Super apps are preparing to bundle previously separate functions in one application. This is convenient for the consumer and lucrative for the provider – read below why and how it is changing the market.
So-called “super apps” are a fixture in Asia, and this trend is now slowly establishing itself in Europe as well. Behind the somewhat vague name are smartphone applications that do not want to be limited to a more or less clearly defined set of functions (“single purpose app”), but rather depict their own universe. The character of a super app can be described by the fact that users can manage a large number of needs from various areas of life on their smartphone using a large number of functions and services – simply and conveniently, without having to leave the environment and the app.
Examples of super apps
The Chinese apps WeChat (Tencent) or Alipay (Alibaba Group) are also well-known examples of such super apps in Germany, at least by name. WeChat was originally designed as a messenger, but now half of life can be organized with it. With the app you can communicate, play, shop, pay and much more.
AliPay has also blossomed from a payment solution into an application that not only allows you to organize all financial aspects of life, but also to shop, compare hotels, reserve a table in a restaurant or order a taxi.
In Germany, WhatsApp has already taken on some features of a super app. Quite a few use them as a quasi-standard for communication and also make calls with WhatsApp, although their smartphone naturally also has a telephone function. The telephone function of the mobile phone is often easier to reach or the charges are even cheaper.
First European super app
launched The provider Klarna now wants to go all out. The successful fintech startup is set to develop into a “super shopping app” in the coming months. The concept: The entire sales process should be handled in a single app. Klarna offers traffic and advertising opportunities, is a marketplace, finance and transaction trustee, provides logistics center and customer support.
The 50 billion euro start-up wants to become the central shopping interface for customers. One login is enough – and from the installment purchase application to the credit after the return, Klarna handles the entire process so smoothly that the customer is no longer interested in logging into shop systems, Paypal accounts, e-mail inboxes, log into tracking apps and online banking systems.
What sounds quite tempting for consumers is less pleasing to many shop operators. Large retailers in particular fear that a new gatekeeper will come between them and the customer. Means: There is a new dependency and additional costs. Smaller retailers, on the other hand, can certainly gain something from a new player. They are dependent on marketplace, advertising and payment partners anyway, have geared their business model to them and are happy about every market revival and Amazon alternative.
An attack on the Big Five
The big US tech giants are certainly coming under the most pressure. Because: Regardless of whether Klarna will be successful with its concrete implementation or not – the approach alone proves that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and PayPal leave a gap in their carefully guarded ecosystems that a shrewd competitor can penetrate.
Anyone who cleverly arranges the functions of an app according to the requirements of a specific area of life and optimizes this process can certainly form an independent cosmos. A concept that can be repeated: for example in travel, mobility, health, finance or communication.
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