Adani To Launch ‘Super App’ In The Next 3-6 months

To strengthen its presence in the digital ecosystem, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is reportedly launching a ‘super app’ in the next three to six months that would connect Adani airport passengers with the consumers of the other Adani Group services.

The development comes at a time when some of India’s biggest conglomerates including Tata, and various e-retailers and aggregators are trying to capitalise on the digital boom and the growing app culture to provide an all-inclusive digital experience to their consumers via super apps.

The Gautam Adani-controlled conglomerate Adani Group had spoken about launching a super app in August last year to enable digital transactions in a unified platform.

Adani had earlier said that his company was looking to build the most influential and profitable super app in the world. With a market cap of more than $225.18 Bn, Adani Group’s business portfolio comprises seven publicly traded companies. Adani Group consumers engage at multiple levels with its services including Adani airport, Adani total gas, Adani electricity, Adani Wilmar, and Adani airport.

Besides, the update around the super app, Adani told the Financial Times about plans to invest over $4 Bn in a petrochemical complex at his Mundra port and special economic zone in Gujarat. For all the new business developments and expansion, Adani’s flagship listed company Adani Enterprises is also set to seek shareholder approval on Friday (November 25) to raise INR 200 Bn in a public share offering.

Today, India’s super app landscape includes the likes of Tata Digital’s Tata Neu, Reliance’s MyJio among others.

While the deep penetration of internet and smartphone adoptions create a significant user base for the super apps, as per an Inc42 report, the super apps are set to face multiple challenges in the country for varied reasons.

In a volatile regulatory environment, the government’s continuous exercise of releasing new guidelines for the digital economy could affect the various sectors and sub-sectors covered by different super apps. Data privacy can turn out to be another primary threat to the existence of super apps.

In fact, Tata Neu has been receiving user complaints related to poor experience and payment issues. The app also failed to sustain the initial hype with which it was launched due to multiple glitches.

While super apps could face multiple operating challenges in India, particularly due to its widely diversified markets, the consumer internet sector is expected to cross the $1.6 Tn market size by 2025 in India, making more opportunities for such tech-enabled one-stop services.