Consumer Services Beyond Connectivity: Super apps playbook

Super apps: An attractive, yet elusive opportunity

Last update: October 2024

As the core connectivity market remains stagnant, telcos are increasingly looking for new digital consumer services to expand their offerings and generate new revenue streams. This playbook considers how mobile operators can increase customer intimacy and bring in new revenue from super apps.

Super apps are attractive to telcos and internet players which want to create a large user base that engages in frequent interactions with the app. However, this goal is quite elusive and only a few have managed to achieve it: Tencent with WeChat is the best example of success that no one else has managed to replicate to date. However, a number of telecom operators, especially in the emerging markets, have accomplished significant results.

This playbook provides an overview of the super apps space. We discuss the different approaches to super apps and why some are more successful than others. We outline recommendations to telcos in both emerging and advanced markets

Super apps tend to be based in ‘mobile-first’ emerging markets, although Uber is an exception 

We help telcos and tech companies understand the different approached to building a super app, both from content perspective and from a process point of view. 

The super apps playbook includes: 

  • An overview of the super apps market 
  • Case studies of key successful super apps, outlining how they work, their ecosystem, their challenges and learnings from the approaches of their creators 
  • Case studies of global apps that have struggled to become super apps 
  • Conclusions 
  • Recommendations for super app creation in the emerging markets 
  • Recommendations for super app creation in the advanced markets