Ask HN: Where Are the Super-Apps?

4 points·ecuaflo··5 comments

I’m visiting other countries where they have super-apps [0] for government services, managing one’s personal info, shopping, etc. Yet in the US I’ve been hard pressed to find such conveniences. Uber is the closest I can think of. Where are the rest?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-app

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Facebook.

Facebook Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Gaming, Facebook Dating, Facebook Pay (sorry, Meta Pay), Facebook This, Facebook That. All in one app. (I think, I don't actually use Facebook.)

same, didn’t even think of it

Conway's law gives a good framework for understanding this lack in the US. In certain countries, everything needs to be under a single careful eye. In the US, it is preferred to have many different companies sprouting at once all around the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law

The super-app premise didn't really pan out in SEA as it did in China. Grab & Gojek predominantly serve logistics use cases (ride hailing, deliveries), their payments/wallet features just backup these. Bill payment & general POS payments are being dominated by the banks and E-Comm took the shopping & pay-later.

In the US it is called an operating system. You pay about 30% to the people creating them. Sometimes they let you run your own software on the side but that bug is being slowly patched.

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