To Differentiate, Super Apps Are Vital but The People Element Is Crucial

Enabling Super Apps are trends in social behavior. Factors like people spending more time online, more cost conscious and spending time to research the best deals by carefully considering discounts and loyalty benefits. The attractiveness of getting paid to check-in and play games varies with age but are factors too. Better understanding of user social behavior is driving growth in super apps and helping to build trust. Trust is an important component in brand loyalty and user retention. With the help of AI and analytics, user specific data collected can be used to personalize offers and achieve better monetization of users. Partnerships that leverage strengths in skills, technology, market development experience and reach drive scalability. Large ecosystems, software more widely used, markets better monetized, limitless boundaries in scope or geography bring better returns. The reasons are there for how Super Apps can help.

For some of us, Super Apps may work well in-country and while traveling for work. However, there is room for improvement, especially in capturing customer journeys. For example, the scenario of the elderly that needs help with booking services and the holiday maker overseas that considers cash and patience over running out to get a SIM card or taking on roaming charges. These days, payments can still work if offline on some Super Apps and some taxi apps do allow bookings on behalf of others. I have seen this as part of airport and hotel guest services but rarely otherwise. Gaps remain in workaround flows and exist because vendors build the best that it can, and telcos procure what they need to meet profitability targets. They do their best to meet the needs of users. I question if these practices can continue. People should question why some teams with the same resources do better. Ultimately, after technology is in place, it comes down to the people element. ??

Even within a general context, Super Apps help users manage their everyday activities seamlessly and with ease. Some of these activities may or may not involve interaction with multiple businesses and can get quite complex. Successful Super Apps, allow users to collect points from multiple business and redeem points across businesses. Rakuten Mobile with Rakuten Group, True with CP group and Globe with Ayala group in the telecom world are good examples of this. Super Apps have been particularly critical for telcos when implementation has been motivated by customer experience needs e.g., in the case of Dialog Axiata’s WoW and Jio’s My Jio. For telcos, the Super App attracts users and potential users to use it, and this gives telcos an active channel to them. Through this channel, engagement can increase with tailored campaigns, and loyalty and retention can improve with more careful consideration of user needs.

At global level, over the next few years, regions will be at different stages of development. APAC has traditionally led mobile infrastructure development out of need. This contrasts with other regions, for example, Europe that has traditionally led in fiber infrastructure development. However, things are changing. With fiber powering 5G driven by industry led innovation, changes in Europe are driving greater progress. However, where culturally mobile first adoption is not second nature, this is where other regions can adopt learnings and technology from APAC to shorten lead times. From where we are in hard economic times, slow growth does not have to mean limited progress. History has taught us that all the failures of the past have led to the progress that we enjoy today.

With AI and analytics, finding growth will be easier. Going forward, growth will be driven by being able to understand users enough to address pain points, figuring out what personalization really means, offering the right combination of services, and driving value through Super Apps. Technology offers tools to address local preferences and to gain better rapport e.g., with sentiment and aided problem solving in customer service, but it is the people that make the most of it. Strong partnerships with right partners can make the difference. The results are starting to show both in better performance and returns. Beyond this, we can do better by putting more thought into making personalization efforts appeal to all age groups and globalizing solutions for universal appeal. To differentiate, Super Apps are vital, but the people element is crucial.