super-app

English

Alternative forms

• super app, superapp

Etymology

From super +‎ app. Attested from a 2010 speech by BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis at Mobile World Congress (see quotations below).

Noun

super-app (plural super-apps)

1. (technology, Internet) A mobile or web application that can provide multiple services.
   • 2010 February, 10:25, in Mobile World Congress 2010 Keynotes: Mike Lazaridis, President, Co-CEO, RIM‎^[1], spoken by Mike Lazaridis:

     We think these applications are so compelling that we just don't call them apps. We call them super apps. Super apps are integrated with other apps, giving you a seamless experience across the device.

   • 2019 October 18, “Introducing Super App: a New Approach to All-in-One Experience”, in Infopulse‎^[2]:

     However, despite increased interest from tech players, it is the financial sector that strongly gravitates towards the super app approach. In particular, the newly-emerged digital banks and FinTech players are at full speed ahead into transforming their ecosystem of services into open banking marketplaces.

   • 2020 June 19, Marc Steinberg, “LINE as Super App: Platformization in East Asia”, in Social Media + Society, volume 6, number 2, →DOI:

     LINE and the regional convergences of super apps in East Asia are a potent reminder of the need to analyze platforms outside of the bi-polar hegemony of the United States versus Chinese tech world—which increasingly frames journalistic discourse and academic research—and of the need to attend to the historical and regional particularities of platforms and their cultural impacts.

   • 2022 April 5, Chaitali Chakravarty, “Super App may Grow Westside Reach by 10x”, in The Economic Times, New Delhi:

     The Tata super app, due to be launched on April 7, will bring about a potential 10-fold increase in the number of customers for Westside, which is the group's retail store chain, Tata Trusts director Noel Tata has said.

   • 2022 October 5, Zoe Kleinman, “Elon Musk, Twitter and the mysterious X app”, in BBC News‎^[3]:

     He could well be eyeing something along the lines of the hugely successful Chinese app WeChat. That's a kind of "super app" which incorporates a lot of different services including messaging, social media, payments and food orders—there is as yet no such thing in the west.