Business | Super traps

Why Asia’s super-app companies are stuck in a rut

Consumer-tech darlings are struggling to grow rapidly while becoming profitable

Paytm signs at a shop in Aligarh, India.
Image: New York Times / Redux / eyevine
|Singapore

American technology barons occasionally bemoan the lack in the West of “super-apps”, multifaceted online platforms offering a variety of different services. But the global interest in the business model belies the difficulties facing existing super-apps in Asia.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The super-app droop”

From the July 1st 2023 edition

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