WhatsApp inching ahead to become India’s First 'Fintech Super-App'

Acc. to a Morgan Stanley Report, the potential market for app-based fintech products could be huge, given that the super-app market size in South Asia itself is estimated to be $4 Bn. 

India, too, can offer similar opportunities as essential services across the economy are bound to increase. For instance, health insurance in India, a below-par 4% of the GDP (gross domestic product), is much lower than the world average of 6.31%. Hence, fintech players are eyeing exponential growth in this segment.

The Indian fintech app space is all too crowded, and there is no clear winner so far even among the top players. In India, Amazon Pay, Paytm , GooglePay and PhonePe are trying to evolve into super-apps by providing a bouquet of payment solutions , bill payment, insurance, loans and gold loans and investment features. 

However, no company has equal expertise and penetration across all segments. For instance, Amazon specialises in e-commerce, bill payments and other payments solutions. Paytm is spread across payments, bill payments, investments, shopping and gaming. PhonePe offers a similar range of offerings. Plus, there are a few telcos who are building several fintech and entertainment solutions.

WhatsApp is taking baby steps in terms of service range and will initially offer affordable health insurance plans from SBI General Insurance. It is also planning to provide micro-pension products (small amounts of money individually saved and invested collectively) and has tied up with HDFC Pension Management and pinBox, a digital micro-pension company, to offer retirement plans. WhatsApp has partnered with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, among others, enabling them to send automated text messages to customers as a B2C communication service. The company also works with JioMart to collate online grocery orders. 

WhatsApp already has a vast user base, one of the primary requirements of a super-app. With its 400 Mn Indian users ,WhatsApp is focusing on being a discovery and payment platform instead of providing traditional fintech products .

But right now, it has too few services to offer and must build and maintain its fintech muscle. The variety of its product portfolio and the speed of implementation will determine whether it can topple the incumbents in India and win the fintech race.

(Excerpts from an Inc42 Article)