A few years ago i had a talented student who did an internship for Amsterdam municipality, researching the rise of super-apps and their potentials for the city. At that time I had to admit that I hadn’t heard of the term super-apps. Right now it’s everywhere except ‘here’ (in my case the Netherlands). At least, if you have to believe Rest of World, reporting on a new platform named Careem that is popular on the Gulf States.
Unlike Western markets, where Google, Apple, and Meta maintain separate app ecosystems with strict integration limits, in countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, tech giants are following in the footsteps of China’s WeChat.
Dubai-based Careem, which started as a ride-hailing company, has evolved into a comprehensive app handling transportation, food delivery, grocery shopping, payments, and home cleaning. Another local app, Talabat, has expanded beyond food delivery into groceries, health and beauty, and dine-out deals. Communications and fintech app Botim now offers international remittances and bill payments alongside messaging features.
Why do I find this interesting? there are many reasons, among others the platform dynamics of “winner takes all”, or the ‘localization’, or in some cases even ‘indigenization’ of digital platforms to local contexts. But there ‘s another element that strikes me, which is that the mediated experiences of ‘everyday life’ are becoming increasingly mediated by mobile apps. In the case of super-apps this is becoming an even more ‘seamless’ experience, at least that’s the proposition of what is being claimed:
Consumers are increasingly prioritizing convenience, seamless integration, and time efficiency over siloed, single-use solutions,” Rishabh Singh, vice president of products at Botim’s parent company, Astra Tech, told Rest of World. “This is giving people back what matters most — time, and that’s enabling them to focus on what truly counts in their personal and professional lives
What happens to everyday urban life when it is becoming regimented by mobile apps in the direction of “simplified, frictionless experience across multiple services”? What happens to people’s sense of place, of collectivity, and ultimately their own mental capacities – like learning, being inventive, improvisation- to deal with frictions and difficulties?