Why Doesn't the West Have Super Apps? (And What Small Apps Can Do About It)

Short answer: the West has no super app mainly because two app stores own the door. In China, apps like WeChat and Alipay became the place people start their day before anyone else controlled that spot, and they let thousands of other services run inside them. In the West, Apple and Google already sat between every app and every user, took a toll on digital purchases and limited apps that host other apps. Card payments that already worked, and stricter rules on sharing data, did the rest. So the Western super app, if it arrives, is more likely to be assembled from small apps that click together than built by one company.

More than a billion people in China run a large part of their day from one app. A taxi, lunch, rent, a doctor's appointment, paying a friend back: all in the same place, behind the same login.

In the West, each of those is its own app with its own login, and none of them talk to each other. You don't notice it until you count. How many apps did you open today to get through one ordinary errand?

What is a super app?

A super app is a single app that hosts many services, usually including other companies' services, behind one identity and one wallet. WeChat started as messaging, added payments, and in 2017 opened "mini programs": small apps from other businesses that run inside WeChat without being installed separately. Alipay went the other way, from payments outwards, and ended up in a similar place. Grab and Gojek built similar models in Southeast Asia.

The defining feature isn't the number of features. It's that third parties build inside it, and the user never leaves.

Why did super apps take off in China?

There's no single cause, and anyone who gives you one is selling something. The explanations that come up most often:

• Phones came first. For a very large number of people the smartphone was their first computer, so habits formed on mobile from day one.
• Payments were up for grabs. Card use was far lower than in the US or Europe, so mobile payments became the default way to pay instead of competing with an established habit.
• Messaging already had the daily habit. The app you open fifty times a day is the natural place to put everything else.
• Third parties were invited in. Mini programs gave every business a way to reach users without an app-store install.

Each of these on its own helps. Together they let one app become the front door before anyone else claimed it.

Why doesn't the West have super apps?

Again, a combination. But one reason matters far more than the others for anyone building software.

1. Two app stores already own the door

In the West, the door to the user was claimed early. Apple and Google sit between every app and every phone. Every app has to get through their store. Digital purchases made inside apps carry their commission, commonly 15–30%. And store rules have historically limited apps that run other developers' code inside them. Those rules have only recently started to loosen, and with conditions.

That changes the economics of a super app completely. In China, WeChat was the door, so it could invite others in. In the West, any would-be super app is itself a tenant behind someone else's door, paying a toll on what it sells and following someone else's rules about what it can host.

Every app pays a toll to get in, so no app gets to be the door. That's the core of it. If you want to argue that the West does have a super app, the strongest candidate is the phone's operating system itself.

2. Payments already worked

Western consumers had credit and debit cards long before smartphones. There was no gap for a chat app to fill by becoming a wallet, and "pay inside the messaging app" solved a problem most people didn't have.

3. Regulation and privacy

A super app works by sharing identity, payment and behaviour data across many services. Data protection rules in Europe, competition scrutiny of large platforms on both sides of the Atlantic, and a general wariness of one company knowing everything all make that harder.

4. Habits had already formed

By the time anyone tried, Western users had spent a decade collecting single-purpose apps and learning to trust different companies for different things.

Several Western companies have announced "everything app" ambitions. None has become the default door, and the reasons above explain why that's harder than it sounds.

So what does the Western super app look like?

Probably not one app. More likely a lot of small apps that click together.

One app alone is a toy. Five that click together are a product. Picture a scheduling app that clicks onto an invoicing app, so every booked call bills itself. Add a contracts app, and the client signs before the call. Add an email tool, and the follow-up sends itself.

The user stops juggling five logins and gets one thing that does the whole job. And every one of those five apps can sell the other four to the people already using it.

This doesn't need anyone to own the door. Each product stays independent, stays in the app store under its own name and keeps its own customers. What changes is that the products show up inside each other at the moment the user needs the next step. We call that a scenario collaboration: several products serving the same customer at different steps of the same job.

What holds a bundle of small apps together?

Plastic bricks stay together because of grip: the friction between the studs and the brick above. A bundle of apps has the same problem. The technical connection is the easy part; with a coding agent, building one side of an integration is often a day's work. What holds the build together is agreeing three things up front:

1. Who gets paid what. When a customer buys the invoicing app from inside the scheduling app, the scheduling app should earn on that sale, automatically. If it doesn't, it has no reason to keep the door open. (Here's how to split revenue between two SaaS companies without arguing over dashboards.)
2. Who fixes it when it breaks. APIs change. Somebody owns first-line support for each screen, and somebody owns the layer underneath. Decide before the first outage, not during it. Our post on why integrations break after launch covers what to plan for.
3. How anyone leaves. Partnerships end. Agree what happens to shared customers and to the integration when one product walks away.

The moment that grip loosens, the whole build falls apart. Most "integration partnerships" between small products die on exactly these three questions, usually because nobody asked them.

Is a bundle of apps really a super app?

Not quite, and it's worth being honest about the difference.

A bundle gives the user most of what makes a super app useful, which is not having to leave to get the next thing done. It doesn't give anyone the power a super app has. For small software companies that's a feature: nobody has to win for everybody to benefit.

What should you do if you build one of the five apps?

• List what your customer does just before and just after using you. The products serving those steps are your neighbours, not your competitors.
• Pick the ones with the same customer and a different step. Same customer, same job, a different step in getting it done. If you do the same step, you're competitors with a handshake.
• Agree the three things above before anyone builds anything.
• Start with one connection that saves the user a real step, like the booked call that bills itself, not a logo on a partners page.

Where Ordana fits

Ordana is where small software products find the neighbours that share their customer and set up a scenario collaboration with them. That covers the contract, each sale tagged at the payment, and an automatic split through Stripe so every product is paid into its own account. Each member builds its own side of the integration. Ordana makes sure the grip holds.

Frequently asked questions

What is a super app?

A super app is one app that hosts many services, including other companies' services, behind a single login and a single wallet. WeChat and Alipay are the best-known examples. WeChat lets other businesses run "mini programs" inside it, so users can book, order and pay without installing anything else.

Why doesn't the US or Europe have a super app?

Mainly because Apple and Google already control distribution. Every app goes through their stores, digital purchases inside apps carry a commission, and store rules have historically limited apps that host other apps. Card payments that already worked, stricter data and competition rules, and established user habits also made it harder for one app to become the front door.

Will the West ever get a super app?

Possibly, but probably not as a single app from a single company. A more likely path is many independent apps integrating with each other so that the user can finish a whole job in one flow. That gives users most of the benefit without anyone having to own the door.

What is the difference between a super app and a bundle of apps?

A super app is controlled by one company, with one login and one wallet. A bundle is several independent products that integrate with each other and share revenue on the sales that come through those integrations. Each keeps its own customers, billing and brand.

How can a small app become part of a bundle?

Find the products your customer uses just before and just after yours, for the same overall job. Agree who gets paid what on sales that come through the integration, who supports what, and how either side can leave. Then build one integration that saves the user a real step.

Related reading:

• Scenario Collaborations: How Bundled Partnerships Create Revenue No Solo Project Can: the model behind apps that click together.
• How to Split Revenue Between Two SaaS Companies: the first of the three agreements.
• SaaS Integration Maintenance: Why Integrations Break After Launch: the second one.
• What Is a Widget Integration?: how one product shows up inside another.