The western world fundamentally misunderstands superapps

As a mobile app developer who has created two superapps and worked for a Chinese company developing another, I've gained unique insights into a phenomenon that the Western world often misinterprets: superapps. I'd like to share my thoughts and findings on the topic.

Superapps were conceived with three primary objectives11Notice that 'To be good to the end user' is not an objective. Superapps tend to be very exploitative by design.:

• To minimize context switching by providing a consistent user interface across various functions.
• To increase user retention by creating a comprehensive digital ecosystem that's hard to escape.
• To circumvent app store restrictions by offering deeply integrated web-based applications within a specialized browser.

This naturally works towards a philosophy of centralized control over the experience, or in simple terms; everything you can imagine in one app.

Here's another way to explain it:

You can't force culture #

The disparity in superapp adoption between Eastern and Western markets can be traced to fundamental cultural differences. In Eastern societies, the quest for convenience and efficiency frequently outweighs privacy concerns. Eastern cultures tend to be more collectivist in nature, alongside having a greater susceptibility to peer influence22I believe this is the reason why shopping livestreams are so popular on Douyin.. This pushes users towards a select few widely-adopted apps. Western societies tend to be more individualistic, which leads to a fragmented ecosystem.

Here's a chart to show the mindset that users in both regions might have, based on prior experience developing superapps:

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