Examining the rise of the fintech ‘super app’

Superapps are the territory of the user experience experts, who aim to keep customers engaged with their products, collect data on their behavior and provide a better service than the competition.

What is a super app?

Essentially, it’s an online platform that offers personalized experiences through a series of mini-apps that appeal to the company’s customer demographic.

The mechanical way to describe a super app is that it is the Swiss Army Knife of apps. It has a wide range of features: ideally, a customer can visit and perform a variety of tasks through the platform without having to click away to another website. An example would be a banking app that can offer budgeting services, allow you to pay taxes and utility bills, and also manage your insurance policies. It is multidimensional.

According to Jason Wong, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner: “It’s more than just a complex mobile app or web portal. Superapps are built as platforms to deliver modular mini-apps that users can activate for personalized app experiences.”

He goes on to say that software engineering managers should determine whether a super app aligns with their composable business strategies.

Who uses super apps?

According to an industry study by ReportLinker, an estimated 7.1 billion people globally use smartphones, and the rate is growing by 10% every year.

The use of smartphones has created the demand for super apps – not always for the best reasons. The Chinese government has embraced the concept, largely because the country’s leadership has long been concerned with developing methods to interact digitally with its 1.8 billion citizens.

However, super apps also have a wide range of uses. For example, in January, the US-based fintech Medsi launched its new “fintech and healthtech proposition for customers in Mexico”. The platform enables customers – a demographic that has a high number of residents without any health insurance options – to access healthcare services through its unique payment gateway and telehealth offering.

TMedsi offers a revolving line of credit that can be used by families for essential or optional healthcare services and procedures. Once approved via an intuitive, three-minute application process, users can easily schedule payments, while Medsi pays the private doctor or clinic directly upon fulfillment via a QR code using the Medsi Credit app on their smartphones, available via Google Play or App Store. It’s easy, fast, affordable and provides a much needed service. So, what’s not to like?

What are the disadvantages?

According to a recent report from designer trade title UXDesign.cc, while super apps are considered a growing trend, the consumer market also treats them with a degree of suspicion.

There is a general lack of consumer trust – especially when it comes to data collection and the growing force of the tech industry’s ongoing privacy and security issues.

Ani Ghanti writes: “It seems like every week there is a news story about a public failure of confidence in big tech. Over the years, this has gradually weakened consumer confidence. Contrary to my first point about mobile-first generation in emerging economies, the developed economies have experienced the computer era of the internet and have “grown up” with it over the past three decades.

“They are aware of the potential for security holes and data abuse by app providers. So to convince users to adopt a super app built by Google or Meta (or anyone else), the value proposition should be really compelling.”

Superapps can offer broader services at lower costs

In the case of Medsi, the super app is already providing a valuable service to families who might otherwise have to forgo the luxury of healthcare – and it’s also saving them money.

Speaking about the potential of combining fintech platforms with other offers, Manuel Villalvazo, CEO and co-founder of Medsi, explains: “The new offer is designed for the 55% plus of Mexicans who belong to the informal sector or are new to credit, making progress towards true, incremental financial inclusion.

He continues: “There is massive pent-up demand to be unlocked in Mexico and we have created even higher than expected demand in just five months since we went commercial.

“With the availability of our savings-to-credit financing solution, a much wider set of customers can now access the treatments and procedures they want via a different type of ‘health insurance’ that they own and control.”

Villalvazo points out that Mexico has the second highest healthcare spending worldwide, with a whopping 45% of OOP costs covered directly by patients, making the country an outlier even in Latin America. The potential that the superapp model provides therefore has far-reaching implications.