Tata Digital Plans To Launch Integrated ‘Super App’ To Combine Company’s Consumer Offerings

TATA group’s entry into the tech sector has been marked with the launch of an integrated ‘Super App’ that will combine the company’s consumer offerings on a single platform.  The new app will help TATA compete with business rivals like Reliance and Amazon among others. TATA Digital will function in e-commerce platforms like Tata CLiQ for online grocery store StarQuik and Croma for the online electronic platform.

As per the reports, the app is all set to be launched by December this year. The move came after Reliance Jio had raised $20 Bn from its 15 investors. Reliance digital services through its Jio plans has increased its range of offerings in eCommerce, online grocery, healthcare, and video conferencing, among others. Recently Reliance acquired an online pharmacy NetMeds in order to boost its presence in the field of e-pharmacy. Amazon, on the same line, has tried to increase its online grocery service. In its recent move, it entered the pharmacy and online food delivery segment.

Chairman of Tata Sons Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said that the new ‘Super App’ would help consumers to avail of a range of services, that includes the food and grocery ordering, fashion and lifestyle, consumer electronics and consumer durables, insurance, and financial services, education, healthcare, and bill payments.

The concept of ‘Super App’, first originated in China, when there was a ban from the government on western apps such as Google, YouTube, and Twitter, among others, which triggered the rise of the homegrown app.

Initially, it was seen as a puppet app under the Chinese Government, but the success of WeChat has made the people sit back and ponder. It was launched in 2011 by Tencent which was a Chinese internet giant as a messaging platform, but with the success of the app, it brought in it other features like order takeout, online flight booking, digital payments, movie bookings, and ride-hailing services, among others. WeChat with time became one of the world’s largest standalone mobile applications with 800 Mn monthly active users,

The hike is one such example which says why the super app might be a failure in India. Indian market which is used to western apps puts a lot of competition to homegrown apps in India and this opens up a lot many ways for customers to choose apps from various segments like cab-hailing, hotel and flight booking, movie tickets, food delivery, and eCommerce among others. The huge amount of choices available to the customers in India makes customer loyalty for one single app a big dream and people tend to move from one app to the other. So it ends up like there is only one Super app in India which stands to be the smartphone that has a loyal customer base and it goes up to 500 Mn. It also has a large number of Internet users which makes the country the first option for tech companies to establish their markets.