Superapplication or super app superapp

In recent years, large international companies from different fields create a new online platform for its users - superapp s (from the English super app.). Superappom makes a common application the presence of an ecosystem in which several functions from the field of finance, leisure or lifestyle are combined at once. Grocery delivery, money orders, concert tickets, taxis - all this can now be accommodated in one place.

The term Super App was proposed in 2010 by the founder of BlackBerry, Michalis Lazaridis. By his definition, Super App is a closed ecosystem of many applications that people can use every day, where and when they need it. BlackBerry's Super App failed due to a failed monetization model and a general loss of market share by the company's gadgets. The modern coolest and most sophisticated superapps WeChat and Alipay not only destroyed the concept of a closed ecosystem, but also managed to become almost equal to the passport in importance for their users.

Of course, superapp is a convenient form of aggregation of mobile applications, when everything is at hand at once. However, the question of "peaceful coexistence" of several supers on our smartphones, work with personal data and general information security remains open. It's simple: the more aspects of life are concentrated in "one hands" (one device, one application), the higher the risks .

Super Apps essentially serve as a single portal for a wide range of virtual products and services. The most sophisticated - apps like WeChat and Alipay in China - combine online messaging (like WhatsApp), social media (like Facebook), marketplaces (like eBay), and services (like Uber). One application, one login, one user interface - for virtually any product or service a customer might want or need.

Largely due to its versatility, super-applications have quickly become a part of the daily life of users. It is not unusual for a WeChat user in China to make an instant messaging date with a friend, book a table for dinner, order movie tickets, order a taxi and pay for every transaction on the way - all from one app.

And again everyone is discussing the "first in Russia" SuperApp, this time from Tinkoff. One of these days, one of the first SuperApps had an anniversary - the application "Moscow state services", in which you can pay for parking and fines, take readings from housing and communal services, make an appointment with a doctor, see the child's health care and assessments. Federal government services have followed in their footsteps: the addition of the word "super" (super-services or super-appa) automatically raises the "coolness" of any service. And although I do not have warm feelings for superapps (harvesters), but today's penetration of digital public services is their merit.

What are we seeing now, the sunrise or sunset of the SuperApps?

As the Internet matured, everyone was striving to create megaportals - hello Yahoo! And at that moment it was right. They were replaced by "narrow" services - search engines, the Internet-shops and social networks defeated portal monsters ... And they themselves turned into these monsters. Everything was going well until the revolution happened (thanks to Steve Jobs) and the portal monopoly began to wane. The approach to working with the smartphone interface has simply changed - the phone window became the very "portal" and with the set of services that the user needed. You do not need to use Yandex mail if you only use its search engine. The set of services is now user choice and application vendor competition. Control passed to the market owners - Google and Apple. What does not quite suit the "service" giants - application marketing becomes more expensive, control over promotion is lost, managementusers leave. This is what the site https://intellect.icu says. And an idea appeared, or rather, even two:

1. "Market within the market"
2. Swiss Knife app.

Is it possible to create an App "Swiss Knife"? Well, probably partly possible. The example of public services has been quite successful, but time is ticking. All other examples that are often cited (WeChat, Uber) still cannot be called a full-fledged "SuperApp". These are applications that have a focus on a specific service, not even a service, but an area of ​​life. It's like the blind feel an elephant. For some - all this is "about communication", for others "about finance ." It will be strange to receive a reminder from Oleg's voice assistant to enter the menstrual cycle in the Tinkoff application, even if it is SuperApp.

Today's launch of SuperApps from financial institutions is like asking "money in the morning - chairs in the evening, or vice versa." Who is more important than e-commerce or fintech in the process of consuming a product or service. Until recently, payment services were an appendage of the process, and one that can be controlled (pay by card, points, electronic money), and given the launch of their own services from Apple and Google, the problem for banks is becoming more acute.

Finance is becoming "infrastructure", just like telecom operators. It is unrealistic to fight against the real creators of ecosystems - Google and Apple, so the banks decided to take "realistic rivals" as sparring partners. They chose a different method of struggle. Sberbank decided to buy services and take control of them. Tinkoff offers a marketplace / SuperAppa concept. Yandex had its own way of creating SuperAppa - we will do it ourselves.

The transformation of positions along this path at Yandex and Sberbank is interesting. If Sberbank proceeded from the fact that we will “buy”, since the main resource is “money”, Yandex, which on the contrary has “hands”, decided to do everything on its own. As a result, both of them underwent a transformation. Already Sberbank not only buys, but makes itself, and Yandex, on the contrary, began to buy projects. The question is who will run out of resources faster - Sber's money or Yandex's "hand".

In this strategy for survival, Tinkoff, who is "more modest" in terms of money and "hands", has a difficult position. As a result, Tinkoff relies on "advertising" and its brand. But a very big question is whether it will be possible to swim out on this now or is it an attempt to sell oneself at a higher price before leaving.

In February 2020, the developers of the popular Chinese messenger WeChat added a new feature to the application. Users can see places on the map of their city where cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded. It's a handy innovation, but why WeChat? The fact is that under quarantine conditions, people began to order food delivery online more often, call a taxi, watch movies at home instead of a cinema - all this without leaving WeChat. It's not just a messaging app today. The billion transactions that go through WeChat Pay every month and countless services make it a super app called m (or superapp).

A few years ago, you would need three different apps to get a taxi to your friends, order food at your favorite restaurant, and later in the evening buy new sneakers from home. Developers from Asia were the first to change this. Gojek appeared in Indonesia in 2010, first as a call center for courier delivery and motorcycle taxis, and since 2015 as an application with GoRide, GoSend, GoShop and GoFood services. Gradually, Gojek has grown to a full-fledged superapp, offering users more than 20 services in one place.

In 2012, while WeChat was gaining popularity in China, the GrabTaxi taxi booking application appeared in Malaysia. Now you can order food, buy insurance, find a hotel - and much more. The app is already in use in eight Asian countries, including Singapore and Thailand. Asian superapps have not only brought together all the important services in one place: they have also simplified the process of paying for goods. For example, in China, it is easier to pay with WeChat Pay than with a credit card. This is true in Asia, where only 27% of people have a bank account.

Today, all three applications continue to grow and set the standard for multitasking platforms. Gojek has already covered Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, and Grab has begun collaborating with online cinema HOOQ, creating serious competition in Asia even for such a giant as Netflix.

In the United States, they decided to follow the example of successful platform ecosystems. While the transportation service Uber was building UberEats and Uber Wallet, Facebook developers started thinking about creating their own super app. The average American spends 1 hour and 15 minutes on Facebook every day, so it makes sense to integrate a business into a social network. Other big companies are also following the trend: Google Maps plans to increase the functionality of the application by adding all the services that can be mapped to it, and Airbnb is going to transform itself into a full-fledged travel platform.

Competition with central banks of super applications

While the rise of superapplications in the East may seem like a rather peripheral trend for the banking sector, they actually have the potential to end it. Bankers should keep a close eye on developments for three reasons.