What makes Super Apps so super and do they have a future in the west?

Super Apps give the impression that existing apps are redundant. But the more functions are available, the more personal data is collected by the providers.

An entry by Katharina und Martin Ille

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

First things first: Definition of Super Apps

Back in 2010, the founder of BlackBerry Mike Lazaridis defined Super Apps as “a closed ecosystem of many apps” that people would use every day because they offer such a seamless, integrated, contextualized and efficient experience.” 

Nowadays there are several Super Apps that not only allow users to chat, post pictures and videos, but also send money and pay for services, order and pay for a taxi or meals, and even arrange a visit by a doctor – this and much more can be done conveniently, quickly and at one place via a Super App.

WeChat – China’s app for everything 

Let’s take a closer look at the most famous Super App WeChat, which was initially launched as a messaging app by one of China’s largest technology companies “Tencent” in 2011. Nearly a decade later, the inconspicuous app turned into a Super App, with 1,225 billion monthly active users (in the fourth quarter of 2020) and more than 1 million additional “mini programs” which can be used right away without downloading. The Super App also features a digital wallet system called “WeChat Pay” for online transactions and mobile payments. WeChat has become a market leading Super App which has transformed the daily life of users in many ways.

Asia leads the way – does the West follow suit?

After WeChat established itself in China several years ago, Super Apps are slowly but surely developing outside the great empire as well. The Russian-Dutch company Yandex, which is responsible for the search engine of the same name, offers a variety of services alongside its Google counterpart. These include, for example, traffic plans for public transport and the procurement of cabs. The company is combining these services in an app. Users of „Yandex Go – Taxi and Delivery“ can expect an extensive range of services, including the procurement of cabs, courier services for deliveries of all kinds, and timetables for surface transportation.

Danill Shuleyko, CEO of Yandex.Taxi describes the app as follows: “Yandex Go will enable people to solve any task that involves moving around the city quickly and on time. […] We leverage our technology and unite our existing Yandex platforms within a single super app to simplify everyday tasks, making multi-tasking easy for everyone.“

It remains unclear to what extent the app will penetrate further European spheres. However, it should be noted that the new Super App is already available in 12 of the 15 post-Soviet states and Serbia.

Contrasting Yandex Go, which focuses on transportation, is the South American Super App Rappi. Available in nine Latin American countries, the app is primarily designed for consumption and comes up with a bunch of functions. Users of the app get the opportunity to easily make express deliveries, purchase pharmaceutical products 24/7 or order from supermarkets. The app also integrates a payment service provider, a digital travel agency, and a courier service.

The bitter cost of convenient Super Apps

While using WeChat, it is not necessary to download additional apps, to log in again since everything is in one place – it is time saving and everyday life seems to be easier – but this convenience comes at a price.

It has to be taken into account when using WeChat in China, users‘ real identities can be traced back to a person, as they are registered with a mobile phone number, which is linked to the national ID in China. Note also that the data is used by WeChat’s algorithms to send targeted ads to users for commercial purposes. 

Apart from that, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior has warned against Chinese payment apps in its 2019 report on the protection of the constitution with regard to political espionage. According to the report, Chinese, but also German citizens in Germany can use payment systems from Chinese companies such as Tencent (WeChat Pay) and Alibaba (Alipay). „Their data servers are located in China, so access to them by Chinese state authorities is possible.“ writes the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The Eastern European „Yandex Go“ and the Latin American Super App „Rappi“ should also be treated with caution. This is based on the fact that it is easy for companies to create extensive user profiles. The greatest danger here is that a provider gains extensive data on a person. Specifically, this means that Yandex Go can not only aggregate how a user moves, but also record when they do so and how long they use a certain type of transport. In combination with the data from the in-house search engine, to which a user is ideally logged in, a very detailed user profile can be developed after only a short time.

Unlike Yandex Go, Rappi cannot access further data such as that of a search engine, but the Super App can nevertheless obtain just as much sensitive data. Even an aggregation of the products ordered in the supermarket provides information about how the person lives or eats. By combining the payments made via the company’s own financial service provider and the log of the pharmaceutical products ordered, the user profile can be easily expanded to include the financial and health status of a person.

To sum it up

The examples are given here show very clearly how easy it is for operators of Super Apps to create distinctive user profiles, which could possibly be used to predict a person’s next actions. In addition, there is the risk that personal data can be sold to third parties. Due to the amount of sensitive data of a single person, especially the databases of Super Apps are extremely interesting for criminals.

If one is insecure and afraid of “losing privacy” or does not want too many unnecessary footprints on such Super Apps, we recommend not downloading such apps. Apps should be fun and give users a good feeling at the end of the day. In the end, the question should always be asked how useful an app is in relation to the amount of personal data that has to be given away for it.

The following sources were used for the article:

Chen, Z. T.; Cheung, M. (2018), Privacy perception and protection on Chinese social media: a case study of WeChat, Ethics and Information Technology (2018) 20:281–284

Chozan (2021), All You Need to Know About WeChat Mini Programs, https://chozan.co/all-you-need-know-wechat-mini-programs/#8_How_many_WeChat_mini-programs_are_there 

Fehr, M. (2020), Finger weg von China-Apps Alipay und Wechat, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. https://www.faz.net/aktuell/finanzen/verfassungsschutz-warnt-vorsicht-vor-china-apps-alipay-und-wechat-16862155.html 

Mast, S. (2020), Are Digital Ecosystems The Secret To Building And Growing A Strong Economy?, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/08/20/are-digital-ecosystems-the-secret-to-building-and-growing-a-strong-economy/?sh=e808fce2526d 

Rappi Inc (2021), Rappi – Food delivery and more, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rappi-food-delivery-and-more/id984044296

Rappi Inc (2021), Website, https://www.rappi.com/ 

Ta, K. (2020), Top 8 Successful Super Apps Examples In The World 2021, https://agiletech.vn/super-apps-examples-review-2021/ 

Tencent (2021), Website – Milestones, https://www.tencent.com/en-us/about.html#about-con-3 

Tencent (2021), 2020 Fourth Quarter and Annual Results, https://static.www.tencent.com/uploads/2021/03/24/b83f5784d0579b51cf8515cf560b4256.pdf 

Yandex Apps (2021), Yandex Go — taxi and delivery, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.yandex.taxi&hl=de&gl=US 

Photo by: Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash