The End of the 'Super App'?

💡News Alert: X closes payments deal with Visa

The concept of an everything app, often referred to as a “super app” has reached mainstream popularity in Asia. A super app offers a range of features and services all in one place. This often includes messaging, payments, shopping, social networking and more.

The biggest? WeChat, with over 1 billion monthly active users doing everything from chatting to paying for coffee — all in one app.

X’s Evolution Toward a Super App

Of course, it is tempting to create an app that does everything. Elon has been vocal about where he wants to take X. In the recent past, several product expansions have helped him with this vision:

• Integration with financial services — X’s recent partnership with Visa will enable the “X Money Account”. It allows users to transfer money in real-time.

• Content expansion — This is the most natural expansion for X, add more forms of content like long-form, videos, spaces and live-streaming.

• Professional Networking — Venturing into the professional networking realm that LinkedIn currently dominates. X added Job postings and job search as well as real-time communication between job seekers and employees.

Does this all feel a bit all over the place? Absolutely. But as the saying goes: “Throw it at the wall and see what sticks.”

The difference? X has the scale to run high-stakes experiments in record time. They can hypothesize, test, and iterate quickly — finding what works (and what tanks). In this regard, X is faster than most companies could dream of.

The Challenges in Achieving Super App Status

If it were easy, everyone would build a super app, the status of WeChat. You’d think a solid user base and scale the size of X could provide a perfect breeding ground for an ambitious app project like that. But there could be several hurdles that stand in the way:

User Adoption and Trust

It is tough if the app is a long-standing, established service for social media. To shift it towards new features, the user perception needs to change. People open X for news, memes, and debates, not banking or job hunting.

I already have several apps on my phone that address the need for a financial transaction. X will be the last app I would think of to transfer money. The only possibility is if users on X exchange services directly on the platform. Then, they don’t have to leave to open another service - less friction.

Same for content - I go to my usual apps if I seek long-form videos or long reads. I don’t look for a new service to do the same thing. The benefit - X’s edge - it has highly engaged users who love posting — but is it enough?

Market Competition

(Super) Apps work when they solve new pain points. From the section above, X is not tackling anything users struggle with today. None of these “everything app” services are unsolved. This will make it challenging to gain the necessary foothold. That means the only way to win is by being better. Possible? Maybe. But it’s a brutal fight to compete on that.

Regulatory Environment

Entering the payments world is a mountain to climb from a financial regulations perspective. It will swallow many resources to overcome regulatory hurdles. On top of that, X is available in many countries worldwide. Certainly, they will stage the rollouts of these services, but it seems like an endless battle and tons of incoming legal challenges.

Compared to Elon’s other companies that took on and changed massive industries like Tesla and SpaceX, X must hold a very special place in his heart to get this much attention.

Conclusion: What X’s Super App Ambitions Teach Us About App Expansion Strategies

1. Being great at one thing doesn’t mean you will be successful at everything. X mastered social media, but that doesn’t mean users are asking for banking, shopping, or job hunting.

2. User habits are hard to change. It’s easy to add features. It’s hard to get people to try and regularly use them.

3. Solve a new problem; don’t just compete. If an expansion doesn’t fit an unmet need, you might end up just fighting for attention.

4. Regulation can slow even the best players. Fintech is a beast to take on in one country. Taking it on globally is a horde of beasts that even the gates of Gondor can’t hold back.

5. Experiment and execute fast. X has one colossal benefit, though. They have the scale of engaged users to run experiments and see what works and what doesn’t. It can be a testbed for new ideas and might even bring out some revolutionary updates. We’ll see where it goes.