What are 'super apps' and why Europe doesn't have one yet?

Have you ever imagined being able to order food, book a taxi, make a bank transfer, and manage your bills all from a single app on your phone? Calls superapps They come to revolutionize the way we use technology in our daily lives, integrating all types of services into a single digital platform.

In Europe we are still used to installing dozens of apps for each service but, In Asian and Latin American countries, super apps are already part of the daily routine of millions of people.Why are they successful, what are their advantages and challenges, and what impact do they have on today's economy and society?

What does the term “superapp” really mean?

Superapps are Multifunctional mobile applications that integrate various services and utilities normally dispersed in independent apps, thus offering a unified and simplified user experience. Instead of switching between apps to order food, send money, buy tickets, or chat with friends, superapps centralize all these actions under a single interface.

What differentiates them from a conventional app is its ability to be the nerve center of the user's digital life, managing everything from payments, mobility, shopping, and entertainment to banking and messaging services. This translates into greater user convenience and lower barriers to entry for accessing new services, as everything is integrated and registration, authentication, and payment experiences are often shared.

 

In addition, superapps are consolidating as platforms open to third parties, allowing dozens or hundreds of companies to offer “mini-apps” or “mini-programs” within the superapp itself, thus enriching the ecosystem and fostering digital innovation.

This way, users only need to download an app to their device and, from there, they can manage multiple aspects of their daily lives more quickly and efficiently, without having to remember dozens of passwords or repeatedly configure payment methods.

What is the origin and evolution of superapps?

The modern concept of superapp It arises in Asia, especially in China. That's whereWeChat took the first step in 2011 by transforming a simple messaging app into an integrated universe of digital services. Originally an "Asian WhatsApp," WeChat soon added payment, gaming, booking, shopping, appointment management, and other capabilities, becoming the digital epicenter of Chinese society.

Other key examples are Grave, born in Singapore as a transportation app, or Rappi In Latin America, it started as a delivery service and now allows you to pay taxes and order taxis, as well as withdraw cash and carry out financial transactions.

The development of superapps responds to a social demand: the pursuit of maximum practicality and digital simplificationIn many regions, internet access was provided directly from mobile devices, bypassing the web, facilitating the widespread adoption of these platforms.

In Europe, this model is advancing slowly due to a preference for specialized apps, concerns about privacy, and stricter regulations on competition and data protection.

Why have super apps succeeded? Key benefits for users and businesses

The main strength of superapps is The radical simplification of the user's digital experience, allowing them to conveniently access dozens of services from a single, familiar, secure, and easily accessible environment. This results in time savings, fewer technical hurdles, and a significant reduction in tasks related to managing personal data, payments, or learning new tools.

• Improved user experience: By centralizing the service offering and using a single interface, navigation becomes more agile, consistent, and secure, reducing the learning curve and optimizing mobile device use.
• Saving space and resources: A single software program replaces multiple apps, freeing up storage and reducing battery and memory consumption. This is especially important in markets where many users don't have high-end devices.
• Greater personalization and recommendations: Thanks to centralized data management, superapps can anticipate user needs, offering tailored offers and services at the right time.
• Promotion of financial inclusion: In societies with low banking access, superapps have become essential tools for accessing financial services, allowing users to operate without traditional credit cards or bank accounts.

For the companies, Superapps open the doors to more profitable and dynamic business models, This allows for data centralization, customer segmentation, and increased loyalty. A provider can reach millions of users at a low cost by integrating their mini-apps into the superapp and participating in highly effective cross-selling campaigns and promotions.

Furthermore, service integration allows for optimizing investment in technological development, concentrating resources on a single app instead of maintaining multiple compartmentalized solutions.

Superapps and the financial sector: the big change in banking services

One of the sectors most revolutionized by the advancement of superapps is the financial sector. These platforms allow you to make instant payments, manage loans, purchase products or services, and even purchase homes or take out mortgages all within a single app.

Traditional banks are reacting by betting on Integrating their services into existing superapps or developing their ownExamples include Tinkoff in Russia, BBVA in Spain and Mexico, and the integration of financial services into Uber, Revolut, and Mercado Libre.

The vast amount of data collected by superapps allows them to target tailored financial offers and products, anticipating users' needs with unprecedented precision, radically transforming the relationship between bank and customer.

Ingredients of a successful superapp: What does it take to succeed?

There are three essential pillars for a superapp to establish itself as a dominant platform in its market:

1. A massive and attractive use case: It often starts with a “killer app” like instant messaging, payments, transportation, or delivery, which attracts a huge initial user base.
2. Trust and security: Users should feel that their personal and financial data is well protected and managed by a responsible and transparent provider.
3. Openness to third parties and robust ecosystem: To grow and offer added value, the superapp must make it easy for external companies to develop mini-apps within the platform, access APIs, and create new, integrated experiences.

Scalability is crucial: The profitability of a superapp depends largely on its ability to reach millions of users and facilitate thousands of daily interactions, as the business model is based on volume and transaction fees. The more services and providers integrated, the greater the perceived value for the end user.

Superapps in Europe

The arrival of superapps in Europe (and, to some extent, also in North America) is met with various structural and cultural barriers. Western users tend to be more wary of concentrating their entire digital life in a single app, for reasons of privacy, security, and variety of offerings.

Furthermore, the application market in the West has evolved from web-based to mobile, with numerous well-established vertical providers and fierce competition between tech giants. Instead of a single superapp, the predominant theme here is “constellations” of apps from the same brand (Google, Meta, Microsoft), which integrate common functionalities but maintain a certain degree of independence.

Finally, the legal and regulatory framework (antitrust, privacy, unfair competition) limits the expansion of superapp models that can concentrate too much power, slowing the consolidation of omnipresent platforms.

Are there grounds for such misgivings? The truth is that Integrating financial, personal, and activity information under a single platform entails technological and privacy risks that should not be underestimated. Superapps can become a prime target for cyberattacks, and both users and businesses need to collaborate on data protection strategies and security best practices.

In any case, superapps represent a significant transformation in the global digital economy, Integrating practicality, technological innovation, and a platform economy to respond to new ways of living, communicating, and working. If you want to stay abreast of the latest developments and never miss a single technological update, these types of applications will set the tone for the near future.