Think about the apps you use on your phone every day. Research Research shows that Americans use an average of 46 mobile apps per month to complete a variety of daily tasks.
Now imagine if you could combine all of these programs into a single application. A one-stop shop for socializing with friends, ordering food, paying rent, and even consulting a doctor—colloquially known as a “super app.”
“We’re all tired of having dozens of apps on our phones,” said Arjun Kharpal, senior technology reporter at CNBC. “The appeal of Super Apps is that all the functionality of these apps is in one place, the Super App itself. It’s convenient and frictionless.”
Perhaps the most prominent example of a super app is Tencent’s WeChat, which started as a simple messaging app in China in 2011 and now has more than 1.3 billion monthly active users. The popularity of such apps can be attributed to a variety of factors, including convenience, seamless user experience, and user behavior. While super apps are booming in Asia, their adoption has been slower in Western markets, including the United States, for a number of reasons.
“The regulatory environment in the United States today is definitely not conducive to the development of super apps,” said Dan Prud’homme, assistant professor at Florida International University’s School of Business. “There are still very strict protections in terms of peer-to-peer lending, data privacy, antitrust, etc., which is not Allow American apps to thrive like WeChat.”
But things may be starting to change. In recent years, more and more Tech companies have set their sights on bringing the super app model to the U.S.
watch video Find out what’s behind Super Apps’ appeal in Asia, why the U.S. has been slow to adopt an “everything apps” model, and whether we can expect Super Apps in the U.S. soon.
