PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
package , or just double-down on what ’ s working well and keep products and services to a minimum in terms of number , but maximum in terms of impact .
“ You only need to look across to China and what ’ s happened with WeChat and AliPay to see how successful the superapp approach can be if executed correctly , but the reality is that getting to that point is incredibly difficult and also requires a bit of luck .”
“ Any business that starts out wanting to become a super-app is going to have a very difficult time . Nail your core products first ”
AHMED KARSLI , CO-FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN , PAPARA
He states that , instead of deliberately setting out to become a super-app , it is possible for brands to become one by stealth : “ As a business we ’ ve always been ambitious , but I must admit when we first started , our goal wasn ’ t to become a super-app – rather it was to focus on a few core products that would really benefit those locally who had been left out of the current financial ecosystem .
“ Along the way , as we got user feedback and saw how our customers were using Papara , we started adding additional elements that we thought would be useful to them . Suddenly , we found ourselves with a collection of useful financial features , all in one package , and at that point we almost accidentally became a super-app .
“ I ’ d say that any business that starts out wanting to become a super-app is going to have a very difficult time . Nail your core products first and then you can start thinking about additional benefits . I ’ ve seen fintechs fail that try to do too much , too quickly without any form of market penetration on their core products . It ’ s a bad strategy that just never works out .”
80 December 2022