CB Insights makes the case for the excitement around super apps. That is an app which owns the consumer journey from end to end similar to WeChat in China or Grab in SE Asia. The idea behind the super app is that it bundles everything from search (discovery) to commerce (payment, transactions & authentication) to delivery, with everything from news to entertainment in between.
Examples include:
Microsoft: In December 2022, The Information reported that Microsoft is considering building a super app with its Bing search engine as the backbone. The company is looking to integrate features ranging from shopping to news feeds.
Google: is enhancing its search and product listing capabilities to keep users within its network. For example, it recently expanded its partnership with Shopify to YouTube (which it acquired in 2006) to enable merchants to showcase shoppable products directly on their YouTube channels. US-based creators have the option to enable onsite checkout, which allows viewers who have stumbled across a product video to complete their purchases without leaving YouTube.
Meta: In November 2022, the company announced its “vision for bringing the entire shopping experience directly to a WhatsApp chat.” To start, WhatsApp users in certain countries can now search for businesses within the app, message them directly, and make payments in the chat.
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