SINGAPORE: Earlier this year, YouGov conducted a poll asking individuals all over the world if they would be interested in an “everything app”—a multi-purpose unified application that would provide a platform for social media posts and messaging that would also allow people to shop, order food, get a ride, make payments and more.
Around the world, half of the respondents (50 per cent) expressed interest in such an app, while 37 per cent were not keen on the idea. Singapore, however, where 73 per cent said they’re interested in using an “everything app,” is the country with the third biggest number of respondents who answered positively, following Indonesia (88 per cent) and the United Arab Emirates (78 per cent). India and Mexico, where 70 per cent of respondents said they felt the same, round out the top 5.
At the other end of the spectrum are the United States and several European countries. Only 27 per cent of the poll’s participants in Denmark had a positive response, the lowest among the 17 markets surveyed.
Twenty-nine per cent of respondents in the US, 30 per cent in Germany, 32 per cent in Great Britain, and 36 per cent in Sweden shared the same sentiments.
“So if you’re working for a tech company looking to market an everything app – or partner your own offering with an existing app – you will hopefully now have a better idea of which markets are open to them, and which may require more convincing,” says YouGov.
Interestingly, more men (67 per cent) expressed interest in a “super app” than women (59 per cent), and respondents aged 18 to 24 also tended to view the app positively.
YouGov surveyed around 18,000 respondents aged 18 and older, including 1,001 Singaporeans.
Grab would be considered a super app of sorts in South East Asia. Having started with ride-hailing, it quickly expanded to food delivery and digital payments, both of which hit it big during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tata Neu, launched in India last year, is the tech-forward country’s first super app. It allows users to buy clothes, gadgets, groceries, book flights, get health checkups, book hotel stays and order five-star meals.
China’s WeChat would be an even more notable example of an “everything app” or a “super app.” On WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing. The app also has WeChat Pay, which is officially referred to as Weixin Pay. /TISG
Read also: Younger Singaporeans more likely ready for an ethnic minority Prime Minister — YouGov Survey