Elon Musk wants to create an ‘everything app’; what is it?

Source: The post is based on the article “Elon Musk wants to create an ‘everything app’; what is it?” published in the Indian Express on 6^th October 2022.

What is the News?

Elon Musk is thinking about creating an “everything app. According to him, buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.

What is an everything app or a super app?

The concept of an everything app, often referred to as a “super app,” is massively popular in Asia and tech companies across the world have tried to replicate it.

A super app has been described as the Swiss army knife of mobile apps, offering a suite of services for users such as messaging, social networking, peer-to-peer payments and e-commerce shopping.

What are some examples of super apps?

These mega apps are widely used in Asia because mobile is the main form of access to the internet for many people in the region. For example,

a) WeChat of China: Users of this app can hail a car or taxi, send money to friends and family or make payments at stores, use it as an electronic identification system, etc.

b) Grab app of Southeast Asia: It offers food delivery, ride-hailing, on-demand package delivery and financial services and investing.

What are some examples of super apps in India?

Paytm: It has brought together services like payments, ticket bookings, games, online shopping, banking, consumer finance, etc into one app.

PhonePe: It has tied up with companies such as Ola Cabs, Swiggy, Grofers, AJio, Decathlon, Delhi Metro, booking.com, etc to offer these services from within its own app.

Currently, Reliance Industries, under its Jio umbrella, is consolidating various services and offerings.

What are the concerns about the super app?

Super apps have the following concerns. Such as a) They increase the possibility of a monopoly, b) They have concerns about privacy in cases where a super app has onboarded third-party service providers.