What GoPay’s new standalone app says about GoTo’s ‘super-app’ strategy

GoTo recently announced the launch of GoPay, its digital wallet, as a standalone app in Indonesia.

In the press release that accompanied the launch, GoTo’s president of financial technology Hans Patuwo said that a standalone app would allow the company to “reach a much wider range of people in Indonesia, including those who are not Gojek and Tokopedia users.”

While the new app has the potential to draw in a new segment of users not already part of the firm’s ecosystem, the move raises questions on GoTo’s super-app strategy, its ability to balance the dual aims of broadening financial inclusion and monetizing its platform, and the path forward for the tech giant in its home market.

New users “want something different”

Previously, GoPay was only available through the Gojek and Tokopedia apps, which have collectively been downloaded by over 200 million users in Indonesia.

GoTo is selling the standalone GoPay app as an opportunity to “bring financial services to more people in the country,” especially the 97 million adults who are unbanked.

But why not just focus on having these users download the Gojek or Tokopedia app?

Patuwo tells Tech in Asia that GoTo’s research indicated that there were many potential users not yet in its ecosystem who “wanted and needed something different.”

He highlights that at less than 25 megabytes, GoPay’s app size on Android devices is “one third to one quarter” the size of the equivalent apps for Gojek or Tokopedia, making it easier for users whose phones have a small storage capacity.

GoPay CEO Hans Patuwo / Photo credit: GoTo Financial

While this is “not something that most in the affluent segment think about,” many users in Indonesia have entry-level mobile phones, Patuwo notes. For these users, the size of the app is an important consideration.

“We want to increase the addressable market. There’s a reason they are not currently using our existing offerings, and hence the GoPay app was born,” he adds.

According to GoTo, an app dedicated purely to financial services has a less cluttered interface and a more “simple and user-friendly” design.

The firm’s initiative to increase its addressable market is similar to the strategy of its super-app rival Grab, whose platform offers an ever-increasing array of services.

In its Q4 2022 earnings call, Grab CFO Peter Oey said the platform intends to “increase demand by providing affordable services,” including relaunching carpooling in Singapore and charging less for food delivery in exchange for a longer delivery time.

Avoiding feature bloat

Monetization through lending