Uber gears up for super app launch

The rideshare giant said it will soon add plane, train, and rental-car booking to its app in the U.K. It also said it may scale these services beyond the U.K. if the new services gain traction.

Why should we care?
While it’s set its sights on being an “Amazon for transport” at this current phase, Uber seems poised to compete with the likes of PayPal and Walmart to create a super app—a single app that does everything, from travel to finance to e-commerce. China’s WeChat, the original super app, handles billions of dollars a day through WeChat Pay. Uber, PayPal, and Walmart appear in a race to be the first super app in the U.S., with Uber using the U.K. as a similar, but smaller, testing ground for some of these new features. PayPal seems further in development than Uber, though Uber first announced its super app plans in 2018; last fall, PayPal unrolled a slew of features, including a high-yield savings account, rewards, payroll direct deposit, and BNPL services. Uber’s pilot program in the U.K. will probably be rushed as a result: an effort to catch up with other super app aspirants ASAP. Super apps have a leg up on other fintech or plain tech providers by minimizing AML/KYC friction with a single point of access, but this is also their Achilles’ heel. Chinese regulators have come down on WeChat Pay in recent weeks, delivering a serious blow to Tencent, WeChat’s holding company. If super apps take off in the U.S., and succeed in taking a sizable market share, then we could expect anti-trust regulators to intervene in the medium term.