Why Asia’s super apps provide a glimpse into the future

Is there anything super apps can’t do? Beyond offering shopping, payment, communication and a myriad of other functions, super apps are now also time machines, at least according to one report.

Research by Citibank titled “Asia as a Time Machine to the Future” looks at tech adoption across the continent as a window into the future of technology. This is because the bank estimates that Asia adopts new tech eight to 12 years ahead of the West.

As the graphic shows, super apps are one such example of tech that’s largely unique to Asia that may point to the future.

Some of the statistics around the apps are staggering. WeChat, for instance, has 1.3 billion monthly active users, meaning 92% of the Chinese population regularly uses the app.

It’s not just the number of users that’s staggering though. GoTo’s 2020 revenue figure “was equivalent to approximately 2% of Indonesia’s GDP in 2020,” the report noted. In comparison, Meta’s 2021 revenue was roughly 0.5% of GDP in the US.