. On the other side of the coin, they are collecting vast amounts of data and building user profiles that lubricate their algorithm engines. We’ll have to wait and see which side the coin lands on.
Canvs Editorial regularly brings you insightful reads on design and anything related. Check out the work we do at Canvs Club.
The Canvs Editorial team comprises of Editorial Writer and Researcher — Sidhant Tibrewal, the Editor’s Desk- Aalhad Joshi and Debprotim Roy, and Content Operations- Abin Rajan
