In a constantly evolving world where the search for more effective and convenient solutions is a daily routine, Super Apps are gaining popularity among users. Integrating all functionalities into a single mobile app represents a mobile-first and user-friendly solution that satisfies the needs of  users, especially the newer generations

 Let’s take a closer look.

What makes an app “super”?

Successful Super Apps are extremely proficient at satisfying users’ needs through a single application, saving time and providing a personalized user experience. By integrating additional services such as messaging, social networks, and payments, apps such as  Alipay, Revolut, and WeChat offer mini-apps that cater to every need. Personalizing the experience is therefore fundamental to the success of Super Apps, as users can select and install only the mini-apps that meet their preferences.

The current trends in the Super App market

In fact, we are already witnessing a transformation from vertical apps to real ecosystems that simplify the user’s life with minimal time expenditure. Super apps have conquered smartphones in the East, and it is very likely that this will happen soon in the West.

WeChat is the most successful Beijing Super App, offering a wide range of services to its users, including instant messaging, money transfers, a vast marketplace, and more. WeChat has positioned itself as the undisputed leader of the Chinese market by successfully satisfying a wide range of needs.

Even Binance, originally created as a cryptocurrency exchange, has evolved into a broad range of financial and investment services, offering boths elling opportunities and non-financial services. Moving to Indonesia, we encounter Go-Jek, a super app capable of providing more than 20 services, including ride-sharing, food delivery, and medicine delivery. It is estimated that around half of Indonesian users have installed the app, and the food delivery service alone generates annual sales totaling $2 billion.

The West, although a few steps behind, has already initiated the change, and Spotify, Uber, and Facebook are already engaged in the process of becoming Super Apps. Even Elon Musk has announced the creation of X inspired by the success of these “everything apps.” In fact, the future is already happening, and the current scenario is as follows:

Super App and Advertising: A Perfect Match

But if we tried to look beyond the expansion and analyze the untapped potential, we would realize that Super Apps represent a real goldmine for advertisers.

In response to the evolution of privacy protection regulations, various market players are adapting their strategies. As is known, Google has already announced several times the elimination of third-party cookies and its mobile advertising ID – already implemented by Apple – making it increasingly complex to track user behavior within and outside of different applications installed on their smartphones. This implies that information collected on individual users will be limited, and the accuracy of the collected data could be reduced. Companies are therefore shifting towards closed data ecosystems, where advertising is served and managed only through first-party data, called “content fortresses.” Having access to information that embraces multiple aspects of user behavior within a single environment becomes the way to obtain extremely precise targeting.

Super Apps, by their nature, aim to keep users within their ecosystem, thus creating a closed environment. Data derived from this prolonged and varied usage can be used to personalize Ads, increase conversions, and, consequently, increase customer lifetime value. This will result in an extremely low CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) and high conversion rates for parallel products.

Super Apps such as WeChat, Alipay, and Paytm are already introducing applets, i.e., third-party mini-programs, to allow brands to sell their products and services directly within the app ecosystem. Thus, the advertising landscape is changing, and Super Apps are becoming a crucial player in the advertising market.