- Only 2% worldwide believe their government should be trusted to create a superapp
- 65% of the UK population does not trust the government in general
Superapps are ubiquitous in many parts of Asia, most noticeably China’s WeChat and Singapore’s Snapp. However, superapps are yet to make their way into the mainstream in Europe and North America.
But who is supposed to create them specifically for those markets? Certainly not the government, worldwide polls claim.
Johnathan Merry, CEO of BanklessTimes.com commented on these results:
CEO of BanklessTimes.com
According to research analyzed by BanklessTimes.com, people trust the Big Tech companies seven times more when it comes to building superapps compared to their governments doing the same.
What is a superapp?
A superapp is a collection of multiple functions within a single app. Most of them give you the option of ordering food, buying a movie ticket, and checking your bank account, all within an elegant and lightweight system.
They are influential not only in making day to day life easier, but also changing the way people spend money. For example, China’s superapp innovations have “cemented themselves at the heart of Chinese commercial life.”
Government Trust, and the Development of Superapps
According to a worldwide survey, barely 2% of consumers would trust the government with building a superapp. Conversely, an average of 12% to 13% of consumers would trust the Big Tech to do the same.
The two main factors are misuse and spying of personal information and data, while the other boils down to lack of trust in a government’s efficacy. The handling of the Covid Pandemic certainly put a strain on many people’s levels of trust.
For example, 79% of Americans feared government surveillance during Covid-19. Since superapps are notorious for mining user data, it makes sense that only 1% of polled Americans trust their government to handle such an app.
Furthermore, a majority of Americans do not believe the government is transparent, that it listens to the public, and that it is capable of actually helping its citizens.
This lack of faith in efficacy and transparency is a trend apparent in many other countries as well. For example, only 35% of the UK population trusts their government. In Germany, trust in the government completely tanked during Covid. In Australia, people believe businesses are a greater unifying force in society than their government.
So what does the future hold for Western superapps? Governments won’t likely build them, but people do trust Big Tech more. Whether companies like PayPal, or their local bank, will build it, only time will tell.
