What Are Super Apps and Why Are They Gaining Popularity?
Our smartphones are overflowing with apps. Surveys show that people, on average, have approximately 80 apps installed on their devices, but they only use a few every day. Some apps are only needed once a month, or even less often, so they simply take up space on the phone, reducing its memory. But what if one app could be enough for all your needs? Just imagine using a single app to look for concert tickets, purchase them, send photos to friends from the concert, and book a taxi home, all seamlessly. This convenience can be offered by super apps.
What are super apps, what makes them so powerful, how often are they used in 2025, and can they become the future of mobile experiences? We will discuss it in this blog post.
What Are Super Apps?
A super app is a multifunctional mobile app that provides a range of different services, such as messaging, payments, shopping, banking, food ordering, ride-sharing, and more. The main idea behind such apps is to enable users to perform all the tasks they need from one point. Users no longer need to download several apps for different purposes or navigate from one app to another.
A super app may include:
Messaging and social media, so users can chat, make video calls, and post on social media.
Food and grocery delivery, so users can order goods from restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores.
Taxi hailing and other transportation services, so users can book a taxi, rent a bike, or integrate with public transportation systems.
E-commerce and payments, including features such as digital wallets, bill payments, and online shopping.
Booking and reservations, so users can book services such as accommodation, event tickets, and meetings directly through the app.
Financial services, where in addition to basic payments, super apps can offer loans, insurance, and investment offers.
Travel services, such as booking flights, checking train schedules, and booking hotels, so users can plan and manage their trips within the app.
Entertainment, which offers users access to streaming, gaming, and news
Health and wellness so users can receive telemedicine consultations, track fitness rate, and book appointments.
Utility management, which allows users to pay utility bills, top up their mobile account and streamline other daily tasks.
A Brief History of Super Apps
The term "super app" was first invented by Blackberry creator Mike Lazaridis. In 2010, Mike introduced it in his speech during Mobile World Congress. He described these apps as an ecosystem of many other apps. However, Mike's offer was only relevant to BlackBerry smartphones. In their modern interpretation, super apps have emerged from the concept popularized by China's WeChat, which started as a messaging app and expanded to incorporate various services.
While the idea of a single, all-encompassing super app started in China, businesses worldwide recognized the potential of super apps to change how businesses engage with customers and drive new revenue streams. Similar apps started to appear in other Asian countries and Latin America. While super apps have not gained widespread popularity in the United States yet, tech giants like Meta, Google, and even emerging startups are moving towards this model. Facebook and Twitter have the greatest potential to become all-in-one platforms in the West today.
There are a number of reasons why super apps are becoming increasingly popular among businesses.
Wider audience reach: super apps allow businesses to offer their services to a wider audience. A potential user is much more likely to find a range of services in a super app than in a standard app.
Increased revenue streams: businesses can easily expand the number of services they offer, attracting more users and reducing customer acquisition costs to almost zero.
High customer retention: a super app can easily increase the length of user sessions and retain customers. It happens because such apps, at their core, have more touchpoints for engagement and retention.
Strong brand positioning: when a company develops a set of products and services under one umbrella and provides them in one app, it increases brand awareness and trust.
Reduced costs: by creating super apps, a company invests in its future development and significantly reduces its future costs. It is much easier to create a specific service and add it to an existing app than to create several separate apps and combine them under one brand.
According to Vision Research Report, the global super apps market was valued at USD 61.35 billion in 2022 and it is predicted to surpass around USD 714.73 billion by 2032 with a CAGR of 27.83% from 2023 to 2032. This upward trend reflects the growing demand for comprehensive platforms that simplify and improve the user experience.
What Are Some Of the Most Prominent Super Apps?
WeChat (China)
WeChat started as a messaging app and expanded to offer various services, including social networking, payments, shopping, and more. Users can send text messages, photos, voice messages, videos, and share locations. The app supports high-quality voice and video calls, including group video calls with up to nine participants. The 'Moments' feature allows users to post photos and videos to share with friends. Additionally, 'Time Capsule' enables users to share short videos that disappear after 24 hours. In selected regions, users can make calls to mobile phones and landlines globally at low rates and also make transactions using mobile payment features. Users can also follow Official Accounts for original content and news. Mini Programs offer various third-party services within the app without the need for additional installations, saving phone storage and time. The 'WeRun' feature syncs with HealthKit and the Health app to track and share step counts, allowing users to compete with friends in daily step rankings.
Grab (Southeast Asia)
Grab, originally a ride-hailing app, has evolved into a super app that now provides a variety of services like food and groceries delivery, ride-sharing, payments, and financial services. The app is available in countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar and serves over 670 million people. Users can choose among a variety of transportation options, including cars, motorbikes and buses depending on their situation and budget. Grab also offers a secure mobile wallet to pay for Grab services, including rides, food and grocery deliveries, and shop at local merchants. GrabExpress provides reliable, fast and trackable parcel delivery, making sending and receiving parcels convenient and safe.
Rappi (Latin America)
Rappi offers food delivery, grocery shopping, pharmacy orders, and event/concert ticket purchases. RappiFavor helps with personalized errands, while RappiBank provides cashback credit cards. Users can book travel and hotels via Rappi Travel. Additionally, the app offers recommendations, discounts, and a social feature to follow friends. It's widely available across Latin America.
Alipay (China)
Alipay is a leading Chinese payment and digital service platform, enabling users to make payments online and offline, particularly for users with a Chinese ID and bank account. It also supports foreign visitors to China by allowing credit card connections for payments. While primarily a payment platform, it expanded its services to include services such as bill payments, food deliveries, and event ticket purchases, and integrates with health tracking for Chinese users. It is widely accepted across millions of merchants in China.
Paytm (India)
Initially a mobile wallet and payment, Paytm grew into a fintech giant offering. It allows users to transfer money, Scan any QR code & make payments at grocery stores, petrol pumps, and restaurants, book tickets for movies, flights, trains, and buses, as well as recharge mobile phones and pay utility bills. It also offers features like gold purchases, cashback offers and financial products like loan services. Paytm is widely used in India for a range of financial and lifestyle services, making it a versatile app for daily transactions.
Gojek (Indonesia)
Launched as a motorbike taxi service, Gojek evolved into a super app that offers a variety of services, including ride-hailing (GoRide, GoCar), food delivery (GoFood), shopping (GoMart, GoShop), and logistics (GoSend, GoBox). It also allows users to pay bills, recharge mobile credits, and access financial services via GoPay. The app has a mission to improve the community's standard of living by supporting local drivers, vendors, and service providers. It is currently available in multiple cities in Indonesia.
What Is the Future of Super Apps?
Over the past year, there has been a slowdown in super app development, and quite a few new products are moving in this direction. What is the reason? Despite all the benefits of super apps and the desire of users to get the most multifunctional applications, there are many technical, operational, market, and strategic obstacles to their creation and full-fledged activity. Given the complexity of super apps, there is a need for robust technical architecture and meticulous project management. The server and memory management must work extremely fast so the app can handle a large user base and high transaction volumes without performance degradation. In addition, building and maintaining a super app demands substantial resources, including a large team of developers, continuous updates, and rigorous quality assurance processes. Finally, the standards and rules for super apps are complex since they are divided into different categories. In markets like the US, consumers are accustomed to using specialized apps for specific services, making the transition to a super app less appealing. And when we look at the overall market, super apps are usually developed only by powerful companies with huge capabilities.
At the same time, people strive to simplify everything and are looking for solutions that will allow them to perform routine tasks quickly and easily. According to PYMNTS Intelligence, more and more mobile app users would welcome a single mobile app to manage all of their day-to-day activities. YouGov's survey revealed similar inclinations. So, a super app is not a forgotten approach, and as we move further into 2025 and beyond, we can expect to see a second wave of super app popularity.
Final Thoughts
It is not without reason that super apps are predicted to dominate the market and experience a new surge in popularity. They offer unmatched convenience and user engagement by consolidating multiple services into one platform. The future belongs to universal, powerful, and convenient apps. At some point, every powerful company will have its own super app, where it will implement its main and additional products to attract new users. Will there be room for those who solve specific user problems? Definitely! But it makes sense for now at least to consider possible options for integration into large super apps or think about how to turn them into ecosystems themselves.
