Kryptonite
“Kryptonite” – a cartoon that illustrates the Super App concept is unlikely to occur in the United States.
Starting in Asia with the likes of WeChat and GoJek, tech companies started creating apps that managed everything from communications to payments and banking, all built on a common transaction and consumer data platform.
Based on this success, many Fintechs in the US looked to emulate this experience with a report by PYMNTS finding that 72% of all respondents said they were at least “slightly” interested in a super app.
But, US companies that started down this route have rarely made headway beyond their core market (e.g. Chime, Cash App).
Confounding this apparent lack of success, Elon Musk justified his acquisition of Twitter as “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” However, it’s unlikely that Elon will be any more successful because the US market does not exhibit the same characteristics as those in Asia or Africa where the Super App model has worked.
The US market is dominated by oligopoly platforms (e.g. Apple, Google) that have strict marketplace rules on data sharing, business models and well-established transaction platforms that provide little oxygen for a new entrant.
Furthermore, the assumption that younger US consumers want a bundled service offering is not reflected today where it is not uncommon for a Millennial couple to have 25 to 40 financial relationships, encompassing their financial accounts and the tools they use to manage those accounts.
