Turning Twitter into a Super App
After Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other popular social platforms attempted to turn their platforms into super apps; Twitter is now trying to go in the same direction.
A super-app is any platform application that can cover all of its users’ needs without having to leave the app at all. This means that the user can shop, make payments, play games, and socialize, using just the one app. WeChat is a successful example of a super app, and it has over a billion active users.
In several interviews Elon Musk has clearly declared that he wants to turn Twitter into a super app, attaining motives from WeChat and praising it as “really an excellent app”. Elon Musk believes that there is a massive opportunity for Twitter to be a super- app since users would not be able to access WeChat outside China: for Musk, Twitter would become a similar super-app version of Wechat-style in places where WeChat cannot be reached.
Imagine being able to share your photos and videos, ask for a food delivery, request a taxi, make a reservation, send money to your friends, shop, watch any movie you like, and listen to your favorite songs all on one app, and with having only one account. And you do not even need to give your personal information to several different platforms for only a few features that you occasionally need.
Even though there are plenty of platforms that have tried to be supper-apps, many have ultimately failed in achieving it. So, how has WeChat become a platform that has over one billion active users daily? The major reason lies with the fact that in a country like China, which banned Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Netflix, and many platforms from different categories, WeChat has become a substitute for them all. Conversely, Western and most of the countries around the world can access all the features of a super-app with different platforms. And accessing them is not difficult since you do all of it with the same phone.
For Twitter, to be a super-app, it also comes along with its own set of difficulties. One of the major challenges that Twitter will face is adapting secure and reliable payment system requirements. For instance, besides the necessity of using WeChat, its victory in China partly resulted from the widespread use of mobile payments within the country. Twitter will need to find a way to implement a similar system that can be trustworthy for its users.
Another challenge that Twitter will very likely encounter is related to user privacy. With the surging inspection of large tech companies and their users’ data management and processing, Twitter will have to ensure its users that their personal information will be kept safe and used only for the services it provides.
In addition, Twitter will have to work hard to make great improvements in its offering in order to attract and retain users since it may have many competitors. This might include partnerships with companies in various fields, such as e-commerce, ride-hailing, and gaming, that can bring added value to the platform.
Even though Twitter has the potential to succeed in this field, it will have to overcome multiple challenges due to its unique strengths and the changing nature of technology and user expectations. Twitter can become a super app, indeed. The target for Twitter’s super-app journey is to reach one billion active users, which is a challenging goal. The effort that Twitter is making to integrate more features and simplify its use will definitely make it a popular platform.
- Shakar Lateef