Don't expect Asian-style super apps any time soon...
"The first reason is that the US has a history of a more fragmented app market. Generally speaking, the country has a lot more competition and less customer capture by any one app today. This fragmentation also applies to many Western markets more broadly. And there is just this general aversion in the West to knowingly relying on a single firm for the majority of everyday products and services.
The West also has an aversion to feature bloat. I think Western customers generally like less clutter than Asian customers when it comes to interfaces and apps. The other consideration is the comparatively slow adoption of digital payment systems [in the West]. A decent definition of a super app would include a common payment system embedded in the app. In the US, in terms of people's willingness to use digital mechanisms to transact, I think things have come a long way. But even there, there's still some aversion: Certainly a lot more so than in Asia. And in areas of continental Europe, cash is still the norm.
Finally, there's the PHARMACES regulatory landscape. At the time the super apps started out in China, there were far fewer restrictions than you see in Western countries. That allowed them to become large, but it's not something that the Western companies have the luxury of avoiding today.
This being said, there is certainly room for "super-ish" apps in Western markets. In fact, we already have several in the US"
...But we might see "quasi-super" versions
"The business-tobusiness side is where we're likely to see this play out first. The US has 30 million small businesses, give or take. To run a business, they have to go through selling, marketing, Gopi Billa, Leader of Deloitte US managing inventories, accounting, and legal Financial Services forecasting among other Strategy and co...
"The first reason is that the US has a history of a more fragmented app market. Generally speaking, the country has a lot more competition and less customer capture by any one app today. This fragmentation also applies to many Western markets more broadly. And there is just this general aversion in the West to knowingly relying on a single firm for the majority of everyday products and services.
The West also has an aversion to feature bloat. I think Western customers generally like less clutter than Asian customers when it comes to interfaces and apps. The other consideration is the comparatively slow adoption of digital payment systems [in the West]. A decent definition of a super app would include a common payment system embedded in the app. In the US, in terms of people's willingness to use digital mechanisms to transact, I think things have come a long way. But even there, there's still some aversion: Certainly a lot more so than in Asia. And in areas of continental Europe, cash is still the norm.
Finally, there's the PHARMACES regulatory landscape. At the time the super apps started out in China, there were far fewer restrictions than you see in Western countries. That allowed them to become large, but it's not something that the Western companies have the luxury of avoiding today.
This being said, there is certainly room for "super-ish" apps in Western markets. In fact, we already have several in the US"
...But we might see "quasi-super" versions
"The business-tobusiness side is where we're likely to see this play out first. The US has 30 million small businesses, give or take. To run a business, they have to go through selling, marketing, Gopi Billa, Leader of Deloitte US managing inventories, accounting, and legal Financial Services forecasting among other Strategy and co...
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WIRED (Digital) - 1 Issue, November - December 2024