Tata's Neu Way

Will salt-to software conglomerate Tata group's super app make the cut?

- ABHIK SEN

THIS YEAR, the Easter weekend was special in India-the holidays commenced on Thursday with Mahavir Jayanti and went on till Sunday. Yet, on the day the long weekend commenced, salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group was hard at work explaining how its latest bet-Tata Neu, which it claims is India's first super app-was a symbol of synergy for the group.

"What we have accomplished is that we have brought all the group brands together... in a way that it makes a compelling value proposition for the customer," N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, said at the post-launch event. The app dropped on Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store on April 7, at the perfect time for many planning for the long weekend. No wonder the app had seen 2.2 million downloads and enrolments till April 14, the day of the event, according to Pratik Pal, CEO of Tata Digital, which owns all e-tailing properties of the Tata group. As of April 24, the app had seen more than a million downloads on the Google Play Store and was the No. 2 shopping app on Apple's App Store.

But what is a super app? P.N. Sudarshan, Partner and TMT Industry Leader at Deloitte India, says it is probably the right time for India to have a super app. According to him, there are three things a country needs, to enable a super app: high smartphone penetration, cheap data, and a large young population which spends a lot of time on mobile phones. India, like China, has all three, but it requires something more from the super app developers: a way to address a heterogeneous population. "And by this, it's not merely converting everything into vernacular; it is also the way you deal with different segments of the population," he says. For example, voice-based interactions for the hinterlands. Industry experts say that the world's most popular super apps have incredible messaging capabilities.