Tata Group raises competition for Jio, Amazon, Paytm, Flipkart; to come up with superapp

In a move that is likely to heat up India’s super app battle, Tata Group has also decided to come up with its own super app and raise competition for existing giants including Reliance Jio, Amazon, Paytm, and Flipkart Group. The company is working on an omnichannel digital platform to bring together its various consumer businesses under one channel. “It will be a super app, a lot of apps in apps and so on … We have a very big opportunity … How do we give a simple online experience connecting all of this, and at the same time a beautiful omnichannel experience? That is the vision,” N Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons said, the Financial Times newspaper reported.

The company looks to leverage its consumer base comprising hundred millions in India which are spread across various categories and build a “world-class platform out of India to serve the Indian consumer.” Tata Group operates in several categories such as groceries, airlines, retail stores, hospitality, watches etc under various brands such as Tata CLiQ, Starbucks, Westside, Vistara, Croma, Star Bazar etc. The service is likely to be developed by Tata Group’s newly formed entity Tata Digital, according to sources.

What is a superapp?

Superapp as a concept first emerged in China and southeast Asia. Internet companies in these countries realised the potential in clubbing services such as shopping, payments, cab booking, food services, etc. on their platforms and realised better revenues. This included WeChat, GoJek, Grab, among others. Via a superapp, traffic from social media and communication gets directed to additional services and a superapp basically serves as a one-stop shop for a wide range of products and services. Smartphone penetration is key to the success of superapps.

In India, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm, and Flipkart Group-owned PhonePe are evolving into super apps. Reliance Industries Ltd, for example, is offering a bouquet of services such as content streaming, shopping, payments, messaging, games, etc under its Jio umbrella.