The future of mobile super apps in Africa
While the launch of mobile super apps has been successful in Asia, where they are extremely popular, they are still a foreign concept in Africa and are yet to take off.
CAPE TOWN, July 20 (ANA) – While the launch of mobile super apps has been successful in Asia, where they are extremely popular, they are still a foreign concept in Africa and are yet to take off.
According to CNBC, super apps such as WeChat, Grab, GoTo and Paytm have each dominated their respective markets and in doing so have taken full advantage of their extensive user base.
Singapore-based multi-services company Grab operates in eight countries and boasts 187 million users.
India’s Paytm serves more than 350 million users, while South Korea’s KakaoTalk messaging app has 87% of the country’s population subscribed to its platform.
“Some of these countries have young generations who are digitally savvy and you can see that in India,” said Arjun Kharpal, a tech specialist.
“China just jumped straight into mobile quite quickly and so the internet was developing fast and smartphones got huge,” he said.
What is a super app?
A super app is an app that hosts multiple services that a consumer would need in their day-to-day lives, which includes messaging, food delivery, banking, music streaming or e-hailing.
Grab, traditionally an e-hailing company, evolved from solely being an online taxi-booking service to include digital payment services, package and food delivery as well as financial services such as loans, insurance and investment options.
Are super apps suitable for Africa?
Super apps emerged in China and a major reason for their success was that there was no Google Play store available. This meant that traditionally popular apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and many others were not available to Chinese consumers.
According to a report by the Brookings Institution, Africa is a fast-growing mobile-first market, and super apps will allow for more seamless options.
CNN reported that South African communications company Vodacom announced last year that it was partnering with China’s Alibaba group to create an African-first super app which would provide multiple services through its VodaPay app.
“I think there are a lot of developments in the financial services space,” said Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub.
“The super apps play a big part… Because what you are giving people is the ability to sell their products online.
“What you’re now doing is giving merchants the ability to sell their products to a much wider customer base,” he said.
Joosub added that currently more than 55 million customers are buying financial service products from Vodacom from across the continent.
In the next 24 months, Vodacom is looking to provide 5G connectivity to all of its customers and integrate various lifestyle and financial activities into a super app, which will be the launch of the Chinese Alipay app in South Africa.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher